Chapter 12: Enabling Plugin Internationalization

WordPress is a worldwide phenomenon, with users embracing the platform all around the globe. To create a more immersive experience for users in different locales, WordPress offers the ability to translate all of its administrator- and visitor-facing content. Like most other functionalities on the platform, internationalization is also available to plugin developers. By calling a set of easy-to-use functions, developers can include translation files with their creations.

To prepare a plugin to be localized, developers must use special internationalization functions when dealing with any textual element. Once this structure is in place, any site administrator can create localizations by themselves for languages that they are familiar with. They can submit these translations back to the plugin author for inclusion in a future update to the extension. WordPress.org also offers an online interface for users to be able to contribute translations...