We have already talked about translating WordPress websites with the WPML plugin. But this time, our team is presenting something completely new. Something that kept us awake for a couple of nights.
When we were asked to translate a new website, we were faced with the challenge of how to export, translate and reimport the text via the POLYLANG plugin.
with web developers, especially because it has a free version.
The free version offers basic language support
for your WordPress website.
Our challenge
Let us first define the challenge we stumbled upon in that project.
⇒ The client approached us with the request to translate the entire website and to import the translated documents back to the website.
Following a quick analysis, we realised that there were a little over 60 subpages on the website and that we could save at least a week of manually entering the translated texts back to the website, if we exported, translated and then reimported the texts.
The problem was, however, that the POLYLANG plugin, which the client used to enable the multilingual support on their WordPress website, did not allow us to export and import the translated text back to the website. So, we had to find another way to export and reimport the text.
Research and first tests
At the beginning, of course, we spent some time scouring the Internet. One possibility that we found was to export the texts and reimport them via third-party plugins, which allow the export and import of content to WordPress websites.
We installed all those plugins to our demo WordPress website and began testing. Fortunately, we fairly quickly found a solution that allowed us to export and import the translated texts back to the WordPress website. The texts we exported included HTML tags, but we did not expect major issues with them.
Export by the client and our translation of the texts
We entrusted our client with the task of exporting the texts and they then sent us the files for translation. This was followed by an unpleasant surprise.
⇒ The exported content was completely unreadable, while the direct export could not be used for the purposes of translation.
a web content editor on their website,
which edits the entire content in a form that
is unreadable to humans.
What did we do next?
After reviewing the export, the IT department began writing an additional program that enabled the client to perform the appropriate export and send us the texts for translation. We then translated the texts and inserted them into the client’s imported file with the help of the program. After a few programming modifications, we then imported the texts back to the client's website.
The whole procedure could be illustrated as follows:
What have we learnt from this?
The above-mentioned procedure is part of our Turnkey Translation®.
In addition to the translation, we also took care of the import to the client’s website. Although we only had basic knowledge of the POLYLANG plugin at the beginning of the project, our team explored the options and found an appropriate solution to export, translate and reimport the texts to the client's website.
Contact us and together we will find the best solution for you.