I am trying to: Copy ACF field settings such as header colour, column layout to the new translated pages
Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link
I expected to see: When I switch language I expect the header to stay pink (this is an ACF field chosen by radio button). Also I expect the sections Vision and Mission to show the same layout (again, ACF field settings) on the translated pages.
Instead, I got: Translated pages have lost the pink colour setting for the heading. They are just black and white. Vision and Mission sections are empty on the Russian page - even though the text has been translated and I can see it in the admin area, it's not visible - as the block settings have not been copied.
I can change translation settings under WPML > Settings > Custom Fields Translation
- OR -
ACF > Field Groups > Translation preferences within each field
Here I set the affected fields to Copy or Copy Once, this seemed to fix the above issue.
BUT - THIS IS THE ISSUE I CANNOT SOLVE -
When fields are set to anything other than 'Don't translate' they show up in the text to be translated. We don't want this! We simply want the setting of Yellow / Pink / Blue to be copied to the new page, not the option to translate the text of each colour to another language. And the layout setting of 'Columns' to be copied to the new page, not the option to translate the word 'Columns' (or cols in the screenshot)
At best this causes confusion for the editor, and at worst it will break functionality of the block - because the code is looking for particular strings (in English) for conditional logic.
From the steps you took - These are the recommended steps in order to change the preference for each field.
ACF > Field Groups > Translation preferences within each field
I recommend setting the field to 'copy' and it should not display in the Advanced Translation Editor.
Make a small chage to the default language and update then update the translation if it still shows try this.
- Go to WPML->Settings->Custom Fields Translation -> enable " Show "Multilingual Content Setup" meta box on the post edit screen."
- Go back to the page/post and edit in the default language
- Locate Multilingual Content Setup -> click on "show system fields" and locate the ACF fields.
Do you see possibly a field that might not be set to "copy" related to these fields still showing? If yes, change it -> update and then do the sequence again (make a small change->update->update translation)
While playing with the WPML > Settings > Custom Fields Translation I had set header_pop_colour (colour selection) to ‘Copy’ and this is not appearing as an editable field in the translations (correct behaviour)

- HOWEVER -
Lots of the ACF fields don’t appear in this list under WPML > Settings > Custom Fields Translation. For example decorative_heading_show and layout_style in my previous screenshot are not listed.
Looks like there is something wrong in the search query generating this list, as it is only listing 54 fields, but I have 104 ACF fields in total. I can see just by looking that a lot are missing. Therefore I cannot set them to copy from this screen.


I can go into the individual field groups and set them to Copy (one of the many tests I tried yesterday)
However this isn’t working as I expect and I can still see these values as editable in the translations.
Clearly this is a checkbox to show or hide an element. I don’t want to translate the word ‘show’, I just want the box to be checked in the translated language.

I created a brand new page which has the block for both decorative_heading_show and layout_style
You can see these both appear as strings that can be edited, which we don’t want.

If I leave these words alone the behaviour of the page is correct.
I assume this is what would happen during automated translation (I.e. Copy not Translate those fields) - however I’ve run out of credits to test.
But if the words get translated to something else in this screen, the page logic is broken (code will not find the strings ‘cols’ or ‘show’) and the content is not displayed.

This is a problem.
See the page hidden link and compare the languages. (Ignore the fact it’s all English text as I didn’t waste credits translating the copy). In French the entire columns block is missing.
How do we resolve?
Ticking ‘Show "Multilingual Content Setup" meta box on the post edit screen.’ doesn’t give any extra functionality, it just displays the meta box so I can get to the translation screen without returning to page listing.
FYI it would be easier if I could upload my images inline in this text! Now you'll have to match the images to what I'm talking about...
yes, indeed that is a good suggestion regarding the upload of images.
Regarding the automatic translation, these fields if they are in the ATE editor they are going to be automatically translated if you use the Auto Translation feature therefore that is not going to be the desired option for your situation.
Regarding this "I can go into the individual field groups and set them to Copy" -- this is the recommended and expected action for all ACF fields a value needs to be chosen there first.
I would like to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site to test the issue.
(preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated if possible)
**Before we proceed It is necessary to take FULL BACKUP of your database and your website. Providing us with access, you agree that a backup has been taken **
I often use the Duplicator plugin for this purpose: http://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
You will find the needed fields for this below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply.
The information you enter is private which means only you and I have access to it.
NOTE: If access to the live site is not possible and the staging site does not exist please provide me with a duplicator package created with the duplicator plugin.
OK didn't realise this step was needed when creating a Staging site from Production.
I've added this as a new site in WPML and shared the credits.
Now showing as 80052 available credits.
Hopefully any credits used for testing can be restored to the account?
Many thanks
I don't know if this is relevant, but it's also confusing - I'm not sure why all the ACF groups appear within String Translations (see screenshot).
I don't see when we would ever want to translate these strings - either at all - for settings like 'layout style' or 'column alignment', or out of the context of a post - for text fields like headers and content. (But even then we only want to translate the content and not the fieldname!)
Can we just delete all these strings from String translation? I believe we need some string translations from the theme, as well as gravityforms. But even with GF we only need the form questions translated, not the entire plugin and all the text that appears in admin area...
That makes perfect sense with the JSON - we should be able to resolve the issue now (although don't have the resources until later this week to work on it - will update at that point!)
In the meantime please could you advise on this quick question (or should I open a new thread?)
Can the following be translated automatically, or do they need to be done manually? I cannot see a way to assign them for machine translation:
- Taxonomy translation
- String translation
- Media translation (captions / alt text etc)
ACF fields seem to be translating correctly now we’ve updated the JSON files.
Taxonomy translations - I have tested the method from documentation but I can’t see a use case for this. If taxonomies will be picked up for translation with each post, they don’t need to be done en masse ahead of time (unless I’m missing something?)
String translations - I still can’t see how to send these for automatic translation. I have followed the documentation and added my items to the translation basket. However within the basket - in Jobs tab - I’ve no way of selecting Automatic translation. I can only send this to myself (or someone else for manual translation). Please advise?
If you are using the translate everything mode all you need to do is simply select the strings and then click on "translate".
if you are instead using "choose what to translate" you will need to choose the strings -> add to basket -> Go to WPML-Translation Management->Basket->assign to your self -> Go to Translations and take for translation -> strings will open as a batch in the Advanced Translation Editor where you can click on Translate Automatically -> approve and publish
