WPML 3.2 Release Candidate

We’re ready with a Release Candidate for WPML 3.2. An RC, besides sounding nice, also means that we’re almost ready to push this update to everyone. In fact, we’re moving to WPML 3.2 on some of our own sites.

Since previous betas, the content of WPML 3.2 hasn’t changed.

In this update, we’ve further improved performance, closed remaining issues and updated taxonomy translation and String scanning.

Taxonomy Translation News

WPML 3.2 adds a new admin screen (tab under the Taxonomy Translation) to synchronize the hierarchies of taxonomies. Previously, this task was done automatically, as you translate. The problem is, it was hard to control what it does and what you get.

The new taxonomy hierarchy sync lets you set the same hierarchies for taxonomy for all languages. It works by:

1. Selecting the language to use as reference (previously, this was assumed to be the site’s default language)
2. Seeing what changes will happen to the taxonomy trees in all translated languages
3. Applying these changes

We separated this from the normal ‘content translation’ workflow to (greatly) improve performance, accuracy and control. Most sites that use complex taxonomy hierarchies will usually edit the taxonomy tree a lot less than editing posts. From our experience, the taxonomy tree is a lot like the site’s menu. You update it once in a while.

The new taxonomy sync reads the entire tree and adjusts all languages together. It’s way more accurate than what we ran in previous WPML versions. To avoid this from running on every translation job, we allow you to run it only when you want. This helps reduce load and puts you in control over the taxonomy of your site.

Improved String Scanning in Plugins and Themes

WPML 3.2 greatly improves the accuracy of scanning plugins and themes for translatable strings. Now, we also register strings under a slightly different context. No fear, when you upgrade, WPML will check if you have strings with the ‘old’ contexts. If so, you will see a message about how to update. The update process will move strings to the new context, make sure that all strings in the code are available for translation and also clean up ‘phantom’ strings (untranslated strings, no longer in use).

Yes, Better Performance

During this entire development cycle, we test WPML’s load on your server together with every change we make. Our goal is to cut any fat that we see and make sure that both CPU load and DB queries go down.

This release candidate is no exception. We managed to find pockets of queries which could be eliminated. As a result, our testing shows superior performance over production and previous WPML 3.2 dev versions. Instead of boasting with numbers, we leave this to you to evaluate.

Other Changes in This Update

• Fixed compatibility issues with Windows servers
• Fixed email notifications
• Fixed issues with WPSEO sitemaps when using languages in domain
• Updated localized strings translations
• Several other bug fixes
• Improved API and its documentation
• Improved compatibility with Gravity forms

Download

This version of WPML is only available from your WPML account. Log in and click on Downloads. Download the CMS Beta package and unzip it. This ZIP contains ZIP files of all of WPML’s components.

WPML 3.2 has already completed a round of QA. Now, after all recent changes, we’re starting another full QA cycle. We expect to release the final version in two weeks from now.

Feedback?

We’d love to hear your opinion. For questions, suggestions and ideas, leave your comments here. To report technical problems (and get help from our supporters), please use our technical support forum.