Getting WordPress to speak your langauge

hello
bonjour
guten tag
Hola
你好
helló
hej
“Getting WordPress to hallo
γειά σου
speak your language” ciao
sveiki
halló
cześć
alo
안녕하세요
привіт

hallå

Rick Radko WordCamp Montreal
r3df.com August 18th, 2012

A little bit about me

Rick Radko – R-Cubed Design Forge
 Software, web and app designer/developer.
 Creating web sites since 1996.
 Artistic and creative engineer.

 WordPress enthusiast.
 Co-organizer of: The Ottawa WordPress Group.
http://wpottawa.org

Slides are posted at:
 http://www.slideshare.net/r3df
© 2012 Rick Radko, r3df.com 1

About this talk

The objective of this talk is to provide a primer for the
concepts and resources needed to create WordPress
sites in any language(s).

To keep the talk non-technical for the user track (and to
shorten it) I‟ve referenced links for the technical aspects,
or moved them to the appendix rather than discussing
them in the talk.

If you have technical questions after this talk you can
contact me at: wpinfo@r3df.com.


Fair warning!

If you want to set-up a WordPress site in different
languages yourself, you will need:
 to do WordPress installs.

And depending on the configuration or complexity
of your site, you may need to:
 edit some configuration files.
 edit/create language files.
 edit/create theme files
*All
of this is well documented on the codex and elsewhere (use
Google), and quite simple for basic sites.

WordPress.com note

If you are a http://wordpress.com user:
 You can easily set your blog to any one of over 50
languages with simple options see:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/language-settings/
 Except for the next section on translations, most of
this talk does not apply to wordpress.com.

If you want to do more with languages than you
can on wordpress.com, then stick around…

Lets get started!

Translation:
 The act of converting one language to another.
 Tends to be the thing that concerns people the
most when they consider a web site in another
language.
 You will need to get phrases, strings, and words
translated, but:
 That is relatively straight forward.
 You don‟t even need to be able speak the language
to create a site in that language, although it makes
it easier.

Getting translations

 Human translations
a) Do it yourself (if you speak the languages)
b) Hire a translator:
 Good/best results.
 Aware of regional differences, customs and dialects.
 9-14 cents per word.

 Machine translations:
 Inconsistent results – some good, some bad.
 Better than it was a few years ago.
 Still not a good option for a business site.

Google Translate

You can translate entire sites by entering a URL in
Google Translate http://translate.google.ca.


French to English: the good

This looks promising.


French to English: the bad

But if we start looking more carefully…


French to English: the ugly

A bit further down the page
 The ideal speaker discuss a topic on WordPress really is
passionate and for which he may present …


How about English to French?

More translation issues…


Translation summary

For professional results, use human translators:

“Under the weather”

won‟t become:

“Beneath a turbulent sky”


Creating a website in another language

To create a web site in another language:
 It is obvious to most people that we need to
translate our content, posts, pages, menu items,
captions, and other content, and even possibly
comments, to the languages wanted on the
website.
 What is not so obvious is that we need to translate
WordPress.


Translating WordPress

The rest of this talk will be about translating or
localizing WordPress.
 In the first half we‟ll look at:
 Concepts, terms and issues with localization.
 Creating a single language site.
 In the second half we will look at:
 Creating multilingual sites.


Internationalization: The first step in localization

Internationalization
 Is the process of designing software
applications so that they can be adapted to
various languages and regions without
programming changes.
 WordPress uses the GNU gettext libraries and
tools for internationalization.
 Programmers use gettext to produce a file with a
list of words and strings that need translation.

For more info see:
http://codex.wordpress.org/I18n_for_WordPress_Developers

Localization

Localization
 Is the process where translators adapt
internationalized software to another language
and culture by adding locale specific components
and translating the text.
 Localization does not require any changes to the
application code. (programmers are not needed)

For more info see:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress

Locale

A locale is a combination of language and regional
dialect.
 Locales usually correspond to countries.
 They are represented by codes.
 Examples of locale codes:
 fr-_CA would be for French and Canada.
 en_ CA would be for English and Canada.

For more info see:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_chapter/gettext_16.html#Language-Codes
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_chapter/gettext_16.html#Country-Codes

Locale and WordPress

WordPress, the themes, plugins and widgets
need to know what language to use to display
the site.
 That is determined by the locale set in the
wp-config.php file.
 It‟s a bit of PHP code and looks like:

define ('WPLANG', „fr_FR');
 If it‟s not set, or the matching language files don‟t
exist, English will be used.


