Why is setlocale() returning false on WPEngine?

The issue with setlocale() is not the function itself. It is that WPEngine only has English language locales installed (the complete list is below) and cannot realistically install any other locales. Because I needed to just print some Spanish language dates (not change the entire WordPress installation to Spanish), I wound up creating an array of the date strings in question and writing a function that parses them if necessary (or sends the result to strftime()):

The array is here:

https://gist.github.com/murdaugh/6734488

The function is here (it gets called just like strftime()):

https://gist.github.com/murdaugh/6735164

And this is the complete list of WPEngine Locales:

en_AG
en_AU.utf8
en_BW.utf8
en_CA.utf8
en_DK.utf8
en_GB.utf8
en_HK.utf8
en_IE.utf8
en_IN
en_NG
en_NZ.utf8
en_PH.utf8
en_SG.utf8
en_US.utf8
en_ZA.utf8
en_ZW.utf8

Related Posts:

  1. What is the difference between the .po .mo and .pot localization files?
  2. How to make a text with hyperlink translatable in WordPress?
  3. What’s the point on gettext syntax?
  4. Translate a string to a language with masculin/feminine nouns
  5. Change locale manually at runtime?
  6. Text Domains Across Multiple Plugins & Themes
  7. Can we load “load_theme_textdomain” multiple times with different domains?
  8. Where are the official i18n WordPress versions stored (SVN)?
  9. localize inline css
  10. Can we use a variable hook for language string?
  11. Locale filter in conjunction with new datepicker localization
  12. How to use is_rtl with my main style.css?
  13. Localizing text from XML files
  14. Localizing strings that come from outside of plugin?
  15. Alphabetical sorting – local language
  16. How to detect if text domain is already loaded?
  17. does a translation (i18n) have to start from an english PO?
  18. _n() Single and Plural for search results?
  19. __() with sprintf returns untranslated string
  20. How to add i18n to a plugin’s Twig template files?
  21. load_child_theme_textdomain doesn’t work in function.php
  22. How to prepare SimplePie_Item’s get_date() for l10n?
  23. The effect of x() family of functions
  24. How to translate multi-line strings?
  25. get_locale() behaving strange in same functions.php file
  26. Do I need the .po file for my plugin?
  27. WordPress theme with frontend in different language than backend?
  28. Change WordPress Language
  29. Strings including html for localisation
  30. What does the underscore translate function do in my code without a textdoman
  31. Is it possible to set a different frontend- and backend-language?
  32. Possibility to use WordPress built-in localization
  33. Can any users change locale language?
  34. Localized version offers upgrade to en-us version
  35. Local WordPress installs don’t verfiy against wp-cli checksum check and how to fix that issue.
  36. Loading custom language file for plugin
  37. sprintf bloginfo odditie
  38. Unable to find where to translate certain tooltip string
  39. WP core emails translated
  40. How to translate theme content using site language?
  41. How can i localized html or php source code from wordpress [closed]
  42. Setting frontend locale based on postmeta not loading translation
  43. Using esc_attr function
  44. Change WordPress language based on user setting
  45. Define locale WordPress uses with gettext functions?
  46. Site does not display translations
  47. Theme doesn’t want to load localization files
  48. User specified Timezone
  49. Plugin translation ready – mo file not loaded
  50. Problem with adding a new post type
  51. Do I have to use load_plugin_textdomain() or is there any default folder for languages?
  52. Get localized user roles
  53. Internationalization of strings with html tags and numbers in WordPress
  54. Change post date format to hebrew calendar
  55. failed to open stream: Permission denied warning while load_textdomain
  56. Requiring Once into plugin PHP File not working
  57. Where does the locale come from?
  58. When localizing a theme do I create the .mo and .po
  59. Localization Problem: Doesn’t Display Translated Words
  60. wordpress localization extending
  61. How to localize built-in strings in a future-proof manner?
  62. Is there some ways to autofix the mo or po files instantly?
  63. I want to dynamically create i18n ecosystem in WordPress
  64. Language string not detecting used within the function
  65. Why does my WordPress Upgrade version have a language suffix?
  66. How to disable gettext feature?
  67. WordPress in French Language [closed]
  68. How do I make this plugin translation-ready?
  69. how to use a default MO file
  70. Localization of menu items
  71. Warning: The actual loaded translation content contains mixed textdomains and is not pure translateable within one textdomain
  72. Is it wrong to use the English version of WordPress to server a site in a different language?
  73. Hack nav menu to add gettext() to menu items?
  74. WordPress NavXT plugin localization
  75. WordPress emails translate to French
  76. How to create some sort of word mapping?
  77. Is this really always bad? (variables in l10n functions)
  78. How to change text depending on the country
  79. How to dynamically change the locale?
  80. How to show the front end in a different language? I am using the twentytwentythree theme
  81. i18n: How do I load translations for a language specified in the request?
  82. How to create .pot files with POedit?
  83. How to get a localized version of WordPress from a repository?
  84. Enqueue Stylesheets After Theme’s “rtl.css”
  85. Using plural-only translation of register_post_status() in plugin
  86. Running WP Cron on specific local time
  87. Plugin readme.txt and assets internationalization
  88. add spans and characters into paginate_links
  89. Proper way to create / manage gettext (.po, .pot) files?
  90. Multisite Network Localisation
  91. How to render a time-of-day string like ’16:42′ with a site’s chosen time format?
  92. Multisite: How to get a list of installed languages
  93. What can be reason for no plugin-strings available under stable section on translate.wordpress.org?
  94. rest api endpoint – accept diacritic characters
  95. Do I need to include a textdomain if my theme doesn’t support translation?
  96. Setting Email locale before retrieving gettext translations
  97. jQuery Datepicker displays wrong language until interection with the calendar
  98. mce_external_languages: how does it really work?
  99. Gettext for custom field checkbox values
  100. Website Language/Locale Switching