I create a plugin just for testing

/**
 * @package SurveyPlugin
 * @version 1.0
 */
/*
Plugin Name: Survey Plugin
Plugin URI: http:marcogomesweb
Description: This is survey
Author: NodeLondon
Version: 1.0
License: GPLv2 or later
Text Domain: survey-plugin
*/

function get_dummy_text() {
    $text = [
        __( 'city hotels' , 'survey-plugin' )
    ];
    return $text[0];
}

add_action('admin_notices', 'show_dummy_text');

function show_dummy_text(){
    $text = get_dummy_text();
    global $locale;
    echo "<br>". $locale . "<br>";
    echo "<p id='wp-admin-motivation'>$text</p>";
}


add_action( 'plugins_loaded', 'wan_loaded_textdomain');


function wan_loaded_textdomain(){

     $loadfiles = load_plugin_textdomain('survey-plugin', false, 
     dirname( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ) . '/languages/' );

     plugin_basename( __FILE__ ). '/languages/' );



     var_dump($loadfiles); // is always false


}

I install Poedit I create a .mo file survey-plugi-es_ES.mo in /plugins/survey-plugin/languages/

survey-plugi-es_ES.mo

msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: Survey Plugin\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2019-03-15 14:16+0000\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 2019-03-15 14:16+0000\n"
"Language-Team: Marcogomesr\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"X-Generator: Poedit 2.2.1\n"
"X-Poedit-Basepath: ..\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);\n"
"X-Poedit-KeywordsList: __\n"
"Last-Translator: \n"
"Language: es\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPath-0: .\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPath-1: survey-plugin.php\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPathExcluded-0: src\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPathExcluded-1: dist\n"

#: survey-plugin.php:79
msgid "city hotels"
msgstr "ciudad"

and this is what echo out

after changing the languages in the settings / site languages still showing the same,

I'm following this tutorial but still having no idea why

I create a plugin just for testing

/**
 * @package SurveyPlugin
 * @version 1.0
 */
/*
Plugin Name: Survey Plugin
Plugin URI: http:marcogomesweb
Description: This is survey
Author: NodeLondon
Version: 1.0
License: GPLv2 or later
Text Domain: survey-plugin
*/

function get_dummy_text() {
    $text = [
        __( 'city hotels' , 'survey-plugin' )
    ];
    return $text[0];
}

add_action('admin_notices', 'show_dummy_text');

function show_dummy_text(){
    $text = get_dummy_text();
    global $locale;
    echo "<br>". $locale . "<br>";
    echo "<p id='wp-admin-motivation'>$text</p>";
}


add_action( 'plugins_loaded', 'wan_loaded_textdomain');


function wan_loaded_textdomain(){

     $loadfiles = load_plugin_textdomain('survey-plugin', false, 
     dirname( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ) . '/languages/' );

     plugin_basename( __FILE__ ). '/languages/' );



     var_dump($loadfiles); // is always false


}

I install Poedit I create a .mo file survey-plugi-es_ES.mo in /plugins/survey-plugin/languages/

survey-plugi-es_ES.mo

msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: Survey Plugin\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2019-03-15 14:16+0000\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 2019-03-15 14:16+0000\n"
"Language-Team: Marcogomesr\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"X-Generator: Poedit 2.2.1\n"
"X-Poedit-Basepath: ..\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);\n"
"X-Poedit-KeywordsList: __\n"
"Last-Translator: \n"
"Language: es\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPath-0: .\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPath-1: survey-plugin.php\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPathExcluded-0: src\n"
"X-Poedit-SearchPathExcluded-1: dist\n"

#: survey-plugin.php:79
msgid "city hotels"
msgstr "ciudad"

and this is what echo out

after changing the languages in the settings / site languages still showing the same,

I'm following this tutorial but still having no idea why

• translation

1 Answer 1

(Revised answer)

The simple answer is because WordPress could not find the MO file, despite the file itself exists (in the plugin's languages directory).

And here's why: The MO file needs to be named following this format: {text-domain}-{locale}.mo, and {text-domain}-{locale}.po for the PO file. See Loading Text Domain for further information.

So you're trying to load the MO file for the survey-plugin domain:

load_plugin_textdomain( 'survey-plugin', false, dirname( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ) . '/languages/' )

Hence for the es_ES locale (Español),

• The MO file name has to be survey-plugin-es_ES.mo.

• The PO file name has to be survey-plugin-es_ES.po.

And I think you may not be aware that the POT (translation template) file needs be named like so: {text-domain}.pot? E.g. survey-plugin.pot in your case.

Or was the survey-plugi just a typo? :)

But even if so, I hope this answer helps (other developers/readers).