ClassicPress Localization
One of the most common support questions we get lately is regarding choosing languages in fresh installs of ClassicPress, and we hear you! Let’s break down how we got here, how you can help and what you can do if you want to use a language that’s not in our initial list of 10 translated languages.
How did we get here?
When ClassicPress was started back in August there was no infrastructure, and definitely no localization team, just a dream about how we could be better.
We knew out the gate that making sure ClassicPress was localized would be a monumental task. We needed to have tons of infrastructure in place, a team of translators and user feedback.
Work started on the localization infrastructure at the beginning of October (link). This continued with setting up API endpoints (link), and was finally included in Beta 2 (link).
In order to get translations served from the ClassicPress infrastructure in time for V1 we needed to prioritize which languages we would focus on first. The committee chose the 10 most-used non En-US languages to get started (link, at bottom). These 10 would provide the necessary foundation to begin testing our infrastructure and gathering feedback on which languages to focus on next (link).
A task this large was bound to hit some snags, and in spite of our best efforts, not everything went 100% to plan. After the discovery of some issues relating to wrong file names (link), we responded by quickly pushing out a fix to our servers to ensure users didn’t continue to face this problem.
How can you help?
For the ClassicPress V1 release, we’re focusing on making translations available for 10 of the most-used non-English (US) languages. We’re open to adding more languages once this initial effort is working well, but until then, we have made a temporary plugin that will let you use WordPress language packs for other languages. Please note that these won’t be fully translated and will not be supported long term.
With regard to the first ten languages, we need your help with Turkish, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, French (France), and Japanese. If you are interested in helping with the these locales or any others, please join the #i18n channel on Slack or post a new thread in the i18n forum. Your assistance is greatly appreciated and will help to move this important part of ClassicPress forward.
What if I want to use ClassicPress with another language?
If you want to use ClassicPress with another language that is not on our list of 10 initial translations, we recommend installing the Use WordPress Language Packs plugin. This will provide you access to the WordPress Language Packs for the locales that aren’t yet supported in ClassicPress. Please keep in mind that when using a WordPress language pack, most strings will be translated, but not all.
Our community is what makes ClassicPress different, and we are grateful for your participation. Please reach out to any committee member with any questions you have on this or any other topic. Thank you for your support!
About Wade Striebel
Community Team Lead.
Connect with me at [email protected]