Translating website Pro with WPML

Support
#1

Good moring,
We looked into the infromation you give and ordered WPML to translate our site (from Dutch into English - and other language in the future).
For a part it works very well, but the lay-out is not oke (is a bit of a mess) and not all the items are showing in the English page.

This is a test side and only the OVER page we tested WPML on.

When you look on the Enlish flag: you see what I mean.

Can you please advice us what to do about this? How we can translate our site properly with WMPML? The is some kind of time-pressure.

So many thanks, for your help - as always.

#2

Hi @lvandeemter,

Thanks for reaching out.

For the header and footer menu, you should sync it and translate them like from here https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/translating-menus/.

As for the widgets, please check this https://wpml.org/forums/topic/footer-widget-translation/. Your widgets are text widget which you manually added as codes. I’m not sure how WPML will handle that, but I recommend contacting them too.

Thanks!

#3

Hi,

Thanks for your answer. But I am not talking only about the header and footer or widget (we did not translate them yet).
I am talking about the page as it is …
The Dutch page has been created in Pro - see image ‘Dutch page edit with Pro’
The English page we translated with WPML - see image ‘WPML translation to English’

On the English flag-tap the lay out is completely gone - no space left and right anymore,
No lay-out for the text and image … The Dutch page show you how it looks there.

Please advice how to handle that… thank you in advance.

ENGLISH PAGE:

The lay-out is completely gone.
Header image (just in Pro as 1 element) is not there
Bleu behind (too big) picure and text (in Dutch page next to each other) not there

The last part is a form - no correct lay-out.
Something is going wrong with the page width and side width (85%)

Please give us a good advice to how solve these problems. It would be much appreciated.

#4

Hi @lvandeemter,

Ah, you mean in the builder. That’s not how you translate it and please check this https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oq0a5f7s2fd852/CornerstoneTranslation.mp4?dl=0

It’s a bit old, but the process is still the same (duplicating the page and changing the elements strings or content in the builder).

In the new version of WPML, the duplicate feature in that video is moved. It’s now within the builder and it’s by clicking the Flag icon. Then, if the translation isn’t present, it will ask you to create a blank or from existing page’s content before it duplicates it for translation. Then once done, you should able to edit and translate the elements the same in the above video.

BUT, you can only do this if you have specific WPML setting. Please go to WPML > Settings > How to translate posts and pages and change it to Create translations manually. This will allow you to translate it in the builder instead of this

Thanks!

1 Like
#5

o, thank you for your good explanation, with video and image. I will look into it tomorrow and try it out. Sure this will work.
Thanks!

#6

You’re most welcome!

#7

Hi there,

I am sorry to tell you that something does not work well yet.

I did the steps you showed in the video (the video show Cornerstone - I am working in Pro).

I create an English page manually, like it is said in the movie.
(Please do not notice the names of the pages - I tried several pages - all gave the same view)

  1. Opening the English page with Pro (is stille possible here)

  2. For test just changed first header text - and saved it all

  3. When refreshing page it looses the content

  4. To dashboard / pages - showing page ‘Bedrijfstakken’ looks like this - the content is still there somewhere …

  5. Pro builder is not recommended to use (WPML did something there …?)

Is there something I did miss? Should I have another adjustment somewhere?

Please advice - did we miss something?|
We exactly did everything the same way as your video suggested and put WPML on manual.

Thank you so much for your help.

ps . in fact the translating to English page works well. Only as soon as I save that page - of update it in Dashboard: it looses the Pro builder connection.

#8

Hi @lvandeemter,

I see, but unfortunately, I’m not sure what’s happening in your site internally. I like to check it directly, would you mind providing your site’s admin login credentials in a secure note?

I can’t help you with string translation, but I may able to check why you’re not able to translate it.

Thanks!

#9

please see the secure note.

Thanks!

#10

Hi,

I checked your HOME/BEDRIJFSTAKKEN page and it seems to be working fine.

