You have a plugin, but you want users to be able to use it in their native language. Learn how to get it ready for translation, things to watch out for, and tips for maintaining it as you change the plugin over time.

1. Network: RU-Secure
Username: trsguest2017
Password: RUguest253$

2. Preparing a Plugin for
Translation
Brian Hogg
@brianhogg
brianhogg.com

3. echo esc_html( __( ‘Preparing
a Plugin for Translation’,
‘brian-hogg’ ) );

4. Courses
https://brianhogg.com/courses
WordCamp Hamilton
https://hamilton.wordcamp.org/
Plugins
https://brianhogg.com/plugins
Slides
https://brianhogg.com/wcto2017/

5. Who Are You?

6. Why Translate?

12. How to Start?

13. <?php
/***
Plugin Name: Event Calendar Newsletter
Version: 1.6.1
Author: Brian Hogg
Author URI: https://brianhogg.com/
License: GPL2 or later
*/

14. <?php
/***
Plugin Name: Event Calendar Newsletter
Version: 1.6.1
Author: Brian Hogg
Author URI: https://brianhogg.com/
License: GPL2 or later
Text Domain: event-calendar-newsletter
*/

15. Fetch a single event using the ID of
that event

16. __( ’Fetch a single event using the ID of
that event’, ‘event-calendar-newsletter’ );
_ _( $string, $textdomain )

17. __( ’Fetch a single event using the ID of
that event’, ‘event-calendar-newsletter’ );
_ _( $string, $textdomain )

18. __( ’Fetch a single event using the ID of
that event’, ‘event-calendar-newsletter’ );
_ _( $string, $textdomain )

19. __( ’Fetch a single event using the ID of
that event’, ‘event-calendar-newsletter’ );
_ _( $string, $textdomain )
Type this out!

20. // can’t do this
define( ‘ECN_TEXT_DOMAIN’, ‘event-
calendar-newsletter’ );
// ...
__( ’Fetch a single event using the ID
of that event’, ECN_TEXT_DOMAIN );
Wrong Way

21. __( ’Fetch a single event using the ID of
that event’, ‘event-calendar-newsletter’ );
Right Way

22. echo __( ’Fetch a single event
using the ID of that event’,
‘event-calendar-newsletter’ );
Outputting the String

23. _e( ’Fetch a single event using
the ID of that event’, ‘event-
calendar-newsletter’ );
Outputting the String
_e === echo + __

24. What if you have
something you don’t want
translated?

25. Exclude a single event from the
listing. Use "current" when using the
shortcode on an event page to exclude
the current event.
Using Placeholders

26. Exclude a single event from the
listing. Use "current" when using the
shortcode on an event page to exclude
the current event.
Using Placeholders

27. __( ‘Exclude a single event from the
listing. Use "current" when using the
shortcode on an event page to exclude
the current event.’, ‘my-shortcode’ )
Using Placeholders

28. sprintf( __( ‘Exclude a single event
from the listing. Use "%s" when using
the shortcode on an event page to
exclude the current event.’, ‘my-
shortcode’ ), ‘current’ );
Using Placeholders

29. echo sprintf( __( ‘Exclude a single
event from the listing. Use "%s" when
using the shortcode on an event page to
exclude the current event.’, ‘my-
shortcode’ ), ‘current’ );
Using Placeholders

30. Exclude a single event from the
listing. Use "current" when using the
shortcode on an event page to exclude
the current event.
Using Placeholders

31. What if you want to
output HTML?

32. Can't find the option you're looking
for? <a href="https://mysite.com/
support">Submit a support request</a>
and we'll do our best to help!
Outputting HTML

33. _e( "Can’t find the option you're looking
for? <a href="https://mysite.com/support
">Submit a support request</a> and we'll
do our best to help!", ‘my-shortcode’ );
Outputting HTML

34. _e( "Can’t find the option you're
looking for? %sSubmit a support request
%s and we'll do our best to help!",
‘my-shortcode’ );
Outputting HTML

35. echo sprintf( __( "Can’t find the option
you're looking for? %sSubmit a support
request%s and we'll do our best to help!",
‘my-shortcode’ ), '<a href="https://
mysite.com/support">', ‘</a>' );
Outputting HTML

36. Avoids link being
changed

37. Avoids broken HTML

38. Can’t find the option you're looking
for? %sSubmit a support request%s and
we'll do our best to help!

39. Sie können die gewünschte Option nicht
finden? %sSenden Sie eine Support-Anfrage
%s und wir werden unser Bestes tun, um zu
helfen!

40. Sie können die gewünschte Option nicht
finden? %sSenden Sie eine Support-Anfrage
%s <script>...</script>und wir werden
unser Bestes tun, um zu helfen!

42. esc_html()
esc_attr()
Escape Functions
https://brianhogg.com/tips-sanitizing-validating-
wordpress-plugin-data/

43. esc_html( __( "blah blah blah
hahahaha", ‘my-shortcode’ ) );
Escape Functions

44. esc_html( __( "bla bla bla hihihihi”,
‘my-shortcode’ ) );
Escape Functions

45. esc_html( __( "bla bla bla <script>alert(‘test’);</
script> hihihihi”, ‘my-shortcode’ ) );
Escape Functions

46. esc_html( __( "bla bla bla <script>alert(‘test’);</
script> hihihihi”, ‘my-shortcode’ ) );
Escape Functions
bla bla bla &lt;script&gt;alert(‘test’);&lt;/
script&gt; hihihihi

47. Can Combine esc_html/
esc_attr and __/_e
Together

49. esc_html__()
esc_html_e()
esc_attr__()
esc_attr_e()
Escape Functions

50. echo esc_html( __( "blah blah blah
hahaha", ‘my-shortcode’ ) );
Escape Functions

51. echo esc_html( __( "blah blah blah
hahaha”, ‘my-shortcode’ ) );
Escape Functions
esc_html_e( "blah blah blah hahaha",
‘my-shortcode’ );

52. echo sprintf( esc_html__( "here is %smy link%s",
‘my-shortcode’ ), ‘<a href=“…”>’, ‘</a>’ );
Careful With sprintf
vs
esc_html_e( sprintf( __( "here is %smy link%s",
‘<a href="…">’, ‘</a>’ ), ‘my-shortcode’ );

53. here is my link
Careful With sprintf
vs
here is &lt;a href=“…”&gt;my link&lt;/a&gt;

54. wp_kses()
wp_kses_post()
Need HTML?

