UPDATE: This tutorial is no longer recommended. It will still work, but you’re most likely much better off with my Genesis Translations plugin.
If you’re like me, then English isn’t your first language and chances are you would like to see your Genesis powered website talking to you in your own language. It shouldn’t come to you as a surprise that Genesis is built to be translated and all you have to do is translate the genesis.pot file via a tool like PoEdit.
After uploading the translations to your /lib/languages/ folder in your Genesis folder you can see your translation active on your website. However, when Genesis offers updates, that update process will remove your language files, as it replaces the complete Genesis folder, reverting your site back to English.
Now, Genesis wouldn’t be Genesis if there wasn’t a solution for that. Here’s what you have to do in order to keep your Genesis powered website translated even after updates.
- Go to your active child theme folder and create a folder called languages
- Upload your translation files (your
.moand.pofiles) to the languages folder you just created - Next up, we need to tell Genesis we want it to look for translation files in your Child Theme folder instead of the Genesis folder.
We need the following code pasted in your Child Theme’s functions.php:
//Child Theme Language override
define('GENESIS_LANGUAGES_DIR', STYLESHEETPATH.'/languages');
define('GENESIS_LANGUAGES_URL', STYLESHEETPATH.'/languages');This snippet needs to go before the following code:// Start the engine
require_once(TEMPLATEPATH.'/lib/init.php');
but after the opening .
That’s it. Now your site will always remain translated. Do keep in mind that a bigger Genesis update (e.g. from 1.3.x to 1.4) there will probably be new untranslated texts in the new Genesis .pot file found in the /lib/languages/ folder.
Just so that I understand correctly: Do I have to translate both the Genesis framework AND the child theme?
If your child theme is adding its own text strings, then yes. In most cases however you will only need the translation for Genesis itself.
When the Genesis.pot is updated for a new release of the framework, how do you compare it with older versions? This is useful to know so one doesn’t have to translate the complete Genesis.pot again.
I create a new project in the StudioPress GlotPress installation and copy over what I can. Only the new strings will have to be translated.
First I must say a big thank you for all your efforts to explain and support translations for Genesis. I really do appreciate your supportive attitude. It is a great help for us that have to deal with different languages.
However I am a little confused here when it comes to moving the .po and .mo files from the Genesis-folder to the Child Theme folder. Because, as far as I can see, there will be confusion between the .po and .mo-files for the Child Theme and those added fron the Genesis framework.
And there are not just the sv_SE.po andcorresponding .mo-files (for my language), but also files like: continents-cities-sv_SE.po, admin-sv_SE.po, admin-network-sv_SE.po twentytwelve-sv_SE.po and so on.
Does this mean that I can rename the framework file to for example: genesis-sv_SE.po and the child theme file to: child-theme-name_sv_SE.po, something like that.
Does this affect any settings elsewhere, like in config-files and such?
I would be glad if this could be clear to me.
Best regards
Thanks for the kind words 🙂 I do think however that you’re much better off with my Genesis Translations plugin (which includes Swedish).
Didn´t tink of the plugin at all. Now, I installed it and everything looks nice. The point is that it will be a lot easier for my clients to manage their website. Very simple, indeed.
Thank you for all help!
Hi, I can’t seem to grasp the concept of lang attribute.
If I want the admin end to be in english (it’s easier for me), but front end in russian (which uses cyrillic), is it enough just to type my posts in russian? What about html attribute lang and xml:lang, are they important for search engines? If yes, how do I change that without affecting the whole admin side of WP. Thank you very much.
In theory it’s enough to blog in Russian, but Google does look at the HTML language attribute to determine to which audience you are targeting your content. So, for starters, have
wp-config.phpbe configured with the proper language code alongside the plugin like WP Native Dashboard.ok, thanks. Today I also found admin-in-english. It’s light and mostly does what it’s says, but your suggested one has much more capabilities, including the toolbar on the front is also back in English, which I like. Thanks.
I’m getting a bug after adding the code to functions.php. I get a string of php along the top of my current site. Is there a private e-mail where I can show you a screenshot? My e-mail is [email protected].
Have you tried the plugin instead?
I’m using the plugin already, yes. The month does translate into French, but not the word “by” before the author’s name. I just sent you a private message about the functions.php file – I put the original back but now the site is broken.
Thanx for fixing that code problem (pm). Here’s a link to a montage I did from two screenshots showing the problem that brought me to this page in the first place: http://www.lcr-lagauche.org/i/par-by.jpg
I have your translation plugin installed, and the months are correctly translated into French. I’m using Genesis with the NEWS child theme, and on the home page (top image, article from 30 mai) I get the correct “Par” in front of the author’s name. But on inner pages (see bottom image, article from 11 juin) I get “By” in front of the author’s name. “By” needs to become “Par” throughout the site.
Oh man, do I feel stupid! I found the problem: I’m also using the Genesis simple edits plugin, and “By” was in there. I changed it to “par” and all’s well. There’s just one tiny thing I’d still like to fix, though: on the homepage, the p in “par” is capitalized, but everywhere else it’s a lower case p, exactly as I typed it in simple edits. For articles that appear on the homepage the P is capitalized there, but once you click on the article it becomes a lower case p. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Ik wil je in het Nederlands even bedanken, maar ik zal even in het Engels reageren.
