Background of the issue:
I want to connect a media with an existing translation from the library. This is to revert to the original language of a media when I had to start translating some content from a different language than the original WPML language.
It's very easy to do this for posts, by using the option "Connect with translations" > choose a post to assign > make [target language] the original language for the post.
Symptoms:
I can't see such option from the media library.
I know (and use) the WPML media translation addon to manage my media as much as possible, but this one does't offer this option either.
Questions:
How can I connect a media to its existing translation in WPML (let's say from French to English), so that I can switch this media entity to English as original language. So that it's translastion from the WPML oroginal language (English) ?
I apologize for the delay in responding. I will take care of this ticket; the reply time will be shorter now.
WPML does not yet provide a “Connect with translations” button inside the Media Library.
The only available solutions are:
Re-link via Media Translation
• Go to WPML → Media Translation.
• Search the French attachment and click the pencil under English.
• In the panel, choose Use a different image and re-upload the English image.
Temporary default-language switch
• Backup the site.
• WPML → Languages → Change default language → set English.
• Re-upload the media so it inherits English.
• Switch the default language back to French.
Hi Otto,
Thanks for your reply.
Not sure you fully understood my point though.
My website's default language is already English, whenever I'm French.
Which is much more convenient for multiple reason.
Long story short: I often need to post a content in french first, but rather keep my content English based.So I'm not sure to understand second solution?
If you create a post in French and upload an image. If you don't do anything and have these options enabled:
Duplicate uploaded media to translations
Duplicate featured image to translations
you'll see the same images in all the languages.
If you want to set a different image in English, you'll be able to do it in WPML > Media Translation.
What's the problem with this flow and the images?
I am sorry I didn't get it yet, can you please elaborate a bit more 😐
The issue is not only about being **able** to translate a media or not. It's about content organization.
Let me explain in details.
For many purposes, as much as possible, it's best having the content translated from the original language. Indeed, from a user perspective, sorry to say, but WPML's behavior is too unpredictable. There are just too many ways to break our content's translation (often without noticing it on the moment), that keeping our content always translated from the original language, is the only reliable option.
You will probably argue that WPML is working fine, and there's no need for that.
All I can say, after 7 years practicing WPML everyday: way above any other processes, the process I describe is THE way to go to keep broken content issues away. At least for those working with advanced translation requirements, which are, in our case:
- individually translated content (when Translation editor capabilities are not enoug
- need to update the content regularly (as opposed to publish once and forget it)
- need to translate image files + alt + title + ...
So, long story short, again. I do my best to keep my content translated always from US English, to other languages.
Still... In real life, I sometime need to publish quickly, let's say, in french first. Even if I plan to publish my content in original language as well.
When 2 weeks later, I get the English content, I can implement it. But then, if I want to keep my content tidy, as explained above, I need to:
1. Translate my page to US English, from the Page editor
2. Make US English the original language for this content
3. Translate the medias
4. Make the US English medias original as well
But 4, I can't! You'll argue it's not necessary. I'll tell you keeping it like this for sure, at some point, lead me to issues, such as:
- media not showing up on the front end, or only in translated
- media not available in original size
- offloaded media disappeared
- ...
You'll say that's other plugins issues. I'll say we just need to work with them, and since WPML is a spider plugin (that's not negative, only saying it is acting at many levels on the website), and the best way to do that is having our medias translated from the original language. So WPML should help us doing that.
And to do that, to day, instead of 4, I need to:
a. Add my new medias in US English
b. Translate it to the other languages I already translated my content to (so upload media translations, adjust their title, alt, etc...), in each of these languages...
c. upload them im my pages again
d. remove the previous ones.
This takes AGES!
Final point: being able to switch the original language of a media, as simply as it's doable for any post type, would be a huge time saver, to prevent issues in the long run.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Hello,
My colleague Otto is currently on vacation which is why I am answering you today.
Generally, it is highly recommended to always create the pages, and posts in the site's default language.
Most important is this while WPML needs to sync the content, like for example for menus, media or taxonomies.
WPML will then always sync from site default language into second languages like for example when using WPML > WP Menus Sync or when syncing media at WPML > Settings > Media Translation > Start or when syncing taxonomies in WPML > Taxonomy Translation.
Anyhow, the site default language does not influence the original source language, which means you can technically created original posts or pages in a second language and then translate them. Surely, this could lead to unexpected issues in some cases but it is basically possible.
This means, with WPML you should always translated from source language to target languages and the source language will always be the admin language that was set when creating a post, page, taxonomy, etc.
When it comes to media, WPML will always use the same media file in all languages.
It will then simply create database entries that make the same media file available in all language inside the media library.
It is recommended to upload the media only in the site's default language. After that you can sync the media at WPML > Settings > Media Translation > Start.
This will create a media library entry in all languages and if you then create a French post, you will be able to select the media.
Also, if you earlier created an independent French post and later want to create a English post but want this post to be the original, then this is possible.
For example:
1) You create an independent French post
2) Later you create an independent English post
3) You then use the "Connect with translations" link inside the right sidebar to manually connect the content. A dialog will allow you to choose which content will be the original.
Hello Andreas,
Thank you for this detailed answer.
Indeed this works.
Unfortunately, I highly suspect, from experience, swaping the original image will fail, and/or have impact when our media offloading plugin is enabled.
I'll give it a try this week, to see what happens.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Please give this a try and let me know if you need further assistance.
If you run into issues with images on original content, you might need to consider adding the images again from the media library or uploading the images again.
The topic ‘[Closed] How to connect a media to a translatio, as possible for posts’ is closed to new replies.