55. Plurals

56. _n( $single_string, $plural_string,
$number, $domain );
Plurals

57. _n( ‘you did one thing’, ‘you did lots
of things’, 1, ‘my-plugin’ );
Plurals
you did one thing

58. _n( ‘you did one thing’, ‘you did lots
of things’, 5, ‘my-plugin’ );
Plurals
you did lots of things

59. sprintf( _n( ‘you did %s thing’, ‘you did %s
things’, $count, ‘my-plugin’ ), $count );
Plurals

60. What if strings are similar
or hard to recognize?

61. __( ‘Read’, ‘my-plugin’ );
Adding Context
__( ‘Read’, ‘my-plugin’ );

62. _x( $string, $context, $domain );
Adding Context

63. _x( ‘Event Calendar Newsletter’,
‘Settings title’, ‘my-plugin’ );
Adding Context
_x( ‘Event Calendar Newsletter’,
‘Plugin menu title’, ‘my-plugin’ );

65. date_i18n()
Dates

66. date_i18n( get_option( 'date_format' ),
$timestamp )
Dates

67. JavaScript

68. wp_localize_script()
JavaScript

69. wp_register_script( ‘ecn_my_script’, plugins_url( ’js/
myscript.js’, __FILE__ ) );
wp_localize_script( ‘ecn_my_script’, ‘ecn_js’, array(
‘success’ => __( ‘You did the thing!’, ‘ecn’ ),
‘failure’ => __( ‘The thing didn’t work’, ‘ecn’ ),
) );
wp_enqueue_script( ‘ecn_my_script’ );
JavaScript
https://brianhogg.com/jswp
alert( ecn_js.success );
alert( ecn_js.failure );

70. Don’t trust the strings
in JavaScript
https://brianhogg.com/tips-sanitizing-validating-
wordpress-plugin-data/

71. Best Practices

72. Best Practices
• Decent English style
• Entire sentences
• Split at paragraphs
• Use format strings instead of string concatenation—
sprintf(__('Replace %1$s with %2$s'), $a, $b); is
always better than __('Replace ').$a.__(' with ').$b;
• Avoid unusual markup and unusual control characters
• Do not leave leading or trailing whitespace in a translatable
phrase
https://codex.wordpress.org/
I18n_for_WordPress_Developers#Best_Practices

73. Now What?

74. Now What?
• Generate the POT file (base language)
• Copy to a PO file (for each translation)
• Generate the MO file (compiled for
quick string access)
• Put them all in the languages/ folder
of your plugin
https://brianhogg.com/how-wordpress-org-plugin-
translations-are-handled/

75. ...
#: core/templates/admin-page.php:2 edd/edd.php:46
msgid "The Events Calendar Shortcode"
msgstr ""
#: core/templates/admin-page.php:4
msgid ""
"The shortcode displays lists of your events. For
example the shortcode to "
"show next 8 events in the category "%s" in ASC order
with date showing:"
msgstr ""
my-plugin.pot

76. #: core/templates/admin-page.php:2 edd/edd.php:46
msgid "The Events Calendar Shortcode"
msgstr "The Events Calendar Shortcode"
#: core/templates/admin-page.php:4
msgid ""
"The shortcode displays lists of your events. For example the
shortcode to "
"show next 8 events in the category "%s" in ASC order with
date showing:"
msgstr ""
"O shortcode mostra listas de seus eventos. Por exemplo, o
shortcode para "
"mostrar os próximos 8 eventos na categoria "%s", em ordem
ASC exibindo a "
"data:"
my-plugin-pt_BR.po

77. ??6?I|????dD?
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r????gL??V5S?X?I92? ???j?e?bS????T?!F+h^???83 .l ? /0()2!%3
my-plugin-pt_BR.mo

78. /languages
my-plugin.pot
my-plugin-fr_FR.po
my-plugin-fr_FR.mo
my-plugin-pt_BR.po
my-plugin-pt_BR.mo
...
Creating the Translations

79. Creating the POT
POEdit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6oRk6nfkI0
makepot.php
svn co http://develop.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/tools/
grunt-wp-i18n
https://github.com/cedaro/grunt-wp-i18n

80. function my_load_textdomain() {
load_plugin_textdomain( ‘my-plugin', false,
plugin_basename( dirname( __FILE__ ) ) . '/languages/' );
}
add_action( 'plugins_loaded', 'my_load_textdomain' );
Load the Translations

81. Test by Switching to the
Language

82. Testing

83. Testing

84. Maintaining Over Time

85. Ensure Any New Strings
Wrapped in a Translation
Function

86. Automatic POT
Generation for wp.org
(free) Plugins

88. Translators Can Pull
Requests on github/
bitbucket

90. DEMO

91. Takes Work

93. Questions?
Des questions?
Questões?
¿Preguntas?
Brian Hogg
@brianhogg
brianhogg.com
https://brianhogg.com/wcto2017/