Troubleshooting

I18n package issues and fixes.

Translation Not Working

Translations not loading

Problem: Text shows English despite having .mo files.

Cause: Translation files not loaded or wrong path.

Fix: Verify load path and timing:

// Load in init, not too early
$hooks->wpAction('init', function () use ($context) {
    load_plugin_textdomain(
        $context->textDomain(),
        false,
        dirname(plugin_basename($context->file())) . '/languages'
    );
});

Text domain mismatch

Problem: Translator uses wrong text domain.

Cause: Context has different textDomain than .mo files.

Fix: Ensure .mo filename matches context textDomain:

$context = PluginContext::create([
    'textDomain' => 'my-plugin',  // Must match .mo filename
]);

// File should be: languages/my-plugin-de_DE.mo

POT Generation Issues

Strings not extracted

Problem: wp i18n make-pot doesn't find strings.

Cause: Using Translator class instead of WP functions.

Fix: POT generators expect __() format. Either:

Use placeholder that gets replaced:

// In template (extracted)
__('Hello', 'TEXTDOMAIN_PLACEHOLDER');

Or maintain a .pot manually with all strings.

Wrong domain in POT

Problem: POT file has hardcoded domain.

Cause: Generator uses filename or header.

Fix: Set domain in extraction:

wp i18n make-pot . languages/my-plugin.pot --domain=my-plugin

Plural Issues

Wrong plural form

Problem: "1 items" instead of "1 item".

Cause: Using __() instead of _n().

Fix: Use plural function:

// Bad: No plural support
echo $translator->__('1 item');

// Good: Proper plurals
echo $translator->_n('%d item', '%d items', $count);

Security Notes

WPZylos Logger