WordPress Internationalization, Localization and Multilingual - Do It Right

WordPress
- Internationalization
- Localization
- Multilingual
(April 16, 2016)
Do
It
Right

Me and Company
Dat Hoang
Community & Support at OnTheGoSystems
Image credit: Denise VanDeCruze - OnTheGoSystems.

Me and Company
OnTheGoSystems
wp-types.comwpml.org icanlocalize.com

Main Content
● What are they?
● Internationalization
● Localization
● Multilingual (with WPML)

What are They?
Internationalization (i18n) is the process of
developing your theme/plugin language, so it can
easily be translated into other languages.
Localization (l10n) describes the subsequent
process of translating an internationalized
theme/plugin.
Multilingual means there are more than one
language in sites.

Internationalization (1)
Wrong
echo 'WordPress is the best!';
Right (use gettext functions)
echo __( 'WordPress is the best!', 'my-text-domain' );
Wrong (don’t be clever!)
__( 'Translate me.' , $my_text_domain );
Right (no variable, constant… for text domains)
__( 'Translate me.' , 'my-text-domain' );

Basic functions:
● __(), _e()
● _x(), _ex() - Disambiguation by context
_x( 'Post', 'noun', 'my-text-domain' );
_x( 'Post', 'verb', 'my-text-domain' );
● _n(), _nx() - Plural/singular nouns
sprintf(
_n( '%s star', '%s stars', $rating, 'text-domain' ),
$rating );
● _n_noop(), _nx_noop(), translate_nooped_plural()

Internationalization (3) - JavaScript
function add_my_script() {
// Register the script
wp_register_script( 'some_handle',
get_template_directory_uri() . '/custom.js' );
// Localize the script with new data
$translation_array = array (
'some_string' => __( 'Some string to translate',
'text-domain' ),
'a_value' => '10'
);
wp_localize_script( 'some_handle', 'object_name',
$translation_array );
// Enqueued script with localized data.
wp_enqueue_script( 'some_handle' );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'add_my_script' );

Internationalization (4) - JavaScript
custom.js
<script>
// alerts 'Some string to translate'
alert( object_name.some_string);
</script>
HTML:
<script type='text/javascript'>
/* <![CDATA[ */
var object_name = {"some_string":"Some string to
translate","a_value":"10"};
/* ]]> */
</script>

Date and number functions:
- number_format_i18n()
- date_i18n()
Escape functions:
esc_html__()
esc_html_e()
esc_html_x()
esc_attr__()
esc_attr_e()
esc_attr_x()

Load .mo files:
function my_plugin_load_plugin_textdomain() {
load_plugin_textdomain( 'text-domain', FALSE,
basename( dirname( __FILE__ ) ) . '/languages/' );
}
add_action( 'plugins_loaded',
'my_plugin_load_plugin_textdomain' );
Last but not least: original language = ENGLISH

Localization (1)
File Types
● POT (Portable Object Template)
#: plugin-name.php:123
msgid "Page Title"
msgstr ""
● PO (Portable Object)
● MO (Machine Object)

Localization (2)
Generates POT / PO / MO files
● Plugin Repository Admin Tools
● WordPress i18n tools
● Grunt
● WPML String Translation
● MO files:
○ msgfmt -o filename.mo filename.po
○ Online tools
○ grunt-po2mo

Localization (3)
Translate
● Poedit
● Plugins:
○ Loco Translate
○ WPML String Translation
● Google Translator Toolkit
● translate.wordpress.org

Localization (4)
Feel localization!
● Settings > General > Site language
● Put the correct folders
○ wp-content/languages/plugins/text-domain-vi_VN.mo
○ wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/languages/text-domain-vi_VN.mo

Localization (5)
Contribute: Everyone can help
● https://wpvi.wordpress.com/
● https://translate.wordpress.
org/locale/vi/default/wp/dev
● https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-
plugins/woocommerce

Multilingual (with WPML)
● Gettext strings
● Options (saved in wp_options)
● Content (posts, categories, menus)
● WooCommerce
● Common issues

Multilingual (1)
Gettext strings
● Important: theme and plugins are ready for
internalization/localization.
● Use .mo files
● Use WPML > String Translation

Multilingual (2)
Options - translate in WPML String Translation
● Automatically: wpml-config.xml
● Manually: adding strings in wp-admin

Multilingual (3)
Content - posts

Multilingual (4)
Content - categories

Multilingual (5)
Content - menus

Multilingual (6)
WooCommerce - install WCML

Multilingual (7)
Common issues:
● Translate custom strings
- wpml_register_single_string
- wpml_translate_single_string
● wp_query($args) or get_posts($args) doesn’t
filter out correct posts IDs for the current
language
- add "suppress_filters=0" to arguments.

Multilingual (8)
Common issues:
● A custom post is different in a second
language
$post = get_post(
apply_filters( 'wpml_object_id', $post->ID, 'cpt' ) );
● A custom taxonomy ID is different in a second
language
$tax_id =
apply_filters( 'wpml_object_id', $tax_id, 'tax' );

Discussion
Image credit: http://sweetclipart.com/diverse-people-raising-hands-968

Useful Links
1. https://developer.wordpress.
org/plugins/internationalization/localization
2. https://developer.wordpress.
org/plugin/internationalization/how-to-internationalize-your-
plugin
3. https://docs.woothemes.com/document/woocommerce-
localization/
4. https://wpml.org/documentation/related-
projects/woocommerce-multilingual/
5. https://wpml.org/documentation/support/debugging-theme-
compatibility/
6. https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/

Big Thanks!
Dat Hoang
Community & Support
E: dat.h@icanlocalize.com
W: wpml.org | wp-types.com | icanlocalize.com
Saigon, April 16, 2016

WordPress Internationalization, Localization and Multilingual - Do It Right

More Related Content

What's hot (18)

Similar to WordPress Internationalization, Localization and Multilingual - Do It Right (20)

More from Dat Hoang (7)

Recently uploaded (20)

WordPress Internationalization, Localization and Multilingual - Do It Right