Transforming a theme or plugin to handle several languages is something that can increase the reach of your code manifold, by encouraging the usage of local versions.

The process is extremely well documented on Urban Giraffe’s post (the post is four pages long, check the navigation at the bottom of the post) which includes mostly everything, from the GNU gettext usage on WordPress, to configuring and generating .pot files. Highly recommended reading, together with Ryan’s post, a shorter overview of the process.

At some point, after having inserted all the proper function calls, you will want to test your theme or plugin for localization. This is where the newly released Pig Latin plugin comes in handy: It will allow you to check if all the strings in your plugin or theme are translatable by translating all messages to Pig Latin. For example, if your code is correct, the string “Edit Pages” should appear as “Editay agesPay“. In short, it aims to show text both noticeably different than English and readable. This way you can spot strings, which aren’t translatable, while the interface is stil usable.

Be aware that everything that’s translatable in your WordPress installation will show up as Pig Latin, including the dashboard.

Most WordPress.com users are aware that there is a local homepage for their language. Most also know about the official WordPress.com blog.

Did you know that the blog is now, not only being translated, but complemented with local content? The inaugural blogs are in Japanese and Portuguese with soon more languages to follow. If your are a speaker of either language, be sure to go say hello and comment on what’s being said.

photo by Cláudia Regina

Brazil had it’s first WordCamp on the 21st of June and I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the event (my talk was about BuddyPress, and the slides are available in portuguese here).

Thanks to the effort of many volunteers, and particularly Cátia Kitahara and Leo Germani, of the Brazilian WordPress Community, the event was a success in bringing together and connecting a whole crowd of brazilian WordPress developers and users, most of whom, up until that day had never met in person.

Funarte in São Paulo welcomed a series of speakers, who talked about and discussed subjects such as WordPress for Designers, Blog Promotion, Hacker Ethics, SEO for WordPress, and case studies of Education Portals, Social Media and the Ministry of Culture (a notable, government sanctioned, WordPress installation and plugin developer). The mood was great and everybody appreciated Matt’s keynote, a “tropical” version of State Of The Word, as presented on WordCamp San Francisco 2009.

Despite the fact that the organizers are developers or designers, not event producers, everything ran smoothly, from registration, the gorgeous t-shirts to the closing session, in which a giant mindmap was created with the collaboration of all participants. So much so, that mere days after the event, they are already planning WordCamp Brazil 2010.

Congratulations everyone. I really enjoyed the event, but what made it really special was the way we were welcomed.

Here are some links:

• #wordcamp-br hashtag on twitter

• Giant mindmap video, by Marcio Okabe

• Speaking at WordCamp, by Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips
• WordCamp Brasil 2009, by Henrique Cintra (in portuguese)
• Tudo o que não dás, perde-se, by Ana Claudia (in portuguese)
• Marcelo Costa’s text (in portuguese)
• WordCamp, by iCaju (in portuguese)
• Cerejuda’s text and pictures (in portuguese)

• Picasa Pictures Album, by Ana Claudia
• Rogério’s Flickr;
• Pedro Germani’s Flickr;
• WordCamp Setup, on my own Flickr
• WordCamp Day, on my own Flickr
• Marcelo Costa’s Flickr;
• Hostnet’s (a sponsor) Flickr;
• Cláudia Regina’s Flickr
• Felipe S. Gomes’ text (in portuguese)