Warning: Loco requires the “mbstring” PHP extension. Ask your hosting provider t

Is this a new feature added in one of the latest updates?

Off the top of my head – Over a year ago. I think the warning was added in 2.0, although it was always required.

Is adding this extension will fix the plugin?

It will fix the warning that says you need the extension. What else needs fixing?

The Plugin was working fine in version 1.5.5 without that extension.
Now where I updated I have the working the plugin doesn’t work at all. Adding the extension to the PHP will make the plugin work again?

I just want to make sure that’s the only problem before I tell the client to add the extension.

Now where I updated I have the working the plugin doesn’t work at all.

In what way does it not work?

Adding the extension to the PHP will make the plugin work again?

Adding the extension will remove the warning and ensure that multi-byte strings are handled properly. You’ve not indicated whether that is the problem that needs fixing, or whether you have some other problem that may be completely unrelated.

I just want to make sure that’s the only problem …

You’ve upgraded from a very old version of the plugin. It may have been “working fine” but that may have been by luck. There were many changes in version 2.0. All for the better, but some things may need configuring that previously operated on guess work.

… before I tell the client to add the extension.

It should be added regardless. It’s an essential PHP extension and is one of Loco Translate’s minimum system requirements. I can’t think of a good reason to not add it.

Well, I click on “loco translate” and see link to the site’s theme.

I click it and see a blank page. I can’t continue from there.

If I click on “themes” from the right menu, again I see a link to the theme. When I click it – again, blank page.

If I try “plugins” – I see list of plugins. If I choose a plugin that doesn’t have language files yet, then I can create a file. If I choose a plugin that already have language files then – again blank page.

If I click “wordpress” – blank page.

“Settings” works.

Now I tried creating a language file for a plugin that doesn’t have them yet. Got till “create template” and again – blank page.

On my local machine, plugin works fine.

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by yaelopentech.

Blank screen probably means you have a fatal error. I can’t guess what it is, so please post error messages.

Ok, I’ve got an error message:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_detect_encoding() in /var/www/html/dev/wp-content/plugins/loco-translate/lib/compiled/gettext.php on line 5

So is it that missing php extension?

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by yaelopentech.

Yes. mb_detect_encoding belongs to the mbstring extension.

Thank you very much.

Great plugin, BTW!