Meta Box - WPML Integration

WPML (WPML Multilingual CMS) seamlessly integrates with Meta Box, allowing you to easily translate data (both values and labels) of various objects, including posts, taxonomies, custom fields, settings pages, relationships, and users.

Before you start

You need WPML Multilingual CMS and WPML String Translation on your site.

Then, you should make sure that you set up WPML already, including the site languages and the language switcher.

Go to WPML > Setup to start setting up WPML.

Site languages

The WPML setup wizard is a short process for configuring WPML on your site. It helps you choose which languages to translate your website into, decide whether to use subdirectories or different domains for your translated URLs, and install any additional addons.

Setting up the site language is the first step.

This section allows you to choose the languages from the list of 65 languages. In there, you also can regulate which is the default language, and which are custom ones. Also, create a custom language if you can't find languages that you need in the list.

After setting up languages, they will appear in the admin bar, allowing you to switch between languages easily for configuration or enter the translations accordingly in the backend.

Language switcher

As its name says, this is to switch between languages on the frontend. It will be a form as a button or item in a menu.

Scroll down to the Menu Language Switcher section and add a new one.

Your new language switcher will now appear next to your navigation menus.

Notice

If you don’t set it up, there is nothing on the page to change the language to another one. So, the translation versions of all elements including the custom fields are not shown even when they are already existing.

Before translating, you should set admin language as editing language. Navigate to User > Profile. In the WPML language settings section, enable the setting for this:

Overview

The available deep compatibility between Meta Box and WPML allows you to translate many objects, as well as the values of their custom fields directly.

In essence, each Meta Box object has two components: configuration (label) and data (value). For example, a custom post type includes its settings (plural name, singular name, etc.) and the posts within it. Similarly, a field group consists of its configuration and the fields displayed in the post editor for entering values.

To translate values, you should follow three steps to translate any object on your site:

1. Make that post type, taxonomy, and custom field translatable (in the Settings submenu in WPML).
2. Input translation versions for them.
3. Display the object on the front end (using MB Views, page builders, etc.). The translated versions will go along with the object automatically.

Translating labels of objects is simpler than. Meta Box - WPML integration detects the labels as strings automatically. So, you can input translation versions without any complex configuration. This feature allows you to translate labels of all objects, including post types, taxonomies, field groups, fields, settings pages, and relationships. They’re available in the Translation Management submenu with corresponding names:

Data will be stored as packages, you can check them in the String Translation or Packages submenu.

There are two places to input the translation for labels. One is in the Translation Management menu to able to translate multiple items at once. Then, the typical route to translate them is the same as translating normal strings:

1. Select the objects/strings you want to translate and click on the Translate your content button.
2. Choose a suitable translation method.
3. Review/ Input the translation in the Translation queue.

Or go to the String Translation submenu, search and input translation one by one.

After that, when you switch languages on the admin bar, the corresponding content will be transferred immediately.

Custom post types

After creating your custom post type, you need to make it translatable, then input the translation for posts of the post type.

The custom post types created with Meta Box will be included in the Post Types Translation section in the settings of WPML. In this section, locate the custom post type you want to translate. It’s along with three options:

• Translatable (only show translated items): The items which don’t have translation are not displayed.
• Translatable (use translation if available or fallback to default language): Display all the items with their translation version or default language if they aren’t translated.
• Not translatable.

Set it to Translatable – only show translated items, and click Save to confirm.

After enabling the translatable option for the post types, go to WPML > Translation Management, you can see the tab named your post type along with its post. Select the custom posts you want and click on the Translate your content button.

To display the translation of posts, you can use any page builder or MB Views. Then the translation versions will be automatically displayed when the reader clicks on the language switcher.

Post type labels

Labels of Meta Box post type are detected as strings already. So, they’re available in the Translation Management submenu. Find the Meta Box: Post Type tab, and choose the post type you want.

Then, you can input the translation for each label as usual.

After translating yourself or using WPML AI, just switch languages to see the translation of post type labels.

Custom taxonomies

Translating custom taxonomies and their labels is the same as translating post types.

In the settings of WPML, also set the custom post type, which the taxonomies is for, is translatable. Notice that the translation versions of taxonomies are available on the page only when its post type also is translatable.

Then, go to the Taxonomies Translation section, and find out your custom taxonomies. All the options and translation steps are the same as those for custom post types.

