I can't translate the search bar on my website. My site's primary language is Dutch, the screenshot I added is from the home page while on English. As you can see, everything on the page is English except the search bar. It was made with Elementor.
I was able to translate the rest of the header, but for some reason I couldn't get the search bar.
Under WPML>Settings I set a lot of custom fields and Post types to Translatable, but after that I sill couldn't translate it(maybe I didn't set the right custom field or post to translatable, I honestly have no idea which one it should be).
I went into string translation to search for the string but I couldn't find it. I even did the "Look for strings while pages are rendered" thing, and afterwards there were a lot of new strings available, but not the one I am looking for.
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hello there
Thanks for your contact, and welcome to the WPML support forum!
Can you please do the following procedure to try to locate those strings?
- Please go to WPML -> Theme and plugins localization
- Select all plugins in the list and click on "Scan selected plugins for strings"
- When that finishes, select your theme in the other list and click on "Scan selected themes for strings"
- Now go to WPML -> String Translation and search for one of the items you couldn't find to translate and see if it will display now
If that doesn't work, please try to enable the option "Look for strings while pages are rendered" in WPML -> String Translation. Then visit that page in which the widget is located and go back to the String Translation, refresh the page and check if you'll be able to locate the strings now. (Please don't forget to uncheck the option "Look for strings while pages are rendered" once you're done).
Please let me know how you proceed with these possible solutions. Looking forward to your reply!
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hello there,
Thanks for your reply.
I would like to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site to take a better look at the issue. You will find the needed fields for this below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply. The information you will enter is private which means only you and I can see and have access to it.
Our Debugging Procedures
I will be checking various settings in the backend to see if the issue can be resolved. Although I won't be making changes that affect the live site, it is still good practice to backup the site before providing us access. In the event that we do need to debug the site further, I will duplicate the site and work in a separate, local development environment to avoid affecting the live site.
- Please make a backup of site files and database before providing us access.
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Please, let me know if you need any additional details. Have a nice day.
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hi there,
Thanks for providing us with the credentials.
Upon further inspection, we have concluded that it seems a compatibility issue between WPML and the 'Elementor Header and Footer Builder' plugin, since the widget is coming from this plugin.
#2 if you're unable to do it of if this is not working, we can migrate the website to a copy version hosted in our server, in order to perform more tests. Or:
#3 replicate the issue in a sandbox installation containing only WPML and the needed components in order to reproduce it;
Another possible approach is to reach out to the plugin authors and ask them to properly register their widget.
Please review these options and let us know how you would like to proceed. Thank you.
I copied the widget on to a page, did the whole procedure that was on the video, went to translate the page, and then I was able to translate the search field that was on the page. However, the search field in the header didn't translate.
As you can see on the link below (English page only accessible if you're logged in as admin) you will see that the search bar in the page displays English text, but the search bar in the header still displays Dutch text.
After doing this, I was able to translate the search bar by going into WPML>Translation management>Templates> and then when I went to translate it, the search bar placeholder was present in the Translation editor, so I was able to translate it. I have a couple of questions left.
1: Is this the correct way that I should've done it? Is this not going to cause any issues in the future?
2: Can I remove the page where I copied the widget onto?
3: Do I need to keep what I pasted into the custom XML configuration or can I remove that text?
4: When in my WordPress dashboard I go to templates (so not in WPML but just in my wordpress Dashboard the templates list) I can see all the templates I have on my site. When you check the instances column, the Dutch header menu (Nieuw menu) and English header menu (New menu) both say "entire site", while the French menu (Nouveau menu) says "none". Is this of any concern? Right now when I go to the French version of my site it shows the French menu as it should, but I am worried that in the future this might cause problems.
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hello there,
Thanks for your reply and glad that you were able to register and translate the widget.
Answering your questions:
1: Is this the correct way that I should've done it? Is this not going to cause any issues in the future?
Yes, it was all right with the method used here. You shouldn't face issues because of this.
2: Can I remove the page where I copied the widget onto?
Sure thing, as you prefer.
3: Do I need to keep what I pasted into the custom XML configuration or can I remove that text?
That's right, you need to keep it because ultimately this is the code which enables the widget for translation. Unless the authors add themselves the XML code into the plugins files and settings - that's why we suggest you to contact them as well.
4 The Dutch header menu (Nieuw menu) and English header menu (New menu) both say "entire site", while the French menu (Nouveau menu) says "none". Is this of any concern?
No, this shouldn't affect the correct functioning of the French header.
I hope that everything is solved and clear now. Please let me know if you still have doubts.
"4 The Dutch header menu (Nieuw menu) and English header menu (New menu) both say "entire site", while the French menu (Nouveau menu) says "none". Is this of any concern?
No, this shouldn't affect the correct functioning of the French header."
The English and French menus are automatically generated translations of the Dutch menu. It is NOT that these are manually made menus that have a different structure. So can you tell me that even in my case (that the French and English menu are translations of the Dutch menu) it won't be of any concern that the French menu says "none" at instances?
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hello there,
Thanks for your reply.
As far as I can see, everything seems correct with the French version, so I don't think that by just having the 'none' at instances it could create any issue - because if so, we were able to check them already, I'm afraid.
Please double-check if everything is working well and let us know about your investigation. Thank you.
So you're saying that if there would've been issues, they would have already been present? (I am not choosing to hide the Frencht header by the way, it's just that I can't put a setting so that the instance goes to Entire Site)
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