//Child Theme Language override
define(‘GENESIS_LANGUAGES_DIR’, STYLESHEETPATH.’/languages/genesis’);
define(‘GENESIS_LANGUAGES_URL’, STYLESHEETPATH.’/languages/genesis’);
worked well for me. I added an additional folder for the genesis theme. I copied the translation files of your plugin to these folders. After that I deactivated your plugin, but didn’t de-install it. The reason for this is that I have a customer (lawyer) that doesn’t want the informal (je/jouw) translation. So every time that your plugin would update, I would lose my formal modifications on your translation.
By not de-installing your plugin I still get a notice that your plugin has updated. That is time for me to check my translations.
I wish that Studiopress would be a bit more aware that not everybody is an American and put some more attention to the i18n on Genesis theme itself in their documentation.
You saved the day.
That’d be the way to do it, yes 🙂 And thanks for the kind words Johan!
I have Simple Child Theme on Genesis 2.0.2 / WordPress 3.8 but the translation did not work. I also deleted the other languages and only the zh_CN.mo and zh_CN.po remains.
I have no idea how to help you, sorry. If your
wp-config.phpsayszh_CNit should just work. Period.Hi
Wonder if you can help me. I am going top purchase the Agentpress theme. I need to translate it to Icelandic language. Is there a plugin for that language? I understand that the I need to translate the child theme with PoEdit which I am familiar with.
The AgentPress theme needs to be translated properly still. You could do that here: http://translate.studiopress.com/projects/genesis-child-themes/agentpress
Absolutely, I will do it properly. How do I get access to that site, is it after I purchase the agentpress theme?
You can register here: http://translate.studiopress.com/home/
Hi Remkus!
Great tip. I have some concern. I am extending a Genesis News child theme right now. The site will be primarily be in Norwegian but I am sticking with my strings in English by default; then translated it into Norwegian. Now, I generated my .po and .mo file and I am ready to go. I just wonder what is the best practice. Shall I include my specific translations into the main Genesis translation files (nb_NO.po and nb_NO.mo) or shall I put my own translation to a separate files (ex: news-nb_NO.po)? If on a separate file, how can I define them into the function.php?
Not quite sure what you’re asking here …If you have a different Norwegian translation of Genesis Framework than the one supplied with my plugin then you need to use the hack mentioned in this post, yes.
Very well explained and clear …. Now it works! Thank you very much 😉
Hello, thank you for your translating projects that I see here and in the plugin. This is what we really need here in Tokyo, Japan. By the way, I tried your suggestion here but there are no changes in my Genesis Prose based site.
http://www.denshishoseki-mado.jp/ (See ‘comments’, ‘Filed under’ etc. )
I also tried your Genesis Translates plugin. But when I try to activate it I see the following error page message:
http://www.denshishoseki-mado.jp/wp-admin/plugins.php?action=activate&plugin=genesis-translations%2Fgenesis-translations.php&plugin_status=all&paged=1&s&_wpnonce=505d111163nginx error!
The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.
Website Administrator
Something has triggered an error on your website. This is the default error page for nginx that is distributed with the Amazon Linux AMI. It is located at /usr/share/nginx/html/50x.html
You should customize this error page for your own site or edit the error_page directive in the nginx configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.
[ Powered by nginx ] [ Powered by the Amazon Linux AMI ]
I deactivated all the plugins but the situation is the same. (I had Loco Translate installed but deactivation did not work either.)
FYI, I host my site with Amazon AMI with this managed hosting
http://megumi-cloud.com/
Is the problem because of Amazon AMI?
Yeah, this has to be a hosting specific problem and I wouldn’t have a clue where to start to debug this, sorry. If the translations are not 100% on your site that’s probably because of two things:
Thanks for a quick reply. I am currently checking with the host provider and Genesis support to see what can be done to resolve these 2 issues. I think these are very interesting issues (and of course very serious for me) to find out what is the solution or cause. I will keep you posted. Thanks again!
Hello Remkus,
My name is John and i am new wit genesis, for a customer i wanted to translate into dutch by using poedit and when i put in the po and mo files it did not work. When i do this on ather themes it always works, but oke then i went for a search and i found remkus 😉 and saw that you build a plugin.
Now i am going to use the plugin (i still can not stand it that the translation did not wor) but i saw that posted by stil is in english? How can i change that or is this not possible?
greetings john
( pff goed voor mijn Engels dit 😉
No need to that. Just use my Genesis Translations plugin 🙂
Awesome, thanks so much for tour time. Now I have Genesis in Spanish without a plugin thanks to you 🙂
Hi, thanks for the code. What shall I do if I have .mo and .po translation files for the child theme as well, and I wouldn’t like to use the plugin, only the code?
The plugin only translates the Genesis Framework so your theme po/mo files just go inside your Child Theme’s translations folder.
Hi, Remkus, thanks for your answer. I already have the .mo and .po files in the child theme’s existing languages folder (for the child theme), so if I upload the genesis .mo and .po files, they’ll overwrite these two. Or do I misunderstand something?
Uhm, yes. You need the Genesis Translations plugin to translate the parent theme (Genesis), and your child theme requires its po/mo files. Those are not the same obviously.
I wouldn’t like to use the plugin, only the code in functions.php.