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JPKCom Simple Lang — Guide & Tips

Display individual WordPress pages in a different language on a per-post basis with JPKCom Simple Lang — installation, language selection, hreflang, Oxygen conditions and practical tips.

JPKCom Simple Lang is a lightweight solution for displaying individual pages or posts in a language other than your site's default. Rather than a full multilingual plugin, it does exactly one job: overriding the WordPress locale per post in the frontend — including the <html lang=""> attribute, hreflang tags and Oxygen Builder conditions.

Guide

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.9 or newer
  • PHP 8.3 or newer (with strict typing)
  • At least one additional language pack installed (optional but recommended)
  • Multisite is supported (the plugin is network-enabled)

Installation

  1. Download the latest release ZIP from the GitHub Releases page.
  2. In your admin panel: Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP, Install Now, then Activate.

Alternatively upload the jpkcom-simple-lang folder via FTP to /wp-content/plugins/, or clone it for development:

cd /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/
git clone https://github.com/JPKCom/jpkcom-simple-lang.git

Install language packs

The selection dropdown only shows installed languages. Add more like this:

  1. Go to Settings → General and open the Site Language dropdown.
  2. Select the language you want (e.g. "Deutsch", "Français") and click Save Changes — WordPress downloads the language pack automatically (5–10 seconds).
  3. Optionally switch the default language back afterwards; the installed pack stays available.

An overview of all 200+ languages is available at translate.wordpress.org.

Usage

  1. Enable post types (optional): Under Settings → Simple Lang you decide which post types get a language selector. Posts and Pages are enabled by default.
  2. Select a language: When editing a post, a Frontend Language Select dropdown appears in the sidebar. Choose an installed language or keep the default.
  3. Link translations (optional): Use the Translation Links meta box to connect related posts in different languages. Links are bidirectional — link Post A to B and both link back; an entire translation group is wired together automatically.
  4. In the frontend: On view, WordPress switches to the selected language automatically. Interface strings (core, theme, plugins), the lang attribute and SEO meta tags (og:locale) are translated; linked posts emit <link rel="alternate" hreflang="XX"> tags in the <head>.

Important: Simple Lang does not translate your content. Titles, post body, custom fields and media captions stay exactly as you write them — writing content in the target language is up to you.

Tips & Tricks

  • Pick the right tool: Simple Lang targets occasional pages in a secondary language (landing pages, docs, legal pages, client presentations). If you need full site translations, language switchers or translation workflows, WPML or Polylang are the better fit.
  • Hreflang with no configuration: Linked, published posts get self-referencing hreflang tags, sorted deterministically by language code and emitted early in the <head> (before most SEO plugins). x-default is not included currently.
  • Locale format: Both short (ar) and full locales (de_DE) are accepted — relevant for languages without a country code.
  • Oxygen Builder conditions: With Oxygen installed, three conditions are available: "Post Language Is" (a specific language), "Post Has Custom Language" (any custom language set) and "Post Uses Default Language" (site default). Use them to show or hide elements per language.
  • Helper functions for developers: jpkcom_simplelang_get_post_language( $post_id ) returns the set locale (or null), jpkcom_simplelang_get_current_language() the active frontend language, and jpkcom_simplelang_get_language_code( 'de_DE' ) the bare language code (de) for the lang attribute.
  • Template overrides: Plugin files can be overridden in the child theme ({child-theme}/jpkcom-simple-lang/{file}), parent theme or in MU plugins ({WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR}/jpkcom-simple-lang-overrides/{file}). Extend the search paths via the jpkcom_simplelang_file_paths filter.
  • REST API & data: The language is stored as post meta under the key _jpkcom_simplelang_language and is reachable via the REST API when configured. There is no bulk assignment — use update_post_meta() with the same key for that.
  • Deactivation is safe: After disabling, posts simply display in the default language; the meta data remains and applies immediately if you reactivate.
  • Performance: One meta query per post, a single locale switch per request, no extra tables, no frontend JS/CSS.
  • Updates & security: The plugin updates securely via GitHub with SHA256 checksum verification; a preferred match against the manifest's download_url prevents a tampered manifest from bypassing the checksum gate.

Further reading