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Creating Multilingual Forms Using Ninja Forms and WPML

Dario
Updated
October 7, 2022

Ninja Forms is an intuitive drag-and-drop form builder for WordPress. Learn how to use WPML to create multilingual forms using Ninja Forms.

Form in the default language

Translated form

On This Page

Getting Started

Start by installing and activating the following:

If you’re new to WPML, check out our Getting Started Guide. It quickly walks you through all the translation options you can use.

One of these options is Translate Everything – the quickest way to translate and the easiest way to keep your content up to date. This feature automatically translates pages, posts, custom post types, custom fields, taxonomies, WooCommerce products, and more as you add and edit content.

Using Translate Everything with Ninja Forms will speed up the workflow of translating your forms.

Creating and Translating Your Forms

These are the main steps to follow for translating your forms:

  1. Create the form in the default language.
  2. Translate the form.
  3. Insert a Ninja Forms block into a post, page, or widget and select the form you want to use from the dropdown.
  4. Translate the post, page, or widget that holds the form.

Creating the Default Language Form

To create the default language form, go to Ninja Forms → Add New. In this example, we will use the “Contact Us” form template. Of course, you can use a blank template and build your form from scratch.

Creating the default language form

Translating the Form

To translate your form go to the WPML → Translation Management page and follow these steps:

  1. In the Select items for translation section, select Ninja Forms from the Element type drop-down menu then click the Filter button.
  2. Use the checkboxes to select the forms that you want to translate.
  3. In the Select translation options section, choose the Translate option corresponding to the language(s) you want to translate your forms into.
  4. Click the Translate selected content button. If you’re not the only translator in the site, this button is called Add selected content to translation basket. In this case, after clicking it, go to the Translation Basket tab, select the translator and send the basket for translation.
Sending the form for translation
  1. Now, go to WPML → Translations and click the Translate button for the job related to your Ninja form. If you’re not the only translator in the site, this button is called Take and translate.
Starting the Ninja form translation

You’re taken to the Advanced Translation Editor where you can translate your form. You can use the built-in automatic translation for quick and easy translation.

For the time being, you can’t set your secondary language forms to have a different date format for the date field nor a different currency.

Inserting the Form Into the Page or Post

After creating and translating your form it is time to add it to a page, post, or widget. In our example, we created a new page in English and used the Ninja Forms block to add our form.

Inserting your form to the default language page

Translating Pages and Posts that Include Forms

Finally, translate the page, post, or widget that includes your form. You can do this by clicking the plus icon corresponding to the language you want to translate your page into in the Language box.

Translating the page that holds the form

Updating Form Translations

If you change the form in the default language you need to update its translations as well.

To update the translation of a form, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to WPML → Translations.
  2. Translation status shows that the form translation needs updating. Click the Edit button in the form’s row.
Updating the translation for the Ninja form that was changed in the default language

Adding a Redirect for Translated Forms

Ninja Forms allows you to add a redirect to a specific page on your site after a site visitor submits a form. For this redirect to work in all your site’s languages, first translate the page you want to redirect to. Then follow these steps:

  1. Edit your Ninja form.
  2. Go to Email & Actions and add or edit the redirect.
  3. In the URL field, add {wp:site_url} followed by the slug of the page you want to redirect to.
Adding a redirect

Don’t forget to translate the page you want to redirect to. Once you’ve done this, the form will automatically redirect to the page in the correct language.

Known Issues

WPML works fine with this plugin, but sometimes there could be minor issues we're working on. This is expected as both plugins provide frequent updates.

Current unresolved issues:

You can also search all known issues including previously resolved issues for this plugin.

Getting Help From Our Support

We have supporters in our forum who are ready six days a week to help you. They are trained in how to use WPML with Ninja Forms.

If you are setting up the site and WPML yourself, please use our Technical support forum.