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WPML 2.6.0 – WordPress Translation, W3TC Improvements, WooCommerce and More

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We’re very proud to announce WPML 2.6.0. This is a major upgrade, with completely new functionality and a ton of stability improvements.

Auto Download for WordPress Translations

The biggest new feature in WPML 2.6.0 is the ability to automatically download translations for WordPress code. I discussed it in detail in the beta announcement.

WordPress core translation downloader

This new feature means that you never again have to worry about getting .mo files for WordPress itself. WPML will locate the correct translation file, download it and save the translation in the String Translation in the database. Yup, that means that you can even edit these translation from the WordPress admin.

Just between us here, when you upgrade WordPress, do you really remember to also locate and download the .mo files for all the languages you’re using? I don’t, and now, I’m not going to have to either. WPML will get the updated translations for me automatically.

WPML will get updated translations when you add a new language or when WordPress has been upgraded. You can also trigger it manually.

A Lot More Compliant with W3TC

Caching isn’t “nice to have”. It’s essential for any WordPress site, with some traffic. We’ve been using W3TC on our own sites for years, but have always been pretty ‘conservative’ about the caching features that we’re using. Turns out that there were a number of issues between W3TC and WPML, especially related with persistent object caching. Object Caching is a technique that allows WordPress to save partial results of complex operations. It saves processing and DB access and lets you run faster sites with less server load.

The problem was that W3TC cached all objects for all languages with the same keys. So, when WordPress processed (for example) categories for one language, it would use the objects from another language. I bet you can already see how this is going…

Well, WPML 2.6.0 filters the objects caching calls and adds language information. Now, you should be able to use W3TC with the powerful object caching and not get any problems with WPML.

A Brand New Install and Upgrade Process

We’re hitting two birds with one stone here.

  1. A good number of clients has had problems with WPML’s upgrade process.
  2. The age-old question – if XYZ plugin/theme compatible with WPML?

We’ve created a new plugin called Installer. It replaces the upgrade logic in WPML with a lot more modern solution. Installer takes commercial plugins and theme install to a whole new level. Once you’ve installed Installer, WPML.org will become a standard plugins source for your site. This means that the install and upgrade process runs the same as plugins that come from WordPress.org.

In short, we’re not going to see any more problems with getting automatic updates for WPML, or its add-on plugins. In the near future, you’ll also be able to get upgrades for other popular commercial plugins and themes via the same Installer.

Installer also uses collective wisdom to indicate how the new plugins or theme will work with the ones you already have installed. Theme and plugin search results will report problems that others have reported, so you can see cross-compatibility issues, before you install on your site. We’ve been working on this system for almost a year now, it’s been through extensive testing and beta and is finally going live now with WPML.

BTW, Installer is optional. You can always download WPML from our ‘downloads’ page. Installer merely replaces old and incomplete upgrade logic from WPML, and puts it in a separate plugin.

WooCommerce Multilingual (and now, working)

This time, we combined the release efforts for WPML and WooCommerce Multilingual.

In our view, multilingual e-commerce is a strategic thing. WooCommerce, today, is the most complex (and maintained) e-commerce plugin for WordPress, so we made a test case of it.

This new release of WooCommerce Multilingual fixes the difficult issues we had with product variations, product attributes synchronization, product duplication and many other issues.

If you’re running a large e-commerce site with WooCommerce, you should be able to turn it multilingual with WPML and WooCommerce Multilingual now.

We’re at a ‘stable but not complete’ stage. It’s working, but you’ll need to use a slightly patched WooCommerce version. That version includes a few new filters and some small changes that are not yet released in WooCommerce. You’ll find both downloads in WooCommerce Multilingual page.

While we’re at it, you might be interested to know that WooCommerce is also fully integrated with our Types and Views plugins. Have a look at what we’ve built with WooCommerce and Views (and no PHP coding at all), and get a feel for what you can do to. Very soon, we’re going to enhance that reference site with multilingual content. You’ll see a complete e-commerce site, with WPML, Types and Views. You’ll be able to test drive it on our server and see how you like it for yourself. I’ll write a lot more about it when it’s ready.

And, it’s not just WooCommerce. We’re going to update the support for JigoShop very soon too. MarketPress is running smooth with WPML already and we’re looking at adding support for Cart66 in the near future.

Compatibility Problems with ACF, Types and Other Custom Field Plugins

This started as a bug in WPML, but we then traced it to weird behavior in WordPress core. Seems that WordPress automatically serializes and de-serializes content of custom fields, based on their structure. The end result is that when you translated custom fields, you might have had content double-serialized or unserialized, making things look erratic and random.

We found where it’s starting and which function is safe to use without allowing WordPress to do this. Now, when you translate serialized custom fields, WPML will synchronize them correctly. This sounds pretty technical, but was the source of a lot of wasted time for folks using custom fields with serialized content (us included). WPML will now work a lot smoother with Advanced Custom Fields (which uses serialized fields extensively) and better with Types. If your theme uses serialized arrays in custom fields and you’re trying to synchronize them in different languages, you’ll also notice a big improvement.

Download WPML 2.6.0

If you scrolled down here directly, you might have missed my announcement about the new upgrade mechanism for WPML 2.6.0 (and the coming versions as well).

You can download and install WPML 2.6.0 manually from your WPML account.

To get this upgrade automatically, please first install our Installer plugin. Then, go to the ‘plugins’ page, put the mouse over WPML and click on the ‘login’ link. Enter your email and password for wpml.org and you’re all set. Of course, Installer is saving your password after encrypting it, just like WordPress handles other passwords.

From that point, WPML upgrades will appear normally in the Plugins page. You’ve just allowed WordPress to automatically get upgrades from WPML.org, as if you’re downloading plugins from the WordPress plugins repository.

