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Hijacking WordPress Internationalisation

Paul Gibbs — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:27:20 +0000

As part of a new feature I am developing for the next release of my Welcome Pack plugin for BuddyPress, I needed a really smart way of dynamically adding my own translations for strings at page-load time; creating a stand-alone .mo file to load the strings wasn’t a great solution, for reasons of requiring people to know how to configure file permissions on the server, having to figure out how to write a .mo file (I wish they were as easy as XML, but they aren’t), and — honestly — doing it that way feels like such a hack.

Here’s how. Be warned that this will overwrite any translation loaded by a .mo file, but that’s exactly what I needed to do.

To add a new string into the localisation table:

function example() {
global $l10n;

$mo = new MO();
$mo->add_entry( array( 'singular' => 'Spongebob', 'translations' => array( 'Squarepants' ) ) );
if ( isset( $l10n['buddypress'] ) )  //buddypress is the textdomain
$mo->merge_with( $l10n['buddypress'] );

$l10n['buddypress'] = &$mo;
}

_e( 'Spongebob', 'buddypress' );  // This will return "Squarepants".

To change an existing string:

function example() {
global $l10n;

if ( isset( $l10n['buddypress'] ) && isset( $l10n['buddypress']->entries['%s posted an update:'] ) )
$l10n['buddypress']->entries['%s posted an update:']->translations[0] = '%s posted a monkey:';
}

Post a comment if you use this technique for anything interesting

How to get a list of BuddyPress' actions.

Paul Gibbs — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:39:53 +0000

As part of research for a new version of my Achievements plugin for BuddyPress, I need a list of all the BuddyPress action names.

For non-developers, actions are the hooks that WordPress & BuddyPress launches at specific points during execution, or when specific events occur. This allows plugin developers to hook into these events and do whatever they want.

It took me a while, but here’s how you can use the terminal (on Mac or Linux) to find all BuddyPress’ actions.

grep -r -h "do_action( '[aA0-zZ9+]*' )" . | awk -F "['']" '{print $2}' | uniq

Six Little Habits: The Bad Ones.

Paul Gibbs — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:05:48 +0000

Over at sixuntilme, Kerri’s listed six of her diabetes “bad habits.” I thought I’d share mine; I can’t do six, but here’s four:

Not changing finger-stabber needle

I’m not quite leaving these until they are rusty, but not far from it! I have recently switch to using the Accu-Chek Multiclix, which has a drum of stabbers in which you rotate around after use. I’m not changing the drum daily – more like twice a week – but I’m working on it.

Autopilot basal rates

Since starting the pump about a year or so ago, it’s changed my life; it’s wonderful. However, there are times when I know I need to do a period of intensive testing so I can assess and make changes to basal rates. In fact, I need to do that right now, but it feels too much like work so I keep putting it off. Maybe later this week!

Selective memory for glucose trends

It has been known that when I visit my diabetes care team, I get very guilty and start making up all sorts of crazy excuses when they point out the very obvious which I’ve somehow missed. Probably linked to point 2 above. I ought to put some time aside every couple of weeks to adjust the basals.

Bolus-Stacking

Same as Kerri. For an explanation for those not in the know, see this post of Kerri’s from 2005.