Translating additional Elementor widgets

Gato AI Translations for Polylang can translate widget-based Elementor pages.

The plugin ships with support for all Elementor and Elementor PRO widgets. For custom or 3rd-party widgets, you can extend translation support via PHP hooks.

​

Translating strings

To declare additional translatable properties on an Elementor widget, use the gatompl:elementor_widget_type_translatable_properties filter.

The filter receives a [widgetName => properties] map. The properties entry can hold:

• Flat control names — e.g. 'author_name'
• Dot-paths — e.g. 'author_avatar.alt' (translates to settings.author_avatar.alt)
• Repeater fields — declared as a sub-array [repeaterName => [...subFields]]

These are mixed freely, and nesting can go to any depth.

For instance, this hook makes:

• The flat control author_name and the dot-path author_avatar.alt translatable on the blockquote widget
• The repeater sub-field name translatable inside the slides repeater of the reviews widget

add_filter(
    'gatompl:elementor_widget_type_translatable_properties',
    static function (array $translatableProperties): array {
        $translatableProperties['blockquote'][] = 'author_name';
        $translatableProperties['blockquote'][] = 'author_avatar.alt';
        $translatableProperties['reviews']['slides'][] = 'name';
        return $translatableProperties;
    }
);Copy

The same filter works for both simple controls and repeater fields — there is no separate hook for repeaters.

​

Translating entity references

A property can store an entity ID (a post, taxonomy term, media item or menu) that should be remapped to the corresponding target-language entity at translation time. Use the matching filter:

The shape is the same as the translatable-properties filter — flat names, dot-paths or sub-arrays for repeaters.

// Custom post / media reference
add_filter(
    'gatompl:elementor_widget_type_custompost_and_media_reference_properties',
    static function (array $properties): array {
        $properties['featured-post'][] = 'post_id';
        $properties['gallery']['items'][] = 'image_id';
        return $properties;
    }
);
 
// Taxonomy term reference
add_filter(
    'gatompl:elementor_widget_type_taxonomy_term_reference_properties',
    static function (array $properties): array {
        $properties['related-category'][] = 'category_id';
        return $properties;
    }
);
 
// Menu reference by ID
add_filter(
    'gatompl:elementor_widget_type_menu_reference_by_id_properties',
    static function (array $properties): array {
        $properties['menu-picker'][] = 'menu_id';
        return $properties;
    }
);
 
// Menu reference by slug
add_filter(
    'gatompl:elementor_widget_type_menu_reference_by_slug_properties',
    static function (array $properties): array {
        $properties['menu-picker'][] = 'menu_slug';
        return $properties;
    }
);Copy

​

Discovering widget names and property names

Run the Translate custom posts GraphQL query and inspect the elementorData field in the response. Each widget exposes its widgetType and its settings tree — that's where you'll find the property names (including nested dot-paths and repeater fields) you need to pass to the hooks above.

See the Retrieving page builder data to translate guide for how to run that query.

​

Where to find examples

The plugin's own integrations are a useful reference. Explore this file inside the plugin you installed:

• wp-content/plugins/gato-ai-translations-for-polylang/src/ConditionalOnContext/LicenseIsActive/ConditionalOnModule/Elementor/Constants/WidgetTypes.php