Preferred Languages: Help test the latest version

Since the last update on the Preferred Languages feature plugin, a lot of work has been accomplished both on the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party side and in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. to make the solution more robust in a variety of ways. Today, I want to provide a bit more details on these accomplishments, which resulted in the recent release of Preferred Languages 2.0, advancing the project a huge step closer towards a core merge proposal

But first, make sure to check out the previous update:

An Update on Preferred Languages

Improved Stability, Fully Rewritten

Over the last year, a lot of work has gone into making the plugin more stable by adding more tests and fixing bugs. This includes improving compatibility with other plugins and making translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. merging and localeLocale A locale is a combination of language and regional dialect. Usually locales correspond to countries, as is the case with Portuguese (Portugal) and Portuguese (Brazil). Other examples of locales include Canadian English and U.S. English. switching more robust. As a result, pure unit testunit test Code written to test a small piece of code or functionality within a larger application. Everything from themes to WordPress core have a series of unit tests. Also see regression. code coverage is near 100%, with end-to-end tests adding another layer of confidence.

With WordPress adding several i18ni18n Internationalization, or the act of writing and preparing code to be fully translatable into other languages. Also see localization. Often written with a lowercase i so it is not confused with a lowercase L or the numeral 1. Often an acquired skill. improvements in WordPress 6.1 and 6.2, the Preferred Languages plugin is now fully compatible with WP_Textdomain_Registry and switch_to_user_locale(). The minimum required WordPress version has been bumped to 6.1 as a result.

Certainly the biggest change, however, was the full refactoring of the UIUI User interface itself. The whole JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. portion of the code base was over 6 years old and using jQuery and jQuery UI. But not anymore! The UI has been completely refactored to use ReactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/., with the same components that also power the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor. In the process, drag & drop sorting functionality was removed to simplify the UI, and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) has improved, but otherwise everything looks mostly the same.

How to help

So, what’s next? The latest version of the Preferred Languages feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. needs more eyes testing it and providing feedback.

One big remaining question mark is the concept of translation merging. By default, if there are only some missing strings in a selected locale, these would be displayed in English. But with translation merging, the missing strings will be taken from the locale next in line instead. While this works great, it could be a tad slow due to the way translations are loaded in WordPress. Any help addressing this potential performance concern would be greatly appreciated.

Note: The merging feature can be enabled with add_filter( 'preferred_languages_merge_translations', '__return_true' );.

Active development is taking place on GitHub. If you want to get involved, check out the open issues and join the #core-i18n channel on Slack.

Props to @ocean90 for reviewing this post.

#feature-plugins, #feature-projects, #i18n, #polyglots, #preferred-languages