[Resolved] Help Customising WPML Language Switcher to Work Across 2 Domains

Hi Chirag,

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

You're correct that WPML doesn’t natively support switching languages across two separate WordPress installs (glginsights.com and glginc.cn). The built-in language switcher only works within a single site, based on translations stored in that site's database.

However, since your permalinks are consistent across both domains, you can implement a custom redirect using the wpml_language_has_switched hook. This hook fires after WPML switches the language context, and you can use it to redirect users to the corresponding page on the other domain.

Here’s a basic example, which I did not test myself, but it should clarify how the hook operates:

add_action( 'wpml_language_has_switched', function( $lang ) {
    // Only run on frontend
    if ( is_admin() || wp_doing_ajax() ) return;

    $current_uri = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

    if ( $lang === 'zh' ) {
        wp_redirect( '<em><u>hidden link</u></em>' . $current_uri );
        exit;
    } elseif ( in_array( $lang, [ 'en', 'ja', 'ko', 'de' ] ) ) {
        wp_redirect( '<em><u>hidden link</u></em>' . $lang . $current_uri );
        exit;
    }
});

Notes:
This assumes both domains use matching permalinks and slugs.

You’ll want to scope this logic to specific templates or routes to avoid interfering with admin or AJAX requests.

You may also need to adjust language codes (zh, ja, etc.) to match your WPML configuration.

Further, please kindly note that this is a custom code request, and our supporters are usually not expected to provide custom code solutions. If you receive such solutions on the forum, then this is due to goodwill and occurs voluntarily.

Best regards
Andreas