Some key items affected by localization

Date formats:
 Is it 05/29/2012 or 29/05/2012?
 May 29th, 2012 <-> Le 29 mai 2012

Time display:
 Is it 4:30pm or 16:30?

Number formats:
 Is it 1.987,06 or 1,987.06?


More: why localize WordPress?

Separators, curly quotes, apostrophes and
dashes:
 All can have regional differences.

Localizing sets the HTML language code for the
site:
 Tells the browser, search engines and other
readers the language that your content is
written in.


73 localizations ready and waiting

Fortunately most of us won‟t need to do the work
of localizing WordPress:

 Currently there are 73 translations of WordPress
available.

So how do you get these other languages?


Start with “WordPress in your language”

Start with the
codex page:
 WordPress in
Your Language
 This page
documents
the current
translations
for WordPress.

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_in_Your_Language

Find the language you want

This is the French entry:

Note: fr_FR is the locale for French from France.
 There is no Canadian version.

Official site for the French WordPress

Offers some general information and a download
for the French version of WordPress.

http://fr.wordpress.org/

WordPress Francophone (the 4th link)

Has more French WordPress support, including
forums (the 5th link).

http://www.wordpress-fr.net/

Installable versions vs language files

The majority of the languages listed on WordPress
in Your Language have complete installable
versions of WordPress.

There are many however that have only the
language files needed to convert the default
version of WordPress to a new language.


Installable localizations

The installable versions of WordPress are:
 Easy to install.
 Use the same “5 minute” install as the default
WordPress.
 Great for single language sites.
 Could use as starting point for multilingual sites.
 Often include translated sample content. (Hello
world post, sample page, menus etc.)


Language file only localizations

Language file only localizations:
 Do not have sample content.
 Are a bit more technical to install.

*See: “Creating your own translations” in the appendix for more
information on language files.

Installing the French version

Get the install file from http://fr.wordpress.org/.

It‟s a full install file, so install as you would for a
regular manual install of WordPress:
 See:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
 Cannot use installers like SimpleScripts or
Fantastico, on most North American hosting
companies they will have the English version.


A fresh French WordPress install

The front page with
the usual “Hello
World” post.

The Twenty Eleven
theme is the
default.


French WordPress install – example page

The example page.

Everything on the site
looks pretty much
like the regular
WordPress install
except it‟s all French.


Le Tableau de bord


Wait, the dashboard is in French too?

I want a French site, but I don‟t want a French
dashboard because:
 I don‟t know French that well.
 Some of the contributors are not fluent in French.
 My web person doesn‟t know French.

Fortunately, there‟s a plugin for that!


Dashboard language plugins

Dashboard language plugins:
 Allow you to select a language for the dashboard
separate from the site.
 Some have per user settings.
 Some have options for the front-end tool bar.
 Some have language selectors for the login
screen.

*Dashboard language plugins fool WordPress by overriding the
locale for the dashboard.
**The language files need to be installed for each language you

want to use in the dashboard.

Dashboard language plugin examples

Some dashboard language plugins: (there are
more)
 WP Native Dashboard
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-native-
dashboard/
 Backend Localization
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kau-boys-
backend-localization/


What about adding plugins and themes?

An added plugin or theme shows some English
text:
 On the front-end.
 It needs to be localized.
 In the dashboard.
 Does it matter?


Plugins & themes for other languages

To use plugins or themes with WordPress in
another language:
 They need to be internationalized.
 If they are not, look elsewhere, it typically requires a
lot of code change to internationalize any sizable
plugin or theme. (You also then have a maintenance
nightmare)
 Localization is great, but not required.
 That means that there is no language file for the
language you need.
 If it is internationalized, you can localize it,
sometimes more easily than you would think.

Checking for internationalization

Check the plugin or theme description for:
 Any mention of language support.
 Any mention of translations, or translation credits.
 Any mention of localizable.
 Lists of languages.

If you find any of these, then it is at least
internationalized.
 You still may need to create a localization for your
language though.

Themes have some tags to help too

Some themes on the wordpress.org repository
have been tagged with:
 translation-ready
 rtl-language-support

If a theme is tagged, then it is internationalized.


Internationalization not obvious?

There are more things you can do/look for to
check for internationalization, but you need to
open up and look at the plugin/theme files.

See “Internationalization, digging deeper” in the appendix.

Creating your own translations

If there is no language file in your language for:
 WordPress or
 a theme or
 a plugin
you can create your own.

If you use a lot of plugins it is likely you will need
to localize some.
 Once you have the tools, it‟s not very hard.

See: “Creating your own translations” in the appendix..

