Matecat Translator

Translate Pages, Posts and Custom Post Types with the free Matecat CAT/MT service (https://www.matecat.com), from inside the WordPress editor — Gutenberg, Elementor and Divi all supported, with a generic fallback for everything else (classic editor, other builders, etc.).

What this plugin does

1. Adds a "Matecat Translator" box to the edit screen of Posts, Pages and any Custom Post Type you enable (Settings > Matecat Translator).
2. For each target language you configure, a "Send to Matecat" button:
   • detects which builder produced the content (Elementor / Divi / Gutenberg / plain content),
   • extracts every piece of translatable text into numbered segments while keeping a "skeleton" of the original structure (blocks, Elementor JSON tree, Divi shortcodes...),
   • packages the segments into a small HTML file and uploads it to Matecat via their REST API (POST /new), where it becomes a normal Matecat project you (or your translators) can open, machine-translate and/or post-edit like any other Matecat job.
3. A "Check status" button (and an hourly WP-Cron job) polls Matecat (GET /status) for progress.
4. Once a job is DONE, "Import translation" (or the cron job, automatically) downloads the translated file (GET /url + the returned download link), re-inserts the translated text back into the original structure, and creates (or updates) a translated copy of the post — as a Draft by default, so you can review before publishing.

Before you start: you need a Matecat API key

Matecat's REST API requires an API key issued by Translated srl. Request one from support@matecat.com (mention you're integrating a WordPress plugin), or generate one yourself from your Matecat account's Profile page once logged in. See: https://guides.matecat.com/obtaining-api-credentials

Paste the key into Settings > Matecat Translator > API Key.

A note on the API base URL / field names: Matecat only publishes the full REST reference (https://www.matecat.com/api/docs) together with an issued key. This plugin ships with the base URL and field names documented publicly (POST /new with x-matecat-key header and multipart/form-data; project_name, source_lang, target_lang, files[]; GET /status, /stats, /url, /comment). If the reference you receive with your key shows different field names, everything Matecat-API-related lives in one file: includes/class-mt-api-client.php — that's the only place you'd need to adjust.

Setup

1. Upload and activate the plugin.
2. Go to Settings > Matecat Translator:
   • paste your API key
   • pick your site's source language
   • tick the target languages you want available
   • tick which post types (Posts, Pages, any CPT) should show the translator box
   • choose whether imported translations land as Draft, Pending or Published
3. Open any Post/Page/CPT of an enabled type. In the "Matecat Translator" box in the sidebar, click "Send to Matecat" next to a language.
4. Work the job in Matecat as usual (machine translation, post-editing, revision...).
5. Back in WordPress, click "Check status", then "Import translation" once it shows DONE — or just wait, the hourly cron job will import it for you automatically. A translated post is created/updated and linked to the original.

Builder support notes

• Gutenberg: parsed with parse_blocks()/serialize_blocks(), so block attributes/comments stay intact; only the human-readable text changes.
• Elementor: the _elementor_data JSON tree is walked recursively; a filterable allow-list of setting keys (title, editor, text, description, button_text, etc. — see matecat_translator_elementor_translatable_fields) decides which fields are translated. Add your own keys via that filter if a specific widget's field isn't picked up.
• Divi: post_content shortcode markup is tokenized and rebuilt; a filterable allow-list of attributes is translated (matecat_translator_divi_translatable_attrs), plus the text inside each module.
• Anything else (classic editor, other builders that store HTML in post_content): handled by the generic HTML text-node extractor, which should work for most third-party builders that ultimately render to post_content HTML.

Files

matecat-translator.php Plugin bootstrap includes/class-mt-api-client.php Matecat REST API wrapper (all HTTP calls) includes/class-mt-languages.php Language list includes/class-mt-content-extractor.php Shared extractor base class includes/class-mt-extractor-generic.php Fallback handler includes/class-mt-extractor-gutenberg.php Gutenberg handler includes/class-mt-extractor-elementor.php Elementor handler includes/class-mt-extractor-divi.php Divi handler includes/class-mt-post-translator.php Orchestrates send/check/import includes/class-mt-admin.php Settings page includes/class-mt-metabox.php Edit-screen translation box includes/class-mt-ajax.php AJAX endpoints for the box's buttons includes/class-mt-cron.php Hourly auto status-check + auto-import assets/js/admin.js, assets/css/admin.css uninstall.php