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Josetta has been discontinued as of January 20, 2017. It is not developed any longer, and unsupported. This documentation is left available as a reference for past users.

Josetta® is a translation manager for multilingual Joomla! web sites. It provides an easy to use interface to efficiently handle the Joomla! content translation process.

Translating using Josetta can be done in both your site back end and front end, with multiple advantages:

  • single-page overview of translation progression and items needing translation
  • translators don't have to learn how to use Joomla!, access articles, categories or menu items
  • they see only parts of content requiring translation: titles, description, content, meta data,... No Joomla! settings is available, reducing possible errors
  • backend access can be reserved to administrators, not required for translators
  • optional machine-assisted translation

Content creation

Josetta operates based on a source language. Content should be created in that language, using Joomla! regular user interface.

Once some content is available in the source language, Josetta will pick it up and make it available for your inside its own user interface.

What can be translated

Josetta can translate most Joomla! content elements:

  • Articles and categories
  • Menu items
  • Contacts
  • Modules
  • News feeds
  • Weblinks

In addition, Josetta also provide basic support for K2 categories and items (excluding "extra fields" and other special features).

Josetta is a translation interface. It doesn't provide any multilingual feature by itself, only relying on Joomla! native multilingual system:

  • translations are not tied to a specific extension being present, not even Josetta: you can translate content with Josetta, uninstall it and your site will still display your translated content as before
  • all translations are stored in Joomla! standard database tables. You can actually alternate translating things between Josetta and Joomla! at any time

As a consequence, Josetta only becomes of any use when your site has been fully configured for multilingual operation


Josetta exists in 2 versions: Josetta and Josetta Community. Josetta Community is a free of charge version, while the regular Josetta edition has advanced features such as:

  • machine-assisted translation
  • per language access control
  • import tool to assist in migrating Joomfish for Joomla 1.5x content to Joomla! multilingual feature
  • technical support