WordPress Internationalization Workflows

Soon after the release of WordPress 15 years ago, support for internationalization was added to the software. This meant that themes, plugins, and WordPress itself could be translated. This was a huge deal as WordPress is used all over the world, in countries where English is not the main language. WordPress was quickly translated into German, Japanese and many more languages.

Over the years, WordPress has steadily improved the way we have to work with internationalization. However, challenges still exist and there will always be new ones ahead. Projects like Gutenberg and ecosystems beyond WordPress.org force us to continuously iterate.

At WordCamp Tokyo 2018, I had the honor to talk about how to make use of the latest and greatest technology to make your WordPress plugin or theme fully internationalized. In this presentation I'm highlighting how you can leverage the powers of WordPress, GlotPress, and WP-CLI to improve the translation workflow in your WordPress projects.

Transcript

1. View Slide

2. Pascal Birchler

   @swissspidy
   

   View Slide

3. What You Will Learn Today
   

   View Slide

4. WordPress
   +
   Internationalization
   

   View Slide

5. Making a Plugin
   Translation-Ready
   

   View Slide

6. Internationalization Workflow
   Optimization
   

   View Slide

7. Terminology
   

   View Slide

8. The process of creating a product in such
   a way that it can be easily adapted
   to specific local languages and cultures
   Internationalization (I18N)
   

   View Slide

9. The process of adapting a product or
   service to a particular language,
   culture, and desired local “look-and-feel.”
   Localization (L10N)
   

   View Slide

10. “Localization is like translation
    but with a cultural twist”
    Localization
    

    View Slide

11. Defines the language, region, and
    cultural preferences.
    Locale
    

    View Slide

12. WordPress I18N Efforts
    

    View Slide

13. Making WordPress
    Global
    

    View Slide

14. translate.wordpress.org
    

    View Slide

15. View Slide

16. View Slide

17. translate.wordpress.org
    glotpress.blog
    poedit.net
    

    View Slide

18. Language Packs
    

    View Slide

19. User Locales
    

    View Slide

20. View Slide

21. WordPress Plugin Internationalization
    Behind the Scenes
    

    View Slide

22. WordPress Plugin Internationalization
    WordPress.org
    

    View Slide

23. Writing a Plugin
    

    View Slide

24. my-plugin/
    my-plugin.php
    readme.txt
    

    View Slide

25. /**
    * Plugin Name: My Super Awesome Plugin
    * Plugin URI: https://wordpress.org/plugins/my-plugin/
    * Description: My WordPress plugin that does nothing.
    * Version: 1.0.0
    * Author: Pascal Birchler
    * Author URI: https://pascalbirchler.com
    */
    __( 'Translate me', 'my-plugin' );
    

    View Slide

26. === My Super Awesome Plugin ===
    Contributors: swissspidy
    Requires at least: 4.6
    Stable tag: 1.0.0
    License: GPLv2 or later
    My WordPress plugin that does nothing.
    

    View Slide

27. WordPress.org
    Plugin Directory
    

    View Slide

28. wordpress.org/plugins/my-plugin
    

    View Slide

29. translate.wordpress.org
    

    View Slide

30. View Slide

31. wp-content/
    languages/
    my-plugin-de_DE.mo
    my-plugin-de_DE.po
    

    View Slide

32. 1. Write Plugin
    2. Submit to WordPres.org
    3. Translate
    4. Done!
    

    View Slide

33. WordPress Plugin Internationalization
    Private Plugin
    

    View Slide

34. Writing a Plugin
    

    View Slide

35. String Extraction
    

    View Slide

36. /**
    * Plugin Name: My Super Awesome Plugin
    * Plugin URI: https://wordpress.org/plugins/my-plugin/
    * Description: My WordPress plugin that does nothing.
    * Version: 1.0.0
    * Author: Pascal Birchler
    * Author URI: https://pascalbirchler.com
    */
    __( 'Translate me', 'my-plugin' );
    

    View Slide

37. makepot
    grunt-wp-i18n
    Poedit
    

    View Slide

38. my-plugin/
    my-plugin.php
    languages/
    my-plugin.pot
    

    View Slide

39. Manual Translation
    

    View Slide

40. my-plugin/
    my-plugin.php
    languages/
    my-plugin.pot
    my-plugin-de_DE.po
    my-plugin-de_DE.mo
    

    View Slide

41. load_plugin_textdomain(
    'my-plugin',
    false,
    __DIR__ . '/languages'
    )
    

    View Slide

42. 1. Write Plugin
    2. String Extraction
    3. Translate
    4. Load Translations
    5. Done!
    

    View Slide

43. Comparison
    

    View Slide

44. WordPress.org Private Plugin
    - Very easy to use
    - Translation Platform
    - Just-in-time Translation
    Loading
    - Complicated process
    - String Extraction
    - No Translation
    Community
    - Manual Translation
    Loading
    

    View Slide

45. Introducing
    Traduttore
    

    View Slide

46. WordPress.org
    For Everyone
    

    View Slide

47. translate.wordpress.org
    For Everyone
    

    View Slide

48. How it Works
    

    View Slide

49. WP-CLI
    

    View Slide

50. # Create a POT file for the WordPress plugin
    in the current directory
    $ wp i18n make-pot . languages/my-plugin.pot
    

    View Slide

51. github.com/wp-cli/i18n-command
    

    View Slide

52. View Slide

53. Required\Traduttore_Registry\add_project(
    'plugin',
    'my-plugin',
    'https://translate.example.com/api/translations/my-plugin/'
    );
    

    View Slide

54. View Slide

55. WordPress.org &
    Traduttore
    Private Plugin
    - Very easy to use
    - Translation Platform
    - Just-in-time Translation
    Loading
    - Complicated process
    - String Extraction
    - No Translation
    Community
    - Manual Translation
    Loading
    

    View Slide

56. required.com/en/blog/
    

    View Slide

57. github.com/wearerequired/traduttore
    github.com/wearerequired/traduttore-registry
    

    View Slide

58. What's Next
    

    View Slide

59. Improving
    Traduttore
    

    View Slide

60. Improving
    translate.wordpress.org
    

    View Slide

61. JavaScript
    Internationalization
    

    View Slide

62. Summary
    

    View Slide

63. I18N Workflows in WordPress
    

    View Slide

64. Public vs Private Projects
    

    View Slide

65. Traduttore
    

    View Slide

66. Future Changes
    

    View Slide

67. Thank You.
    

    View Slide