Can you please confirm if this is still an issue in your end.

Thanks

#11

Hi, Yes I have.
It is about translating the Dutch pages into Enlish with WPML
This is how the Dutch page looks on front:

And this is how the English page looks like: (there is nothing to see)

The issue is, that I created the Enlish page as Rad suggested. All works well - as he show in the video het send - until I save the page. Then the Pro builder is gone. The (Enlish) page seems to loos the Pro builder.

On Dashboard - Page (Enlish) - it looks like this.

Clicking the Pro tab it gives this info:

So please help me where did I do something wrong?
Thank you so much in advance.

#12

Hi @lvandeemter,

Looks like it has issues with pages with pre-existing translation prior to the first screenshots that you provided. Because of that the duplication (option to create from blank or copy from existing Dutch version) is default to blank. Hence, it’s empty and you have to manually add the content.

OR, go back to Dutch version of the page and save it as a template, then switch to English again and import that template. I went ahead and did that to BEDRIJFSTAKKEN page. Now, what’s left is translating it within that English mode preview.

Thanks!

#13

Sorry to let you know, that this still doesn’t work. In the Pro builder it looks great. But as soon as i Preview it - go to the front side of the website - there is nothing there.

I will ask my website-IT man, to help me and we start with a clean copy of the website again. If that doesn’t help, we will come back to you if that is oke.

Thank you so much for you effort to help!

#14

You’re welcome. Feel free to update us when you have a clean copy.

Thanks.

#15

I have experienced these exact issues. At this point I am honestly not sure how you can claim X / Pro is WPML ready. I have also had the issue where when I save the translation it over writes the original and vice versa.

Yesterday I ensured that the WPML settings were not set to “Synchronize page template” (WPML Settings) I also disabled all WPML plugins except the main WPML Multilingual CMS.

It seems for me this helped. I think the problem was either “Advanced Custom Fields Multilingual” plugin or having “Synchronize page template” on.

Currently I have only installed the main plugin and was able to enable “WPML String Translation”. Things now appear to be working.

Currently my steps are to create a template of the original page, copy the page to the new language, delete everything out of the builder for the new language and save, then import the template I created and start editing.

Once you have done this you will need to copy across any CSS / JS from the original language page to the new page as the templates don’t save this stuff.

Hope that helps.

Honestly working with WPML and Pro / X is a bit of a nightmare and very unstable.

1 Like
#16

Hey @urchindesign,

First, I wanted to say that we’re sorry that you experienced issues with WPML Integration with Pro. X and Pro are WPML ready. However, during changes in systems or updates, undiscovered and unexpected bugs are inevitable. Our development team have worked hard and released a fix in Pro 2.1.0, X 6.1.0, Cornerstone 3.1.0.

Once you have enabled WPML String Translation, you will now be able to translate your page using the Flag Icons in the builders. You don’t have to do the manual creation of pages since the builder will do this in the background for you.

For the old pages, you might need to translate them again still using the Flag Icons.

Thanks.

#17

I am currently on the latest version of Pro 2.2.5 which still has all these issues as described above. The site is not live as it has been plagued with issues. My process above is the only way I have gotten things to be marginally stable.

#18

I see. In that case, please open a separate thread and give us WordPress Admin access so we could troubleshoot the issue.

Thanks.

#19

I thank you so much for publish this here! You helped me a lot. I will try to copy your way of working. Hope that this works for me too.
True that it is not very friendly to work with. I hope it will be solved soon. I have 2 other sites that will need a translation in the near future.

#21

Good luck. For now this method seems to be working although several times things have seemed to work. Then after not working on the site for a week or so we came back and suddenly things were not working again. So far it has been very hit & miss.

I am in the same boat with several other sites coming up. At the moment I am honestly considering a different theme for those builds.

My recommendation is to install Updraft Backup plugin and then literally do a back up before every page. That way if it goes pear shaped you can restore the back up and try again.