Global Attributes

Hello and thank you for contacting us.
At this page: https://wpml.org/documentation/related-projects/woocommerce-multilingual you can see manual for all operations that you can do with WooCommerce Multilingual, including the translation of the global attributes.
In short – you can create the global attribute and its terms, and then translate it from WooCommerce > WooCommerce Multilingual > Attributes > Select it from the dropdown and translate the terms.
Below that on the same page, you can translate the attribute name.
Once you translate to the other languages, when you go back to the page where you created the attribute terms – you will see the other languages populated and properly linked together.
Of course, you can do that manually too – but it is a long process.

I hope that this helps you and answers your question.

If you have more problems – you can always open a ticket in our forum at wpml.org where our support specialists could assist you.

Hi George
thanks for answering.
Unfortunately the procedure doesn’t work and I might presume this is because my default language is italian while, probably, woocommerce does work only in english.
and this for me is a little mess… as I created all the products in italian and then I translated them in english but when I create attribute in italian the english translation doesn’t work.
the work around we’ve found, which is the reason I’m saying it’s a mess, is to re-create by scratch all the products starting from english language and then translate them in italian: this is valid also for the attributes (create them in english and then translate in italian).

do you know if there is a bug or if there is a different solution?
ciao

This is a big problem when WordPress/Woocommerce default language is not English.

In your site you write: “WooCommerce Multilingual automatically creates and synchronizes product variations in all languages. After you create a variation in the default language, save the product (in the default language). WooCommerce Multilingual will immediately create the same variations for all translations of the product.”

This is only valid if the default language for Woocommerce and WordPress is English.

You must create products, global attributes and its terms, in english first, then translate in other languages.

But if my website default language is german, and I want to translate it in italian, your plugin doesn’t works.

If my default language is italian (and I have all my products created first in italian language), it is impossible to sincronyze variations in german or english or other language, so translating a product it is impossible.

Do you have a solution for this problem? Thanks.

I don’t think that I follow the problem that you have described.
You can create the Attribute and the term in whatever language you wish.
Once it is created you can translate the product via WooCommerce Multilingual translation editor and it will include the attribute term to be translated as well.
The attribute name is being registered as a string and can be translated from WooCommerce > WooCommerce Multilingual > Attributes – select the attribute name and scroll to the bottom.
If you have enabled the attribute base – then you can also translate the attribute slug from WooCommerce > WooCommerce Multilingual > Shop Pages > Attribute name

If you have any problem with that functionality then perhaps you are encountering an issue that we have not yet found or a misconfiguration.
In such cases, it is needed that we debug the issue more in-depth and access would be required. Because of that, we invite you to start a new ticket in our forum at wpml.org – because there you can share credentials securely, once it is enabled by the supporter that takes care of the ticket.

When you create an attribute and a term in different languages like italian o german, (and not in english), WPML think that this string is english, so, once created it is impossible to translate it correctly, the original string
is in the wrong language.

Another problem is this: if WPML think that the default language is always english, when I create attributes and terms, and a variable product in italian, it can sincronyze the attributes.

I can’t write in your support forum, my subscription is now finished and actually I don’t think to upgrade and pay 150€ only to solve this bug.

It’s really simple for you to test this case: Install WordPress and Woocommerce in the language you want (like italian – not in english), and try to translate a product with variation (created in the default language, italian) in another language, like english or other.
In english is possible but the terms displayed as english are in italian, and you can’t sincronyze variations: in other language, if you don’t need english, it is imposible.

This problem can appear also with other taxonomy! If you find a solution or a setting in the configuration to solve this issue, please tell me how to configure, but I think is all ok because all website is translated correctly.

Strings languages can be changed. Attribute terms can be created in any language and you just translate them to the other languages.
I tried the setup that you mentioned with English as a secondary language and I cannot reproduce the issue.
It might be that you are using an older version where there might be a bug, or perhaps you have another problem – related to the entries in your database – that I cannot reproduce.