Creating Multilingual WordPress Websites

Creating Multilingual
WordPress Sites
WP Campus
Shawn Hooper
Chief Technology Officer
Actionable Books
@shawnhooper - shawnhooper.ca

Chief Technology Officer at
Actionable Books
Happy to be visiting here from Ottawa,
Canada.
Have used WordPress since 2009 as
a blogger, freelance developer, and in
a corporate environment.
I speak in English, French, and
according to my friends & family, I
also speak nerd.
Hi, I’m Shawn!

Let’s Learn Some Words…
Internationalization,
Localization,
Languages,
Locales,
Oh My!

“The method of human
communication, either
spoken or written, consisting
of the use of words in a
structured and conventional
way”
- Oxford Dictionary
Examples:
English, French
Spanish, Italian
Language

“In computing, a locale is a
set of parameters that
defines the user's language,
region and any special
variant preferences that the
user wants to see in their
user interface. Usually a
locale identifier consists of at
least a language identifier
and a region identifier.”
- Wikipedia
Locale

Canadian English
en-CA
US English
en-US
Canadian French
fr-CA
Argentina Spanish
es-AR
Spanish Columbia
es-CO
Locale

“Internationalization
(sometimes shortened to
“I18N , meaning "I - eighteen
letters -N") is the process of
planning and implementing
products and services so
that they can easily be
adapted to specific local
languages and culture.…”
- techtarget.com
Internationalization

“Localization (also referred
to as "L10n") is the process
of adapting a product or
content to a specific locale
or market.”
- GALA Global
Localization

Localization isn’t just about words, think about:
CURRENCY
English
$1,234.56
French
1 234,56 $
Localization

DATES
English (US)
MM/DD/YYY (ex: 03/20/2016)
English (Canada)
DD/MM/YYYY (ex: 20/03/2016)
Localization

TIME
English (Canada)
4:30 pm
French (Canada)
16h30
Localization

Script Direction
Localization
Left to Right Right to Left
English Arabic
Spanish Persian
French Hebrew
Greek
Yiddish
Latin Western Punjabi

TEXT LENGTH
Localization

WordPress Core is
translated in 162 locales.
52 translations are 100%
complete, up-to-date with
the most current version of
WordPress.
Translations are done by
volunteers on the
“Polyglots” team.
WordPress

Although WordPress comes in many
languages, it does not natively
support providing viewers with
content in more than one language.

Multilingual Plugins

WPML
Premium Plugin from OnTheGoSystems.
https://wpml.org/
Supports:
Posts
Pages
Custom Post Types
Taxonomies
Menus
Theme Text
Plugin Text

Tip:
Turn off the Make Themes Work Multilingual option if you don’t
need it!

qTranslate X
Free Plugin Available on WordPress.org
https://wpml.org/
Supports:
Posts
Pages
Custom Post Types
Taxonomies
Menus
General Settings
Widgets

If you disable the plugin, you’ll see
the content for each language is wrapped in shortcodes.
Shortcode Warning

Babble
https://github.com/Automattic/babble
Babble

Doesn’t create any additional database tables
Like WPML, each translation is a separate post
Supports:
Posts
Pages
Custom Post Types
Taxonomies
Menus
Widgets
Babble

Multisite Approach

There are two ways of doing this:
Separate Installs of WordPress for each language (yuck!)
Using WordPress Multisite with a sub-site for each language (yay!)
Multisite Approach

FREN ES

There are a few plugins that can assist with switching languages
if you choose to use the multisite approach:
Multisite Language Switcher
Zanto WP Translation (For Multisites)
Language Switching

Comparison
Feature WPML qTranslateX Multisite Babble
Cost Paid Free Free Free
Content Storage Separate Posts Single Post Languages in Subsites Separate Posts
Widget Areas
Needs Additional
Plugins
Yes Yes No
Media With Additional Plugin No
Each subsite has it’s
own media library
No
Permalink Translation Yes
With “Qtranslate Slug”
Plugin
Yes Yes
Sync Custom Fields Yes Yes No Yes
Sync Taxonomies Yes Yes No No
Translate Strings in
Themes & Plugins
WPML String
Translation Plugin
Additional Plugins
Required
Additional Plugins
Required
Additional Plugins
Required
Database Impact High Low Low Low
Translation Service
Support
ICanLocalize No No No

Theme &
Plugin Translation

.POT, .PO and .MO Files
Contain all the strings in your plugins and
themes for a specific language.
.POT = Template ( Original Strings )
.PO = Localized Version of the Strings
.MO = Compiled Version of the Localized Files

.POT, .PO and .MO Files
Many popular themes & plugins
come with translations already provided.
If not, you can manage your own translations
through plugins or 3rd party applications.

Loco Translate
Translation Mangement Plugin
for Themes & Plugins
Free in the WordPress Plugin Repository

PO Edit
Desktop Application for Managing POT and PO Files
Freemium
Available for Windows, OSX and Linux
(poedit.net)

PO Edit (Statistics)

PO Edit
Pro Version ($20) will scan your source code and find missing
translations
Provided Statistics including
Word Count.

GlotPress
Developed by the WordPress Community.
Still a work in progress.
Learn More at
http://blog.glotpress.org/

Content Translation

Please please please….

Translation Services
Hire a Professional Translator
They usually charge by the word

Translation Services
Built in Translation Services in WordPress:
ICanLocalize (Works with WPML)
LingoTek (Works with Polylang)

Contribute

Polyglots Team
The polyglots team is responsible for ensuring WordPress is
available in dozens of languages and many more regions. It’s
a big job, which is why we need help from native speakers of
many languages to make it possible.
https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/

translate.wordpress.org
Powered by GlotPress
Contribute translations to:
WordPress Core
Themes
Plugins
Meta Projects

Thank you! Merci!
Gracias!
Slides: www.shawnhooper.ca
E-Mail:
shawn@actionablebooks.com
Twitter: @shawnhooper
WordPress Slack: shooper

Creating Multilingual WordPress Websites

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