Polylang: How to translate custom strings?

Question

My problem: I'm translating my website using Polylang but I'm having a hard time with custom strings translation. The strings won't show up in the "Strings translation" menu in the WP dashboard.

Important: I don't know much about PHP so the pll_register_string function is very confusing for me.

Quoted from the Polylang doc:

https://polylang.wordpress.com/documentation/documentation-for-developers/functions-reference/

pll_register_string

Allows plugins to add their own strings in the “strings translation” panel. The function must be called on admin side (the functions.php file is OK for themes). It is possible to register empty strings (for example when they come from options) but they won’t appear in the list table.

Usage:

pll_register_string($name, $string, $group, $multiline); ‘$name’ => (required) name provided for sorting convenience (ex: ‘myplugin’) ‘$string’ => (required) the string to translate ‘$group’ => (optional) the group in which the string is registered, defaults to ‘polylang’ ‘$multiline’ => (optional) if set to true, the translation text field will be multiline, defaults to false

pll__

translates a string previously registered with pll_register_string Usage:

pll__($string); The unique parameter is required:

‘$string’ => the string to translate returns the translated string.

pll_e

Echoes a translated string previously registered with pll_register_string Usage:

pll_e($string); The unique parameter is required:

‘$string’ => the string to transla

Best regards

Answer 1

You must first register all these strings for translation.

For example you echo "Hello world" in some template file like this:

<?php pll_e('Hello world'); ?>

To show string in the "Strings translation" add in your functions.php:

add_action('init', function() {
  pll_register_string('mytheme-hello', 'Hello world');
});

Add all custom strings you want to translate to this function.