Mini Calendar – Language problems (links&translate)

[Erik]

Hey-a!

I’m using the Events Calendar Pro, on a website with 4 languages (Swedish – main, English, German & Danish).
I’m using WPML to translate the plugin into the different languages – but I’m having problems.

Swedish works fine – Months are translated fine.
English is translated fine – months are translated
Danish/German are using English translation

– – – which is bad, and I’m not sure how to change it – but the worst part is that the links from the mini calendar in the different languages (not Swedish) is broken – and I cannot understand why.

The translated event works fine when switching from Swedish -> English for example, when already on the event information.
But the links when using the mini-calendar are broken.

I’ll try to show some links.

The problem seems to be that the links add some extra letters at the end of the link (%2F/), and removing them in the inspect tool makes them work.

So my two-parted question is, I guess:

1 – How can I make the German/Danish translations, or how come they dont translate the months automatically since I’m guessing atleast that part is saved in the language files? I’m not looking into making anything special.

2 – How can I make the links into the event from the Mini-calendar work with the different languages? Only main language works.

[Geoff B.]

Good afternoon Erik and welcome back!

Thank you for reaching out to us.

We are sorry to hear about the translation issues you are facing. Yikes!
I would love to help you with this topic.

If you have not done so already, can you make sure everything is setup according to this guide : https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/setting-up-the-events-calendar-with-wpml/

Secondly, for all sorts of reasons, including SEO, I would highly recommend changing your WPML translation method from parameter based (?lang=) to directory based (yoursite.com/de, yoursite.com/dk, etc..). This should solve your link issue once and for all.

1 – How can I make the German/Danish translations, or how come they dont translate the months automatically since I’m guessing atleast that part is saved in the language files? I’m not looking into making anything special.

This is a great question. As a first step, I would head over to the string translation interface and search for the month names in ALL domains (not just the Events Calendar). Depending on your setup, the plugin might be looking for WordPress’s month translations.

Let me know how that goes.

Best regards,
Geoff B.

[Erik]

Hey Geoff, thanks for the tips!

I’m a bit hesitant to change from =lang? to /de, /dk etc – This wont screw with my settings in any way? I’m guessing I might need to change some links I might have created in the text – but if its no more than that, I’ll try it. Just hoping nothing will go wrong if I try it. If it fixes the links that’ll be awesome.

I have followed the steps in the guide, changing event name there for the languages I have.

However when I go to string translation to look for the month names – I can’t find a single one, not even the Swedish/English ones that work. In total I dont have any German/Danish strings in this view, and not a single string having anything to do with months/dates.

If I could find them somewhere I’d love to change them manually.

In short:
I’ll test out the function with switching WPML translation-method, just worried it’ll upset something.

No months/Date related strings in the String translation, on ALL domains. No German/Danish strings at all anywhere.

I’m a bit at a loss. Hmm.

[Geoff B.]

Good evening Erik,

Thank you for writing back.

I totally understand your hesitation. With that in mind, it is always recommend to do a complete database backup before attempting anything serious.

Aside from that, provided your .htaccess file is writeable (WPML will prompt you if it is not) and that you re-save your permalinks after the change, you should have a much smoother site in all sorts of ways.

As for the missing translations (month names), as stated before, they could be in a couple of places:

1. Your WordPress theme
2. Your WordPress language files

I would recommend reading the following and going through them:

1. https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/theme-localization/
2. https://wpml.org/forums/topic/translating-names-of-months-and-days/

In other words, you will have to make sure that you scan your theme for strings AND that the WordPress core language files for the translations of months in the desired languages is in place.

Let me know how that goes.

Best regards,
Geoff B.

[Erik]

Hey again, I’ve finally come around to testing these suggestions out – and it’s great – I’m (almost) reaching my desired result!

Danish and German language files were missing in my WordPress (which surprised me), so by downloading them from your files and adding them to the folder your links directed to worked. Check!

Switching from parameter(?lang=) to directory based (yoursite.com/de, yoursite.com/dk, etc..) worked with the links from the mini calendar. Is it always desired to change to directory based when setting up languages for new sites, maybe? This is the first time combining event calendar and languages.

I did have some problem after saving my permalinks, no pages on my site would show, however deactivating and reactivating WPML solved that. It has happened once before, so I knew that was somehow combined. If anyone else stumbles across that.

But – I have 1 problem still, that I can’t see the logic behind.

My german events is giving me a 404-page. It doesn’t matter if I go through the mini calendar, if I go to the event in another language and then switch to german, or – heck – if I go to the actual event in my admin and click “Show event”, it still gives me a 404-page! That’s crazy. In my head I haven’t done anything different between the german and the Swedish/English/Danish. The Danish and German were the ones without language files, so I added those – and the danish works fine now. Just the german can’t be seen, not even with the direct links from the admin section.

The URL is reasonable:
/de/tag/vorsaison/

Compare to English:
/en/day/pre-season/

You’ve helped alot, thanks for that. If I could understand what’s different with these events and why I’m getting a 404, I would be all set. Hope there is something I’ve missed that might be helpful.

[Geoff B.]

Good evening Erik,

I am glad you have made progress on your install.
Kudos on that!

Is it always desired to change to directory based when setting up languages for new sites, maybe?

In my opinion, the answer is yes.

Either that or using different domains for different languages (which WPML also lets you do).

The ?lang= approach is not bad per se, but it does not allow proper handling of more complex usage. Furthermore, it is pretty terrible SEO wise.

I did have some problem after saving my permalinks, no pages on my site would show, however deactivating and reactivating WPML solved that. It has happened once before, so I knew that was somehow combined. If anyone else stumbles across that.

Thank you for sharing. That is also partly caused by WPML’s recent addition of WPML cache.

Another way to fix this is to head over  to WPML > Support > debugging page.
There you will find several cleanup buttons to solve such issues if you ever bump into them.

As for your last issue, I believe this might be related to some recent issues we have experienced with the German language files.

At this point, I would like my colleague Andras to pitch in since he knows a lot about this specific topic. Hang in there as I do this for you.

Best regards,

Geoff B.

[Andras]

Hi Erik,

I did a quick test on a local install and so far it worked as expected.

I noticed in your system information, that both calendar plugins and WPML are also an earlier version. (And WordPress as well.) After backing up your site and database I would recommend to update these to the latest version, as this might be a bug that has been fixed since.

And another recommendation if I may, try to set up a development / staging site, that will make testing easier and less stressful. 🙂

I really love the site design! 🙂 Supercool!

Let us know if the updates solve the issue. If not, then we can dig further.

Cheers,
Andras

[Erik]

Hello again – Thanks for the tips! And pardon my slow reply.

Unfortunately updating WordPress and The Event Calendar didn’t change my problem with the german events. Clicking my way there from the Mini-Calendar, or from any of the other languages (English, Swedish, Danish) and switching while on the event page gives me a 404-page.

I had the previous mentioned problems with getting my German and Danish files to work, but was solved by downloading the language files for them. Could there be an issue with the German files I downloaded – or perhaps the problem you mention above is more general with the files.

The events are simple translations and the german version doesn’t differ in any way from the English/Danish versions of the Swedish ones, the URL seems reasonable to me.
Although even editing the event and clicking “View event” gives a 404-result.

It is somewhat comforting that you have experienced issues with german events previously, otherwise I would feel baffled.

Would any additional information be of assistance, or even administrator-rights/login?

[Geoff B.]

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