Translating the plugin
Cashback Tracker ships in English with a translation template, so it can be translated into any language.
Two halves, and both need doing
This is the part people miss.
The front end — shop pages, the member area, buttons, emails — is PHP. A normal translation covers it.
The admin screens — Orders, Members, Payouts, the Shop catalog — are JavaScript. They need the translation in a second file format, and a translation that skips it leaves your whole admin in English while the front end is perfectly translated.
Most translation tools can produce both. You usually have to switch it on.
Translating with Loco Translate
Install Loco Translate.
Loco Translate→Plugins→ Cashback Tracker.New language, choose yours, and save it to the custom location — see below.
Translate. You can do as much or as little as you like; anything untranslated stays English.
Save to compile it.
Turn on JSON output, or the admin screens stay English.
In Loco Translate, Settings → Compile settings (or the equivalent on your version) has an option to generate JSON files for JavaScript. Without it, only the front end is translated — and this is easy to spend an afternoon confused by.
Where the files must live
When Loco asks where to save, choose the System location — wp-content/languages/plugins/.
Two reasons. It survives plugin updates, and it is exactly where WordPress itself looks for the JavaScript translations the admin screens need. Loco's own custom location works for the PHP half, but System is the one that needs nothing to redirect it.
Never save into the plugin's own folder. The next plugin update deletes it, and it is the most common way translation work is lost.
What to translate first
You do not have to do all of it. In order of what your visitors and members actually see:
Member-facing front end — the account page, balance labels, payout wording, buttons
Emails to members — these arrive in their inbox, so English here is the most jarring
Shop page furniture — the cashback box, Go to shop, terms headings
Admin screens — only worth it if the people running the site do not read English
Wording you should change, not translate
Some strings are decisions rather than English:
Button labels for coupons and deals — settable directly, see Coupon display settings
Email subjects and bodies — editable in
Settings→EmailsShop page titles — a template in
Settings→General
Set those in your own language in the settings rather than translating them. They will not be overwritten and they are easier to change later.
AI writing has its own language setting
Generated descriptions are written in the language set in Settings → AI → Language, independent of the interface translation. A German site wanting German descriptions needs both.
See Setting up AI.
After a plugin update
New versions add strings. Reopen your translation in Loco Translate, press Sync, translate whatever is new, and save.
Nothing you already translated is lost, and untranslated new strings simply show in English until you get to them.
Contributing a translation back
If you have translated a language well and would like it shipped with the plugin so other operators benefit, get in touch through support. Translations contributed this way are credited.
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