WPML’s String Translation lets you translate texts in your theme and plugins.
However, in order for these translations to appear in the site, some conditions have to be met:
- The texts must be wrapped in GetText calls.
- There must be a textdomain argument.
Examples
Static text not wrapped with GetText
<h2>Links</h2>
Problem: The word ‘Links’ is not wrapped in a GetText call. It’s not translatable.
Solution: Wrap the text in the GetText Echo call:
<h2><?php _e('Links','theme-text-domain'); ?></h2>We’ve wrapped ‘Links’ in the gettext call _e() (translatable echo). Now, WPML can translate it.
Text in function not wrapped with GetText
by <?php echo(the_author('', false)); ?>Problem: The phrase is not translatable.
Solution: This phrase includes some static text and some dynamic text. It all needs to be wrapped in one GetText call and use arguments.
<?php printf( __( 'by %s', 'theme-text-domain' ), the_author('', false) ); ?>The text that the translator will get is ‘by %s’. This is good because it allows the translator to switch the order of the words, which is required in some languages.
Notice that in this case we’ve used the __() GetText call. This call is similar to _e(), but it doesn’t write to the output (like echo does). The printf call does the output.
Text-domain argument is missing
<?php _e('Roadmap') ?>Problem: There’s no textdomain argument in the GetText call.
Solution: Add a text-domain.
<?php _e('Roadmap','theme-text-domain') ?>A text-domain tells GetText (and WPML) what the text belongs to. It’s a string that doesn’t mean anything, except to you. You can choose any string that you like, but you should be consistent. The text-domain value will group related strings together.
Obviously, ‘theme-text-domain’ is not a good and unique name. For instance, if you’ve called your theme ‘star-geeks’, that would be a better value for the text-domain.