Plugin example: Tweet Blender in French


Tweet Blender in French

The Tweet Blender translation was created by:
 Making a copy of the default translation file (.pot).
(renamed of course)
 Entering translations for 21 of 206 strings in the
file. (All that show on the front-end of the site.)
 Mostly times and duration, hour(s), day(s).
 18 of the translations were 1 word each.

The dashboard options are still in English.
*NOTE: you can‟t change the actual tweet text.
**”Original language” note is from another plugin I developed.


Creating a Canadian French localization

As we have already noted:
 There is no official Canadian French version.
 There are differences from France French.
 For example 'email„ or 'e-mail' used in France, is
'courriel‟ in Quebec.

To create a Canadian French version, start with
the France French files and modify as needed.


Installing WordPress language files manually

Sometimes you will need to install language files
manually:
 If you want a multilingual site.
 To convert an existing install to a new language.
 Your language does not have a complete install
file available.
 You have created your own language files.

*Formore on installing language see “Installing WordPress
language files” in the appendix.

Tricks for installing language files

Trick #1
 Change the WPLANG parameter in the
wp-config.php file to the locale you want.
 remember until you load the file, the site will default
to English.
 Go to the Updates page in the dashboard and hit
the “Re-load Now” button for the language.
 This trick may not work if you have a Dashboard
Language Plugin active.
 Only works for languages on the wordpress.org
repository.

Load German with trick #1

 This trick does not load WordPress theme files.
 Sample content is not changed. (Hello World)

More tricks for language files

Trick #2
 Use WP Native Dashboard:
 It‟s an option in the settings.
 It only loads .mo files.
 To get the .po files if you need them, switch the
dashboard to that language, do an update as in
trick #1.
 This trick also: does not get theme files or the
sample content, and only works for .org files.
*The file types .po and .mo are defined in “Creating your own
translations” in the appendix.

One more trick for language files

Plugin: Codestyling Localization
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/codestyling-
localization/

With this plugin:
“You can manage and edit all gettext translation files
(*.po/*.mo) directly out of the WordPress Admin
Center without any need of an external editor.”


Multilingual web sites

A multilingual web site is a web site that has more
than one language on the same site, or related
group of sites.

A bilingual web site is a 2 language multilingual
web site.

 The WordCamp Montreal site is bilingual or
multilingual.

An obvious multilingual example

WordCamp Montreal…

http://fr.2012.montreal.wordcamp.org/

http://2012.montreal.wordcamp.org/

Unilingual web site definition

A unilingual web site is a web site that has only
language shown on it.

 The WordPress France site is a French only web
site and is unilingual French, not multilingual.


WordPress is not multilingual

“WordPress does not support a bilingual or
multilingual blog out-of-the-box.”

http://codex.wordpress.org/Multilingual_WordPress


WordPress is unilingual

When you install a localized version of WordPress:
 The site language is that language only.
 You do get English as a default due to the way
WordPress is constructed.
 Even if you install more than one language, the
site will still be unilingual in the locale set in the
wp-config.php file.
 We need to do more to get a multilingual site.


Multilingual WordPress approaches

The rest of the talk will be about setting up
multilingual sites with WordPress.

To make a multilingual site you need:
 All the skills we just learned for creating a
unilingual site.
 To add a few tricks to make it multilingual.


Multilingual general notes

 No matter which approach you use, you will still
have to deal with plugins and themes on a case by
case basis.
 Some plugins that are internationalized do not work
well in some multilingual set-ups.

 No approach will get you around entering content
multiple times: once for each language.

 Right now there is no one best approach, each has
it benefits and issues.

Translation structure

Translation structure may dictate the approach
taken.

Multilingual site content can be:
 Symmetric or mirrored.
 All content is in all languages
 Each item is linked to the other languages.
 Governments, and institutions.


Translation structure continued

 Partially symmetric.
 Most content in all languages.
 Blogs – may be left in original language.
 Reduces translation costs
 Comments – may be left in submitted language.
 Typically not practical to translate them.
 Costs would be high.
 Hard to be timely.

 Un-connected.
 Sites have a link to other languages, but not on an
content item by item basis.

Multilingual with multiple sites

Conceptually, the simplest implementation of
multilingual is:
 2 or more completely independent installs of
WordPress, one for each language.


Issues with multiple sites

Multiple individual installs is not recommended
as:
 The maintenance is high, need to update each site
individually. (repeat everything for each site)
 Hard to link matching pages between languages.
 One plugin: Bilingual Linker (only for bilingual sites)
 No dashboard connection:
 Content management is more difficult.
 Multiple logins.


Reasonable WordPress multilingual set-ups.

