Overview
Sensei is compatible with WPML and is our recommended multilingual plugin. WPML stands for WordPress Multilingual, and it is a plugin that site owners can use to create sites in more than one language.
This page explains how to create a multilingual course with WPML.
You can translate your content yourself in the WPML translation editor, or let WPML translate it automatically. Automatic translation uses credits, which may involve an additional cost depending on your WPML plan. This guide covers translating the content yourself.
Getting Started
Start by installing and activating the WPML plugin:
- Please ensure you follow the setup steps and activate your license.
- We assume that you’ve installed the following WPML plugins:
Configure WPML
In this tutorial, we’ll assume that we’ve already created a course and some lessons in English, and we want to translate them to Spanish.
- After installing WPML, click the Configure WPML button.
- In the first step of the setup wizard, choose the language your existing content is written in as the Default language, select the rest of the languages you would like to translate your content into in Translation languages, and click Continue.
- Select the URL format you want for your URLs and click Continue.
- Continue through the rest of the wizard: register WPML with your site key, answer the questions it asks about your site and how you plan to translate it, and install the add-ons it offers. None of these steps are specific to Sensei, and you can change all of them later from WPML → Settings. Make sure String Translation is installed, as you need it to translate the More link text from the Sensei LMS settings.
- The wizard confirms your site is multilingual when it finishes.
Your visitors need a language switcher to move between languages. Depending on your theme, WPML may have added one for you already, so take a look at your site first. If there is none, or you would like it somewhere else, WPML explains the available options.
Translate Pages
Translate the following Sensei pages:
- Courses
- My Courses (please refer to the My Courses Page section below)
- Course Completed
Create Question Categories
If you would like to have reusable question categories, create them in advance and add them to the quizzes before translating the course:
- Go to Sensei LMS -> Questions -> Question Categories.
- Create a new question category.
- Go to Sensei LMS -> Questions.
- Create questions and attach them to the category you created in step 2.
Create a Course
Create a course as you normally would:
- Add a Course Outline block with lessons.
- Add content to those lessons.
- Add quizzes with questions to the lesson.
- If you have question categories, add them to the quizzes as well.
Translate the Course
Next, follow these steps to translate the course:
- Go to Sensei LMS > Courses and find the course you would like to translate.
- Click on the plus icon in the translation column for the language you want to translate into.
- Translate the strings using the WPML translation editor.
- When you return from the WPML editor, you will see a circle arrow icon appear in place of the plus icon. It means the translation process is in progress.
- When the pencil icon appears, the translation process has finished and the following actions were taken:
- It created a translated version of the course post.
- It also created post duplicates for lessons, quizzes and questions. The content of these posts remain in the original language and ready for translation. However, this process depends on the presence of a quiz in a lesson.
- Now go to Sensei LMS > Lessons. Use the WPML translation editor to translate the lesson:
- Find the original lesson and click on the pencil icon for the language you want to translate into.
- If the lesson has a quiz, its questions are translated along with the lesson. Questions that come from a question category are the exception, and you translate those in the next step.
- Go to Sensei LMS > Questions and translate the questions.
- Find the original question and click on the pencil icon for the target translation language.
- Use the WPML editor to translate all strings.
Updating a translated course
If you add, remove or reorder lessons in the original course, the pencil icon in the translation column of Sensei LMS > Courses changes to an update icon. Click it to open the course in the WPML translation editor again and complete the translation. Sensei then applies the changes to the translated course. New lessons are copied to it, ready for translation. Removed lessons are detached from it (they aren’t deleted). The lesson order, including the order inside modules, is copied over.
Disable Sensei Slugs Translation
If you translated a course, but you get a 404 page when you try to open the course on the frontend, you need to disable translating Sensei slugs:
- Go to Sensei LMS > Settings > WPML. This tab is visible only when WPML is activated on your website.
- Check the Don’t translate Sensei slugs option and click “Save Changes”.
- Try to open the translated course again.
Student Progress and Grading
Student progress is shared across all translations of a course, so a student can switch languages mid-course without losing where they were. You can also grade a quiz from any language.
My Courses Page
In the latest versions of Sensei LMS, the Course List block is used to display user courses. However, given this block is not yet compatible with WPML, you will need to replace it with a shortcode.
Create a translation of the page and replace its content with the [sensei_user_courses] shortcode.
Troubleshooting
If you followed this document but are still experiencing issues with course translation, try the following steps:
- Check WPML -> Settings -> Translation Editor and ensure that the Advanced Translation Editor option is selected.
- If you have any other plugins besides Sensei LMS and WPML activated, try disabling them in order to check for a plugin conflict.