Scan and e-mail report language

  • frzsombor

    (@frzsombor)


    6 months, 3 weeks ago

    We don’t only build English sites, many are in other languages, where the site’s default language (in WP settings) is set to the “target-audience” language. But our developer admin accounts are always set to English. If I start a manual scan on these sites with a developer user (set to English), the Wordfence scan log still uses the site’s default language.

    We use several types of automation that monitor Wordfence email reports and logs, and it feels like all scan logs and email alerts used to come in English. Now they’re mixed: some are in English, others are in the site’s default language. I’m not completely sure, but it seems this changed in one of the recent updates. Is that possible?

    It makes sense if Wordfence uses the site’s default language for automatically triggered background scans and emails, but it would be really useful to control this with an option or at least a hook. I could imagine a setting in Wordfence to override the WP default language, or even just a hook, then we would include that hook in all our child themes to force Wordfence to use English, so logs and emails are consistent. Is there any way to do this or is it possible for you to implement something supporting this?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Support wfpeter

    (@wfpeter)

    6 months, 3 weeks ago

    Hi @frzsombor, thanks for your report of this.

    I haven’t seen anything along these lines mentioned recently but in v7.11.2 (February 2024) we addressed the following: Fix: Fixed an issue where user profiles with a selected locale different from the site itself could end up loading the site’s locale instead. Whilst your issue isn’t exactly the same, results seem to be mixed between the user’s chosen language and the site’s language for logs, so a script could be loading out of the expected order.

    It’d be great if you could provide us with a diagnostic report from one of the sites showing this behavior as the other installed plugins could help us narrow it down. You can send that to wftest @ wordfence . com by finding the link at the top of the Wordfence > Tools > Diagnostics page. Then click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.

    NOTE: It should look as follows – Screenshot of Tools > Diagnostic > Send by Email

    Many thanks,
    Peter.

    Thread Starter frzsombor

    (@frzsombor)

    6 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hi @wfpeter, thanks for your response!

    I’ve sent you two reports from two websites.

    First site [ maindomain(.)tld ]:
    WordPress language setting: Hungarian
    Administrator user (and /wp-admin/*) language: English
    Wordfence “Problems found” emails language: English
    Wordfence “Admin Login” emails language: English (Logged in user language: English)
    Wordfence scan log language: Hungarian

    Second site [ subdomain(.)maindomain(.)tld ]:
    WordPress language setting: Hungarian
    Administrator user (and /wp-admin/*) language: English
    Wordfence “Problems found” emails language: English
    Wordfence “Admin Login” emails language: Hungarian (Logged in user language: English)
    Wordfence scan log language: Hungarian

    It would be really helpful if you could implement a config or a hook where we could force a language for everything Wordfence related: all alert emails and scan log language.

    Thanks!

    Plugin Support wfpeter

    (@wfpeter)

    6 months, 1 week ago

    Thank-you for the detailed extra information and sending your diagnostics @frzsombor.

    We noticed the Hungarian translations for Wordfence have had a lot of translations added in the last month or so. That is likely the reason for the recent change in behavior, as the logs would be in English if no community translation existed for them before.

    We do have an option on the Diagnostics page to disable translations entirely, defaulting everything from Wordfence to English, but that applies to user-facing errors as well so it may not be ideal in your case.

    The scan runs without being logged in as a user, so the site’s default language would be taken rather than a specific user’s language. Scan log messages are stored, and not translated again while being viewed. We have noted this as a potential area of development although identifying and converting every admin-only string would be a large undertaking so we’re unable to guarantee a release or timescale here.

    Thanks again,
    Peter. 

    Thread Starter frzsombor

    (@frzsombor)

    6 months, 1 week ago

    We noticed the Hungarian translations for Wordfence have had a lot of translations added in the last month or so.

    Ohh, it’s so obvious and I didn’t even think about that.

    We do have an option on the Diagnostics page to disable translations entirely, defaulting everything from Wordfence to English, but that applies to user-facing errors as well so it may not be ideal in your case.

    Sounds interesting, thanks for the information! I will definitely try this. One more question: what user-facing errors are you referring to? Like the “locked out” or “potentially unsafe operation” or “access to this site has been limited” errors? If so, that’s completely okay for me – I’ve never experienced that a real, valid, human visitor ever seen these screens on our websites.

    The scan runs without being logged in as a user, so the site’s default language would be taken rather than a specific user’s language.

    That’s completely understandable. I think if disabling translations in the Tools -> Diagnostics -> Debugging Options affects automated scan logs too, meaning that when we disable translations, the logs will be generated and stored in English (without translations), we are all set!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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