3 main approaches
 Single site
 Using custom theme/tricks
 Using multilingual plugins
 Multisite


Single site multilingual

A single site multilingual install needs to manage
all the different language versions of:
 the content
 the menus
 the output from themes, widgets and plugins
and co-ordinate them so that they provide the
same language for every requested page.


Single site using custom theme/tricks

Single site installs can made multilingual through
the use of clever custom themes that use:
 page templates or
 custom metadata or
 post categories
 other tricks
to define the language of the page and set the
matching menus, theme text items and
corresponding sidebars.


Single site with tricks issues

There may be issues with plugin/widget output:
 Locales may not be set properly for each language
with this technique.

This technique:
 Requires extensive theme coding.
 Some content may be hard-coded in the theme.
 Requires that content contributors mark content
with tags, meta data or templates.
 Does not support symmetric linking well.
 Works best for small sites with static content.

Single site with plugins

There are a quite a few plugins that manage
multilingual WordPress single site installs.
 qTranslate
 WPML (not on the repository, it‟s not free)
 Built-in translation system
 A lot of assistive tools for translating themes and
plugins.
 xili-language
 + some more


Single site with plugins issues

Plugin issues:
 Lock-in is the #1 issue
 Once you start using one of these plugins it is hard
to change to something else.
 Can be an issue at update time, plugin updates can
lag WordPress, and plugins sometimes die.
 qTranslate is barely being maintained right now and
has had some bug issues over the last year with some
WordPress updates.
 Most sites built with these plugins will not run, or
will only display 1 default language if the plugin is
disabled or removed.


 Can be complex to manage the install.
 Hacks and workarounds are often needed for
themes and plugins/widgets to use them with the
multilingual plugins.
 Complex plugins with their own data storage, like
events managers, calendars may not work.
 Widget management is an issue.
 There is no built-in way of displaying different widgets
on “different language” sites (as far as WordPress is
concerned it‟s one site). Need a widget manager like:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/widget-logic/



 Having differences in the theme, or different
themes for each language is a challenge.
 It is still really one site.
 URL‟s are not always translated
 Extra plugin is needed for qTranslate
 Bugs & stability (not future proof)


Single site with plugins benefits

With a single site with plugins:
 Only one WordPress install to manage/update
 Only one theme to manage.
 It‟s easy to manage content.
 Single dashboard and login.
 Easy to link content between languages
 Some plugins manage adding language files.
 Some plugins help with creating translations of
other plugins and themes.
 WPML offers integration to a translation service.

Multilingual with multisite

Historically single site with plugins has been the
most popular technique, but:
 Since WordPress 3.0 we have had multisite
(network) in the standard version of WordPress.
 Multisite allows you to have what appear to be
multiple different WordPress sites running on one
install of WordPress.
 Different themes.
 Different URL‟s (if you want)
 You would not know it‟s one WordPress.


Multilingual with multisite continued

Using multisite allows:
 A “single” site approach.
 But removes many of the negative issues with
independent single site installs.


Installing multisite

To enable multisite, you need to perform a short
sequence of steps, which include:
 Dashboard setting changes.
 Cutting and pasting some provided settings into
configuration files.

There are many guides to walk you through the
process:
 http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network
 http://halfelf.org/ebooks/wordpress-multisite-101/

Adding languages to multisite

You can start your multisite install with any version
of WordPress.
 If you use a localized version that will give you one
language plus English.
 The sample content is in the localized language.

To add more languages you need to:
 Install the language files manually.
 Use the Codestyling Localization plugin.

*See “Installing WordPress language files” in the appendix.

Setting multisite languages

Once you have language files installed:
 An option for site language will appear in the
Settings -> General section.
 It‟s also in the network admin site settings.


Multilingual with multisite issues

 More complicated to install multisite WordPress
 Not as simple as the regular 5-min install.
 But is not hard either – maybe 10 minutes
 Some plugins don‟t run on multisite.
 Some duplication of effort to manage sites.
 Plugins may need to be configured on each site.
 Plugins that store their own data may have
separate datasets on each site. This could be an
issue for something like registration systems.


More multisite issues

 Separate dashboards for each language site.
 But there usually is only one login.
 Not quite as easy to manage content.
 No language connection between content items.
 This can be resolved with Language Switcher
Plugins for multisite.


Language switcher plugins

These plugins help relate content items between
the sites and provide widgets for front-end links
between different language versions of content.

Language switcher plugins:
 Multisite Language Switcher
 Multilingual Press
 More?


