Polylang Multilingual WordPress Forms with Formidable

Create bilingual or multilingual forms with help from Polylang. Polylang is a free WordPress translation plugin that many rave about.

It’s easy to use the same form in multiple languages while keeping all your collected data in one place. Get started with Formidable Forms today!

Translate your forms into multiple languages using Polylang and the Formidable Polylang add-on.

Download and Install#

1. Install the Polylang plugin.
2. If you haven’t already done so, install and activate Formidable Forms Pro.
3. In your WordPress admin, go to Formidable → Add-Ons and click the Install button for the Formidable Polylang add-on.

Translate a Form#

After the Polylang plugin and the Formidable Polylang add-on are activated, you may follow the steps below to translate your forms.

1. Go into the form that you would like to translate.
2. For best results, add separate saved values that are different than your option labels for any checkbox, radio or dropdown fields.
3. Click on the Translate Form button under your form Settings → General page.
   
4. Enter your translations and click the Save Changes button.
   
5. Publish your form on a page and use Polylang to translate into any other languages you would like.
   

Sending Translated Emails#

In order to send the email for the correct language, you’ll set up multiple emails. Each of these emails will be sent conditionally, based on the language submitted.

1. First, you’ll need a shortcode to get the current language. Add this to your theme functions.php or inside the WPCode plugin.

   add_shortcode('get_current_language', 'polylang_get_lang');
   function polylang_get_lang() {
     return pll_current_language('slug');
   }

2. Now add a hidden field to your form. Use [get_current_language] for the default value.
3. Add one email action for each language on your Form Actions page. Set them up however you’d like.
4. In order to prevent every email from sending, add conditional logic to each one. The logic will look like this:
   

Translate a value for display#

You may want to translate a value before display. If you have already translated field labels and options, there is no need to translate them again. In a view, you can use [translate_value value=”[25]”] or [translate_value value=”[25 show=field_label]”]. Be sure to add the following code to your site.

add_shortcode( 'translate_value', 'trans_val_func' );
function trans_val_func( $atts, $content = '' ) {
  $atts = shortcode_atts( array( 'value' => '' ), $atts );
  $value = pll__( $atts['value'] );
  return $value;
}

Import and export translations#

Formidable doesn’t manage the translations when importing/exporting forms. You can import and export string translations directly in Polylang.

Additional customizations#

Translate error message#

Use this code example to translate the “The username field is empty” error message when Polylang is active and not set to English. It uses a custom function get_custom_login_message that returns a French translation.

add_filter('frmreg_login_error', 'translate_pll_login_error');
   function translate_pll_login_error( $message ) {
      if ( ! function_exists( 'pll_current_language' ) ) {
         return $message;
         }

         if ( 'The username field is empty.' === $message ) {
            $current_language = pll_current_language();
            if ( 'en' !== $current_language ) {
               $custom_message = get_custom_login_message( $current_language );
               if ( false !== $custom_message ) {
                  $message = $custom_message;
               }
            }
         }

         return $message;
   }

   function get_custom_login_message( $language ) {
      switch ( $language ) {
         case 'fr': return "Le champ du nom d'utilisateur est vide.";
      }
 
      return false;
   }

Troubleshooting#

Many issues with translations can be resolved by making sure to set different saved values for option fields like checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdowns. Learn more about adding separate saved values.