To add the translation version for any taxonomy, go to the Taxonomy Translation submenu.

Taxonomy labels

Labels of Meta Box taxonomies are declared as WPML strings without manual installation. So, translating them is effortless. Also in the Translation Managerment submenu, select your taxonomy from the Meta Box: Taxonomy tab.

The labels of a taxonomy are similar to post type labels.

Then, these translations are output immediately if you change the site languages.

Custom fields

Custom field values

Set up the WPML plugin to translate custom field values in the Custom Fields Translation section.

Search the field ID in the Search bar to find out the field that you want to translate. There are four options to choose from for each field:

• Don’t translate
• Copy: each time you update the field, the value in that field is automatically copied to the translated version without being translated.
• Copy once: is similar to Copy but it just copies the field’s value for the first time. Other times you update the field, it doesn’t do it.
• Translate: is to translate the field.

Assuming that I chose translation method for the post type that custom fields applied to, move to the Translations submenu, you can add (if you translate yourself) or view (if you use AI to translate automatically) the translation.

Then, a new screen where we add translations for the custom fields will appear.

This also works well with cloneable fields, including cloneable groups.

You can use MB Views for any page builder for displaying them on the frontend.

Field labels

Meta Box - WPML integration helps you translate labels easily, including label description, input description, default value, placeholder, and adding more text of cloneable field/group.

For example, I have a field with labels as below:

In the Translation Management submenu, find the Meta Box: Field Group tab, and select the field group you want to translate the labels from this tab.

Then, in the post editor, the translation of labels is outputed automatically when you switch language in the admin bar.

Settings page fields

Settings page labels

Similar to the translating labels of other objects, you can translate the settings page labels in the Translation Management submenu.

Open the Meta Box: Settings Page tab, you can see your settings page in the list. Just click and translate them.

You also can translate field labels on the settings page. That field group is in the Meta Box: Field Group tab as well.

Then, translations of both field label and settings page label are shown when you switch the languages.

Settings page field values

Meta Box supports you translating field values of settings page directly.

Simply switch the language in the admin bar, and input the corresponding translation.

For displaying translation on the frontend, you can refer to this docs. The rwmb_meta() fucntion can detected the language to get and display the corresponding field value automatically. In this case, I use this code:

$value = rwmb_meta( 'name', ['object_type' => 'setting'], 'brand' );
echo $value;

Relationship labels

Meta Box also effortlessly supports translation labels of relationships.

In the Translation Management section, click on the Meta Box: Relationship tab to select your relationship.

Then, translate them as the other labels, and in the post editor, you can see the content relationship is switched when you change the laguages:

In the case that you want to translate relationship values, simply translate the object type, such as post, term, or user.

Others

Beside the basic objects, Meta Box-WPML also helps you translate other items.

Custom term meta

In the settings of WPML, enable the translation feature for all of these following objects:

• Post type (in the Post Types Translation section)
• Taxonomy (the Taxonomies Translation section)
• Custom fields (in the Custom Term Meta Translation section)

Then, do the same with translating custom taxonomies, go to the Taxonomy Translation submenu. When adding a translation version for each taxonomy, the term meta will appear along with the taxonomy information.

As usual, when we want to display the term meta value, we use the get_term_meta function. This is an example:

Even when you have translations for those values, just keep using this function, then the translations will display automatically.

Custom user meta

By default, WPML translates only the basic fields of the user such as first_name, last_name, nickname, description, and display_name. To make custom user fields translatable, you need to convert them to strings before translating.

So, we should install the WPML String Translation add-on.

After installing it, add this filter to the theme file to convert value of a custom field to string:

add_filter( 'wpml_translatable_user_meta_fields', function( $fields ) {
   $fields[] = 'your_field_ID';
   return $fields;
} ); 

Or, use this syntax for bulk converting:

tip

We recommend using a child theme in this case to avoid missing the strings when you update your theme.

Then, go to WPML > String Translation, and scroll down to the Utilities section, choose the user roles you would like to make translatable in the Translate User properties tab.

After that, the fields are in the Strings translation table along with their values. Just click on the “+” button to add the translation for each value.

To display fields for users on the frontend, you should use the following function:

get_the_author_meta( ‘your_custom_user_field_ID’, $user_id );

When the field values display, the translation will go along with it.