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This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
The client needs to bulk assign languages to over 3000 articles imported from Joomla to WordPress using WPML, without having to edit each post individually.

Solution:
We understand the need to efficiently assign languages to multiple posts. Unfortunately, WPML does not currently have a built-in feature to bulk assign languages to posts. However, we can suggest a couple of workarounds:

1. If you can segregate your Joomla posts by language, you could:
- Import posts from Joomla into a separate WordPress installation for each language.
- Use WPML's Export/Import functionality or another compatible plugin to export and then import the posts into your main WordPress installation. You can find more information on this process in our documentation: WPML Export and Import.

2. Alternatively, there is a workaround that has been suggested by our support team in previous tickets. This involves directly manipulating the database, which is not recommended and should be done with caution. If you decide to proceed with this method, please ensure you create a full backup of your site and ideally test on a staging environment first. You can find more details on this workaround in the forum posts:

We hope one of these solutions will work for you. If these suggestions do not seem relevant to your situation, please do not hesitate to open a new support ticket for further assistance. You can do so here: WPML Support Forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.

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This topic contains 5 replies, has 3 voices.

Last updated by Mihai Apetrei 1 year, 5 months ago.

Assisted by: Mihai Apetrei.

Author Posts
December 18, 2023 at 3:51 pm #15085853

ronnyV-2

Dear support,
I imported +3000 articles from a current Joomla based website into WordPress with the WPML plugin.
How do I bulk assign the WPML language to my posts as they are now all in the same language ? Opening them one by one would and changing the language would be hours and hours of work.
Thank you for your reply!

Kind regards,
Ronny

December 18, 2023 at 5:07 pm #15086473

Laura
WPML Supporter since 05/2018

Languages: English (English ) Italian (Italiano )

Timezone: Europe/Rome (GMT+02:00)

Hi,

thanks for contacting us.

Unfortunately, there's no way to easily bulk assign post to a language, because WPML has no way to recognize languages.

If you can export posts in a given language from Joomla you may try this https://wpml.org/documentation/related-projects/wpml-export-and-import/

Ora if it doesn't work directly, you can
- create a throwaway WordPress install
- import posts from Joomla in a single language
- export using our Export/Import plugin or another compatible plugin (https://wpml.org/plugin-functionality/import-export/)
- repeat for all languages

December 18, 2023 at 6:00 pm #15086795

ronnyV-2

I don't understand...WPML does not need to recognise the language. I can see what language the post is when looking at the title. By using bulk edit you can assing a category, tags, edit custom meta fields, change authors, etc... so there must be a way to assign a language as well? I could just select the posts in French (by looking at the title) and assign it the French language. Isn't this possible ? Seems basis functionality to me...

December 19, 2023 at 8:50 pm #15096611

Mihai Apetrei
WPML Supporter since 03/2018

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)

Hi there.

WPML follows the way WordPress was created and the way WordPress works and runs> It is built around WordPress's functionality.

So, in order for WPML to "know" that the pages are in a "specific" language, it needs to find information that is added into the database when a page is created into a different language.

WPML can't know in what language a post has been created if we just import it from somewhere else except by following the workarounds that my colleague shared above.

Unfortunately, there's no other built-in function right now that would allow us to accomplish what you mentioned but I wish there was so that I can share it with you and get this situation resolved faster 🙂

Mihai

December 20, 2023 at 4:37 am #15097527

ronnyV-2

I'm afraid you guys still don't understand my question. WPML doen not need to "know" that the posts are in a "specific" language, I know what posts are in a specific language as I can read the post title in wp-admin. Just like a regular WordPress article does not know what category it belongs to unless you assign it a category. Or like a WordPress does not know its tags until you assign it some tags.
My question is not about WPML recognizing languages, it is about assing manually a language to a post from wp-admin.
The ACF plugin allows you to add meta fields to a post and when you have 100 posts that you need to assign the same value you can add that value in bulk using the wp-admin. Easy as that. The same for tags, categories etc...just select multiple posts and assign the same value to all of them. That is the way WordPress works and runs and that is WordPress's functionality. There must be a way to assign the same language to 100 posts in in similar matter ?
Furthermore, WPML already has a field to bulk assign the Translation priority, why not the 'Language of the post'. In the post edit screen both these fields belong together, but not in the bul edit screen, that is not logical. Attached is a mockup illustrating this issue, I highlighted what is missing.

mokup.jpg
December 21, 2023 at 5:45 pm #15112771

Mihai Apetrei
WPML Supporter since 03/2018

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)

Hi there, Ronny, and welcome back!

We did understand the question from the very beginning but this feature doesn't exist in WPML at the moment as I mentioned above, in my last reply.

I ran a deeper investigation and I was able to find a workaround recommended by one of my colleagues some time ago, in a similar ticket:
https://wpml.org/forums/topic/how-to-change-menu-and-pages-original-language-after-changing-default-language/#post-3438303

Another one of my colleagues also mentioned that is not really recommended to go this route in this other ticket (https://wpml.org/forums/topic/change-default-language-of-existing-products-in-bulk/#post-8058935) but you can try and see if it works well for you.

You can see that there was another similar request not too long ago (https://wpml.org/forums/topic/changing-posts-language-in-bulk-from-secondary-to-primary/) and our devs mentioned that there's a good amount of work to accomplish this - probably this will be available in the feature as a built-in function but there's nothing I can promise.

At least I hope that you will find that workaround helpful 🙂 it might to what you want.

Please do create a backup first and try this on a testing environment first.

Have a lovely rest of the day!

Mihai