[Resolved] Best way to handle reviews in the wrong language section?
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: You are experiencing issues with reviews being posted in the wrong language section on your e-commerce site. Previously, you had to delete and repost the review in the correct language, which is not ideal. Solution: We recommend enabling a feature that allows reviews to be displayed in all languages. You can activate this option by checking the appropriate checkbox. For more details, please visit: Displaying Product Reviews in Multiple Languages. Once this feature is enabled, you can translate the reviews using WPML → String Translation. Reviews will then show a "(translated)" label when viewed in another language.
Please note that this solution might not be relevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your specific case. We highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If the issue persists, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
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Background of the issue:
We’ve been dealing with a recurring issue for quite some time now, practically since we started using WPML. Occasionally, a customer leaves a review on a product page but does so in the wrong language section of the site. So far, we’ve been solving this by deleting the comment and reposting it from scratch on the correct page. While this workaround does the job, it’s far from ideal as we’ve been waiting for a proper solution that never seems to arrive.
Symptoms:
Reviews sometimes are being posted in the wrong language section, and the current workaround involves deleting and reposting the review on the correct page.
Questions:
Is there a tool in WPML that allows E-Commerce Managers to move a review from one language to another? In my opinion, there should be a tool that allows E-Commerce Managers to move a review from one language to another - essentially transferring it from one page to another.
Once enabled, you can translate the reviews via WPML → String Translation. When viewing the reviews in another language, they will appear with a "(translated)" label to indicate the translation.
Oh, okay, this comes as a surprise to us. When we started using WPML many years ago, this option wasn’t available. Had we been properly informed about it, we would certainly have adopted it. Anyway, all right, agreed. Thanks for the information!
we’ve decided to activate the option. We currently have around 1,800 reviews on the site, with 10% in the second language (English) and 90% in the main language (Italian). If I understand correctly, by enabling the option, we will see reviews in both languages on both language-specific pages.
The question is: what is the best way to AUTOMATICALLY translate all the reviews using WPML?
Ideally, we’d like to do it via AI, and if I’m not mistaken, you’ve implemented something like that. However, I’d like to ask for the exact steps to follow so that we don’t go in blindly and make mistakes.
Thanks!
P.S.: On the subdomain with the second language (English), we have also included all the reviews received that were written, for example, in a third language (Spanish), for which there is no dedicated subdomain on the site. What happens in that case with the automatic translations?
You can automatically translate strings, but they must be in your site's original language. This means that approximately 90% of the content can be translated. You can add these strings to the translation basket as shown here: WPML String Translation Guide.
P.S.: On the subdomain for the second language (English), we have included all reviews, even those written in a third language (e.g., Spanish), for which no dedicated subdomain exists. How does automatic translation handle this situation?
If you attempt to translate strings that are not in the site's original language, the translation process will get stuck. This happens because the translation engines (DeepL, Azure, Google, etc.) cannot accurately interpret the meaning of strings in an unexpected language—similar to entering a German word into a Spanish DeepL input field.
However, with the next WPML version, we will introduce support for translations from and to secondary languages as well.
