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Wordpress is awesome, but there is something that is driving me crazy.

Whenever a plugin or a theme is updated, all files are deleted and replaced. So if I have custom code or a translation in one plugin, it will get lost!

I've seen some solutions suggesting to change the textdomain of the plugin to load language files from wp-content/languages, but if I write a custom function to load the *.po and *.mo from wp-content, directly in the plugin code, it will get overwritten too.

So I was wondering how I can update my plugins, without losing the translation or the custom code.

I ended up with WPML strings that do the job, by saving translation in DB, ( I'm not sure if is the way) but WPML is a very heavy plugin, and I will have to install it in all sites, which makes it difficult to maintain.

Is there any function to overwrite all textdomains of a plugin, so I can have all of the translations in wp-content/languages, without changing plugin code?

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    As starting point, always backup the translations you do. Second, send them to the plugin/theme author, high probability of getting them included in the next releases. Related: [1] + [2] + [3].
    – brasofilo
    Feb 16, 2013 at 21:52
  • custom translation.
    – André
    Feb 17, 2013 at 1:20
  • some plugins like woocommerce are enabled to read wp-content/languages/woocommerce/ mo and po files default so translations won't be overwiten. Also since 3.5 translation of themes by default from wp-content, but plugins not yet. core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/18200#comment:43
    – André
    Feb 17, 2013 at 6:58
  • Would the core of your Question be: "How to prevent themes/plugins that don't work with /wp-content/languages to load their language files and force them to load my own files" ?
    – brasofilo
    Feb 17, 2013 at 7:09
  • well done! sure it is
    – André
    Feb 17, 2013 at 8:39

1 Answer 1

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Here is a patch for 3.5 to use this with plugins.
Use wp-content/languages/plugins/textdomain-pt_BR.po

Apply this via SSH with: patch -p1 < no_plugin_overwrite.patch
Hopefully its gonna be released in 3.6.

Ticket #18200 (new task (blessed))

Implement language packs for core, plugins, and themes.

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  • Eu sabia! André com acento no é ;) - Great to know this is a core candidate, I like this string in the patch: 'Some of your language files need updating, Sit tight for a few more seconds while we update them as well.'
    – brasofilo
    Feb 17, 2013 at 10:04

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