add baseline translation support for the chooser by possumbilities · Pull Request #185 · creativecommons/vocabulary-theme

possumbilities · 2026-08-12T19:53:21Z

Description

fixes: the wp cli i18n command encounters errors when trying to manipulate files #186
- amends docker-compose.yml to mount the vocabulary-theme src directory appropriate, and sets working_dir to that directory in the wordpress-cli section
adds baseline transifex.yml configuration file
setups up new src/languages dir
generates initial src/languages/vocabulary-theme.pot file
wraps all possible interface strings in static-chooser.php (minus marking statements) for WordPress appropriate gettext string extraction via wpcli
- if we also want to provide translations of the marking statements in their various formats then we first need to update the Chooser UX to support the ability to showcase the original english statement alongside the translated statement so that people are given the option of output. It is feasible someone might want to generate an English marking statement, but utilize the UX of the chooser itself in Spanish. For the time being this initial translation setup doesn't support the markings statements as translatable strings, once the UX is evolved in later PRs that can be opened up.
adds starter .po and .mo files (via Transifex) for English to test with, to the src/languages directory
adds dynamic <html> lang attribute to header.php
loads the src/languages/ files within WordPress's locale functionality, specifically targeting the chooser textdomain.
adds a new lang URI parameter within WordPress for setting the language via the frontend dropdown select
populates the frontend language select based on the available translations within the chooser textdomain
sets up frontend logic to allow for language selection in dropdown to load appropriate language files from .po/.mo files and output an appropriately translated page.
includes a failure condition so that the translation component does not appear within the UX if no translation files are present.

Technical details

The source .pot file is generated from wpcli (pulled from the wrapped strings in static-chooser.php): wpcli i18n make-pot . languages/vocabulary-theme.pot --domain=chooser
The file is read through Transifex via the transifex.yml config, and loaded in for manual translation within the Transifex editor, wherein an end-user can select an available language to begin a translation from the source (en)
Once a translation is ready, Transifex can generate a language specific .po file, which is sync'd with GitHub via the GH Integration. The relevant <lang>.po file is added to the src/languages folder. It is important that the .po file in question not have a theme or textdomain specific prefix, as WordPress will not recognize the file otherwise. For testing purposes the en_US.po and en_US.mo files have been created (temporarily), and the strings Yes and No have been set to Yep and Nope respectively to verify correct files are loaded based on a lang URI parameter being set to ?lang=en_US
Once Transifex has reached an appropriate translation threshold and fired off the integration for .po generation, it will create a relevant PR, which can be approved, and merged.
wpcli can then be used to generate a corresponding .mo file: wpcli i18n make-mo languages/
Logic within the theme should now allow the newly add <lang> to be selectable within the available translation dropdown, which operates by setting the lang parameter in the URI.
If a valid .mo file is found to match the set lang parameter, then the appropriate language translation is loaded, otherwise it will default to the original source (en).

Tests

Screenshots

Checklist

I have read and understood the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO), below, which covers the contents of this pull request (PR).
My pull request doesn't include code or content generated with AI (also see Avoiding generative AI development tools — Creative Commons Open Source).
My pull request has a descriptive title (not a vague title like Update index.md).
My pull request targets the default branch of the repository (main or master).
My commit messages follow best practices.
My code follows the established code style of the repository.
I added or updated unit tests and/or test scripts for the changes I made (if applicable).
I added or updated documentation (if applicable).
I tried running the project locally and verified that there are no
visible errors.

Developer Certificate of Origin

For the purposes of this DCO, "license" is equivalent to "license or public domain dedication," and "open source license" is equivalent to "open content license or public domain dedication."

Developer Certificate of Origin

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95% of minimum 90% translated source file: 'vocabulary-theme.pot' on 'en_US'. Sync of partially translated files: untranslated content is included with an empty translation or source language content depending on file format

…6436ca271e2030b794738_en_US Updates for project Chooser and language en_US

…testing

… now

…select options

possumbilities added 7 commits August 12, 2026 19:09

give wpcli access to vocabulary-theme dir, set working dir there

3afa915

generate starting .pot file to build from

09f2d5d

add initial test strings, generate .pot for verification

ffb71a8

finish adding baseline strings for input fields, generate .pot

09bae36

add strings for marking and recommendation area, generate .pot

fa29fd7

add inital strings from help section, generate .pot

28e422b

add initial strings for template elements, generate .pot file

db584d1

possumbilities self-assigned this Aug 12, 2026

possumbilities added this to possumbilities Aug 12, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to Triage in possumbilities Aug 12, 2026

constrain chooser transations to chooser domain

37fa79f

possumbilities moved this from Triage to In progress in possumbilities Aug 13, 2026

possumbilities changed the title ~~add translation support for the chooser~~ add baseline translation support for the chooser Aug 13, 2026

setup languages dir, add default baseline transifex.yml config

35ecf76

possumbilities requested a review from TimidRobot August 17, 2026 19:38

possumbilities and others added 15 commits September 11, 2026 19:04

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into chooser-translations

0b339f2

update .pot file locations

a01c15b

reset .pot location back to prior

6e2fea5

move transifex files to better locations

bf3c72a

correct double slash

ee4aa53

Translate vocabulary-theme.pot in en_US

70f7179

95% of minimum 90% translated source file: 'vocabulary-theme.pot' on 'en_US'. Sync of partially translated files: untranslated content is included with an empty translation or source language content depending on file format

Merge pull request #195 from creativecommons/translations_20cf956799c…

7225378

…6436ca271e2030b794738_en_US Updates for project Chooser and language en_US

correct transifex to output .po files, and add generate .mo file for …

1b6bb96

…testing

rename lang files to be loadable, and alter yes/no to be testable for…

25ae5ac

… now

make meta lang attribute ddynamic

390fd21

setup custom header for chooser, load dynamic available translations …

23adf26

…select options

add select js, correctly output raw code and language name

09662ef

improve logic to select active language in parameters

7e45fc8

add zero state for languages, hide translation select if none

b6a2aa7

remove extranneous strings from .pot file, regenerate .po to match

617837f

remove strings from .po

9d6eeef

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add baseline translation support for the chooser - #185

add baseline translation support for the chooser#185
possumbilities wants to merge 25 commits into
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possumbilities commented Aug 12, 2026 •

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Description

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possumbilities commented Aug 12, 2026 •

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