Using Multi Language in Wordpress

Question

I’m developing a website in Wordpress, and need some content on the site (menus, photos and etc) to be in 3 different languages.

How is it possible to do this without creating a new Wordpress for each language?

Answer 1

I don’t know any native function of wordpress that works with multi-language, and when I need to use two ways, depending on what the job asks for.

I recommend using the plugin ACF for manageable content it will facilitate your life, besides being well documented its scope is also good even in free version. For method I I will use it as a reference, but if you did not want to use it you can use the native functions of wordpress, to create fields reaching the same result.

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To capture the current language, selected by the user I use the following code in both methods:

<ul>
    <?php
        $lang = $_COOKIE['lang'];
        if ($lang == 'en'):
            $flag_1 = 'es';
            $flag_2 = 'pt-br';
        elseif ($lang == 'es'):
            $flag_1 = 'pt-br';
            $flag_2 = 'en';
        else:
            $flag_1 = 'en';
            $flag_2 = 'es';
        endif;
    ?>
    <li>
        <form method="post" action="">
            <input name="lang" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $flag_1; ?>" aria-hidden="true">
            <input name="redirect" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; ?>" aria-hidden="true">
            <input type="submit" role="button" value="<?php echo $flag_1; ?>">
        </form>
    </li>
    <li>
        <form method="post" action="">
            <input name="lang" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $flag_2; ?>" aria-hidden="true">
            <input name="redirect" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; ?>" aria-hidden="true">
            <input type="submit" role="button" value="<?php echo $flag_2; ?>">
        </form>
    </li>
</ul>

Yes, I use two <form>! In this example, there are 3 languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish, where after capturing the selected language each of <form> receives one of the languages not selected and can be exchanged in the future.

Inside functions.php insert the following code:

if (!isset($_COOKIE['lang'])) {
    setcookie('lang', 'pt-br', (time() + (3 * 24 * 3600)), '/');
    wp_redirect(site_url());
    die;
}
if (isset($_POST['lang'])) {
    setcookie('lang', $_POST['lang'], (time() + (3 * 24 * 3600)), '/');
    /*Rede
    wp_redirect(site_url($_POST['redirect']));*/
    //local
    wp_redirect(site_url());
    die;

}

Nothing much, I just attribute the value coming from post for a Cookie.

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Method I:

This form duplicates the content fields inside the same page always using the same URL.

For example, using the ACF crio inside the "example" page three fields, "conteudo_br", "conteudo_es" and "conteudo_en", which refer to the same field, but each one is responsible for the content in each language.

In the code I do the following check:

<?php
    if ( $_COOKIE['lang'] == "en"):
        $conteudo = get_field('conteudo_en');
    elseif ($_COOKIE['lang'] == "es"):
        $conteudo = get_field('conteudo_es');
    else:
        $conteudo = get_field('conteudo_br');
    endif;
?>
<article>
    <h2>Título do conteúdo</h2>
    <?php echo $conteudo; ?>
</article>

Through the if attribute the variable $contents the field of the current language, verifying the Cookie.

Advantage of this method: I create only a menu, because the page will always be the same.

Disadvantage: For SEO, the page will always have the same name, for example the contact page, will always be "www.meudominio.com/contact" and will not have a "/contact" for example for English.

Method II:

You can duplicate the pages, where you would not need to create "conteudo_br", "conteudo_es" and "conteudo_en", just create a field, for example "content" and assign the same to the three pages (English, Spanish and Portuguese), where each one gets the respective content of the language.

In the code you would just have to check the current language of cookie and change the menu link instead of the content itself as the method I suggests.

Example:

<?php
    if ($_COOKIE['lang'] == 'en'):
        $item_1 = 'contact';
    elseif ($_COOKIE['lang'] == 'es'):
        $item_1 = 'contacto';
    else:
        $item_1 = 'contato';
    endif;
?>
<a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); echo '/'.$item_1; ?>"><?php echo $item_1; ?></a>

Above the code selects the href attributing to the $item_1 depending on the Cookie.

Advantage of this method: Content is easier to manage because the number of fields per page is lower.

Regarding SEO, each page will have its proper URL in each language.

Disadvantage: On sites that have many pages, this model can generate an excessive accumulation of pages, because for each page will be created 3, one for each language.

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Finally, analyze what your work needs and use the form that best suits you.

Also if you prefer you can use some plugin that does all this work for you, can check some on the page of wordpress plugins.

If even after step by step you are experiencing difficulties, I suggest you replicate the content to three subdomains like es.site.com, en.site.com and site.com ... As much as I don’t recommend this method, due to content duplicity, it is also valid.

Answer 2

Try this plugin, it has multiple languages https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-language-translator/