How to solve a translation function issue with no arguments and missing a text-domain?

Question

I have a warning via WordPress Themecheck plugin WARNING : Found a translation function that is missing a text-domain. Function esc_html__, with the arguments

As you can see, there is no arguments listed above and I'm really lost on this.

Here's the code function:

<?php 

    wp_nonce_field( basename( __FILE__ ), 'matilda_featured_image_nonce' );

    $selected = esc_html__( get_post_meta( $object->ID, 'matilda_featured_image', true ) );

?>

My text domain is "matilda"

Thanks for any suggestion.

Answer 1

Seems like the right thing to do there is to call esc_html instead of esc_html__. I have a feeling you don't need any escaping there at all.

Answer 2

If you want to add the textdomain to your esc_html__() function, do it like this:

$selected = esc_html__( get_post_meta( $object->ID, 'matilda_featured_image', true ), 'matilda' );

So far so good, but this is a complicated matter, as you pass a variable to your translation function.

Be sure to have a limited set of possible data for this field, and have those strings somewhere in your theme. For example, if you have a <select> in a metabox, you could do it like that:

<select name="matilda_featured_image">
    <option value="<?php _e( 'valueone', 'matilda' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'valueone', 'matilda' ); ?></option>
    <option value="<?php _e( 'valuetwo', 'matilda' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'valuetwo', 'matilda' ); ?></option>
</select>

This way you ensure that all the possible values are registered in your translation.

As @MarkKaplun pointed out, you may not need translation in your case whatsoever :)