Some Thoughts about Multilingual

Beta
#1

Hi!

I’d like to express some thoughts about making websites multilingual.

I read support rants about Polylang, and as a long-term WPML user, I feel like being a hostage by this plugin.

WPML is generally great when it works, and it is a nightmare when it doesn’t.

Then again, do most of us really need that mastodont of a plugin? How many of us really use those endless options that are not even relevant for a powerful page builder such as Pro?

What we really need at the base level is a working Language switcher, a proper hreflang implementation and the ability to translate taxonomies. Maybe also a few small things here and there.

Translating strings is also an easy task with simple plugins such as “Say What?”.

Half of it is possible with Pro’s conditions already and we can certainly easily make language subfolders manually.

There are tons of special multilingual functionalities and special use-cases that simply require a complex solutions like WPML. I don’t deny that.

Simple, basic multilingual use however, is still in the majorities’ camp and if Pro had a native way to deal with it, I would feel relieved and free! I trust many others would as well. Thoughts?

Thanks!

4 Likes
#2

Thank you for bringing this up @Misho!

Just refunded a WMPL license for a clients site, because I had several issues with the plugin. This is actually the second time I had major issues with WPML and Pro.

ACF content wasn’t recognized properly and sometimes I wasn’t able to translate certain pages at all.

Also you need to install like 5 different WPML plugins to get started. (WPML Media Translation, WPML String Translation, …)

Just like you wrote: a basic, lightweight translation option integrated into Pro would be amazing!

3 Likes
#3

Yes. 100% yes. I have a lifetime license for WPML, but I hate using it.

3 Likes
#4

Let’s face it down, language support should be in WordPress core!
But maybe you should post this in WPML Forum too!

3 Likes
#5

Definitely feel you guys on the WPML frustration. Easily spent the most time there during this release, and the last couple of fixes have essentially been me disabling WPML actions which aren’t even documented. I’ve never had auto-translate on and yet there was a number of cases where it would overwrite my content on translations, other users had the same.

I feel like we could just have a dynamic content call using this and it’d be way simpler. This could also the solve the problem where currently every translation is an entirely new post. That’s nice if you want different designs depending on the language, but I’ve never seen anybody with a site like that. And I think Misho’s right, using conditions we could easily do that.

I’ve never done much localization software or worked with it much. But from what I can gather if you uploaded .po/.mo files and just referenced the msgid in dynamic content you’d have a way to manage localization. Curious on what your ideal workflow is.

1 Like
#6

To clarify too, I think there’s use cases for WPML and think it’s valuable still. It’ll take time for a proper Pro6 integration as they have code on their end for interacting with Cornerstone, but I believe it can be a smoother experience at least on the Cornerstone side.

1 Like