Credits, and Feedback

WPML 2.6.0 has been one of the most intensive releases since we started. I’d like to quickly mention the people who made it possible.

  • Mihai – project leader
  • David – our new support chief (and a talented developer)
  • Bruce – project leader for Types and Views
  • Dominykas – responsible for WooCommerce Multilingual
  • Nikos – Installer lead developer
  • Bigul – QA and testing
  • Boban – QA and testing
  • Harshad – support and QA
  • Brooks – support

As always, if you need technical help, please start a new thread in our forum. To tell us what you think about this release, ask a question or make a suggestion, leave your comments here.

30 Responses to “WPML 2.6.0 – WordPress Translation, W3TC Improvements, WooCommerce and More”

  2. If this means that the big issues that WPML had with object caching is resolved then that is great news. For me WPML cause very serious issues with the WP caching so I had to ask my hoster to turn it off to make the site work. Look forward to it.

    (Not sure what the auto translation download means. I hope it does not mean that WPML will automatically translate the admin panels!)

    • Let me know how it goes with W3TC. The compatibility issue that we fixed is specifically with W3TC. Unfortunately, each caching plugin does things a little differently. W3TC has the hooks, in place, which let WPML adjust the cache keys. IF you’re using something else, we can look into that too.

      Auto-translation-downloader means that WPML can automatically download the .mo files with translation for WordPress core. It’s optional and it certainly download do any sort of automated translation. It’s actually a pretty neat feature.

      • Installer does not allow me to upgrade at all. If I click on the WPML upgrade link, it says “You cannot purchase this product – choose the correct product.”

        That’s helpful and instructive.

        • Actually, I hope that I’m replying to the right thing. If you purchased the ‘blog’ version and the Installer plugin doesn’t let you upgrade to CMS, let me know. It’s better to use our contact form, so that we can communicate privately and get your account information.
          http://wpml.org/home/contact-us/

          • Amir – I could not update through the admin. I did not see a login link. There was Upgrade as the only choice.

            However, I finally went to my WPML account, downloaded the updates and loaded them manually. That isn’t exactly the fancy new automatic updating that was being promoted but it worked and I did not have to pay.

            Anyway, problem solved.

            Thanks for the input.

    • Because we’ve removed that functionality from WPML, as it’s not needed anymore. Download the Installer plug and it will allow you to get upgrades for WPML.org from the ‘plugins’ admin page.

  5. Yesterday when working on a site for a client I noticed that the WPML update was just pushed out, so I immediately updated to 2.6.0.

    Then I quickly went to have a look at the latest most sought after feature, the Auto Download for WordPress Translations and how amazing and smooth that works!

    This is by far the most common “issue” people have had with properly installing WPML and now that part of the installation is finally resolved for them by you!

    Works amazing, thanks so much for all the hard work!

    I noticed one little issue with WooCommerce, that now shows a quite irritating red box that tells you that you can change the products slug. However if you want to leave it as is, then it seems impossible to get rid of the red alert box. Not sure whether this is a WooCommerce issue or a WooCommerce Multilingual issue though.

    Great work also on the rest of the features, WPML just has gotten a whole lot better 😀

    Thanks,
    Piet

  6. Does the Installer work with non-profit versions as well?
    In my installation there is a “Upgrade 79$” button but no “Login”-Button.
    Thank you

  8. I’m trying it out but just wanted to check that we should be using WooCommerce-1.6.3-patched-2.zip (and not WooCommerce 1.6.5.1) with the new WPML 2.6.0 version?

    • Yes, please use our patched version. We’ll be updating it to the current WooCommerce version soon, but that patched version works fine.

  9. Hey,

    I’ve just installed WPML CMS 2.6.0, but there is no automatic download of locale files – the columns for “WP Translation (current)”, “WP Translation (available)” and buttons are missing.

    I also had to change settings to “Translate by WPML” by modifying the serialized data in DB, because the radio button was disabled.

    Am I missing some settings or anything else.

    Thanks for your help!

    • It’s not supposed to be like that. Do you have the DB dump (backup), which shows the problems? If so, you can send it to us and we’ll see what’s wrong.

  10. Amir I installed the “installer plugin” so I could upgrade directly from wordpress, but there is no Login option appearing in your plugins. Is just asking me to pay 79$ and even if I click it, it says “You cannot purchase this product – choose the right product”. What shall I do, replace via FTP all the directories of your plug in by the new ones?

    • Hi Marc, when you search for plugins, don’t you get the Login link under each result (where the ‘Activate’, ‘Deactivate’ links would be?)

  11. Oh yes, that’s true. I was expecting to see them on the WPML plug-ins already installed though, as this would be the logical thing to do. Take into account that when I need to update a plug-in I don’t search it again, but I just update the previous version.

    Thanks anyway,

    Marc

  12. Works like a charm and now I understand the power of the Installer. Good luck with providing the product to other commercial plugins developpers. Hopefully it becomes a standard!

  13. SEO Options adds
    link tags for the languages in the head section.

    However, the hreflang attribute gets lang code (e.g. en_US) that is not valid when checked with W3C Validator. I think it should be “en” only.


    Bad value en_US for attribute hreflang on element link: The language subtag en_us is not a valid language subtag.

    • Thanks. We actually have this on our fix list.

      You’re probably aware that Google processes these language variants just fine, but we’ll remove the country suffix anyway and make it 100% compatible.

  14. Does WPML create a new version of each page for each language, and if so, If I update text in english, will it automatically update the translated version?

    • Yes. WPML creates a new post for each language. You can choose to have some attributes, or even everything, synchronized between translations.