Installation

What you need first

• Joomla 6.0 or newer
• PHP 8.3 or newer
• A Joomla site that is set up for more than one language. Every domain needs its own published content language, and the System - Language Filter plugin has to be on.
• Search Engine Friendly URLs turned on. You find that switch under System > Global Configuration > Site. It is what makes your links look like /about instead of /index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42.
• One domain name for each language. They all have to point at this one Joomla site. Setting up your domains walks through everything you arrange outside Joomla.

Installing the plugin

Domain per Language is one single plugin. It comes as plg_system_domainperlanguage_vX.X.X.zip.

Go to System > Install > Extensions > Upload Package File and upload the zip file. The plugin switches itself on after the install.

Right after installing, nothing changes on your site yet. The plugin only starts working once you add at least one domain. Until then, your language codes stay in the URL.

To open the settings later, go to System > Manage > Plugins and search for Domain per Language. Every field is explained in Configuration.

Updates

Updates arrive through the normal Joomla updater: System > Update > Extensions.

You do not have to enter a key or a code for them. Everybody gets the updates.

Installing a newer version over the old one keeps your domains. You never have to type them in again.

Removing the plugin

Uninstall it under System > Manage > Extensions. The plugin also deletes its own database table. That table only holds login codes that live for one minute, so you lose nothing. Your content, your languages and your menus stay exactly as they are.

After you remove the plugin, every language gets its language code back, on whatever domain the visitor is using. Think about search engines before you do this on a live site: the addresses that Google knows per domain will not exist any more, so plan a set of redirects for them.