Multilingual with multisite benefits

 Reduced dependency on the plugins.
 If you remove or disable a plugin used to manage
language switching, all the sites still work, you just
loose the linking between them.
 Each site behaves as if it is a single site:
 You don‟t need a plugin to manage the front-end
site display.
 Fewer plugin conflicts.
 Sites run normally, no tricks.


Multilingual considerations

 Splash page for language choice
 Multilingual home page (allows language choice)
 Browser or location sniffing – Don‟t!
 Merged comments on symmetric content?
 Merged is default with qTranslate,
 Need plugins for other approaches.
 Google (SEO) -> don't mix languages.
 Best practice -> one language per page.



Domains/url‟s (example pairs for bilingual French)
 Single installs site only
 yourdomain.com?lang=en
 yourdomain.com?lang=fr



 Any install type:
 yourdomain.com or yourdomain.ca
 yourdomain.fr

 yourdomain.com/en
 yourdomain.com/fr

 en.yourdomain.com
 fr.yourdomain.com


Contact

Rick Radko
 email: wpinfo@r3df.com
 twitter: @r3designforge

Slides at:
 www.slideshare.net/r3df


Appendix


Links

WordPress in Your Language
 http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_in_Your_Lang
uage
Installing WordPress in Your Language
 http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress_in_
Your_Language
Multilingual WordPress
 http://codex.wordpress.org/Multilingual_WordPress
Translating WordPress
 http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress


Links

Glotpress
 http://translate.wordpress.org/getting-started
 http://blog.glotpress.org/
 http://translate.wordpress.org/projects


Internationalization digging deeper


Checking the files for internationalization

 Look in the plugin or theme folder for folders
called:
 Languages
 Language
 Lang
 i18n
 Check for .pot, .mo and .po files.

 If any these files exist, then you can create a
translation.


Internationalization still not obvious? Go deeper

If you are really desperate for a plugin or theme in
a language and there is no indication that it is
internationalized:
 You can check the code for things like:
 __(<some text>, some domain)
 _e(<some text>, some domain)
 If they exist, you may be able to localize it.
 You will need to create you own .pot file
 This may require a lot of effort
For more info see:

What are __() and _e()?

__() and _e() are the magic in the WordPress code
that lets localization work.

Example: __(„Hello‟, „twentyeleven‟)
 Means look for “Hello” in the language files for the
Twenty Eleven theme, for current locale, say fr_FR.
That would then return “Bonjour” if the files are
loaded, and “Hello” if they are not.

For more info see:

Creating your own translations


You need .pot, .mo. or .po files to start

.POT (Portable Object Template) files are created
by the developer they have all text in the __() or
_e() functions.

.PO (Portable Object) files are plain text files that
list all the translation pairs.
#: wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php:213
msgid "Hello world!“
msgstr "Bonjour tout le monde !“

.MO (Machine Object) files are compiled versions
of the .po files.

You need .pot, .mo. or .po files to start

If you can‟t find a .pot, .mo, or .po file for the
plugin or theme you want to translate:
 Don’t try to translate it!
 Try another theme, or plugin.

WordPress .pot files, and other .mo, and .po files
that you can use as starting points are of course
available.


Change existing .mo. or .po files

You can often start with an existing .mo or .po file
and just change what you need.
 If there is something close:
 Canadian vs France French
 If you only need to change a few items
 Tweet Blender

See: http://codex.wordpress.org/I18n_for_WordPress_Developers
for a lot of important details like naming conventions for your files.


Editing translation files

2 editors I use are:
 Poedit - the most commonly mentioned
http://www.poedit.net/
 available for Windows, Mac and Linux
 Virtaal
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/virtaal/index
 Has translation help
 Lets you add terms
 available for Windows, Mac and Linux
*For a complete list of tools see:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress#Translation_To
ols

Poedit


Adding your language files to plugins & themes

To install new language files for plugins & themes,
add them to the language folder you found when
checking out the plugin or theme.
Folders called:
 Languages
 Language
 Lang
 i18n
*Use the same naming convention for your files as the theme or
plugin.
**Use your hosts cPanel or FTP functions.

Installing WordPress language files


Find the language files

Find the needed language files on:
 http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_in_Your_L
anguage OR
 http://i18n.svn.wordpress.org/

If the only version on “WordPress in Your
Language” is an installer version, it may be easier
to get them out of the .zip file than to find them on
http://i18n.svn.wordpress.org/.


Add the files to your WordPress install

For WordPress to find your language files, they
need to be put in the folder at:
 <your-site-root>/wp-content/languages/

The official instructions:
 http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress_
in_Your_Language


Getting WordPress to speak your langauge

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