WP Job Manager Category Drop-down; Change Placeholder Text Via Filter

by

Based on the testing that I did, the placeholder string Choose a category… cannot be filtered with the submit_job_form_fields filter, but there are still ways to change that string.

One way to alter the text is to override the plugin’s default job-filters.php template with your own.

Copy the default template, /wp-job-manager/templates/job-filters.php over to your theme: /your-theme/job_manager/job-filters.php

Edit your theme’s copy of job-filters.php by adding the placeholder argument to both calls to job_manager_dropdown_categories():

<?php wp_enqueue_script( 'wp-job-manager-ajax-filters' ); ?>

<?php do_action( 'job_manager_job_filters_before', $atts ); ?>

<form class="job_filters">
    <?php do_action( 'job_manager_job_filters_start', $atts ); ?>

    <div class="search_jobs">
        <?php do_action( 'job_manager_job_filters_search_jobs_start', $atts ); ?>

        <div class="search_keywords">
            <label for="search_keywords"><?php _e( 'Keywords', 'wp-job-manager' ); ?></label>
            <input type="text" name="search_keywords" id="search_keywords" placeholder="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Keywords', 'wp-job-manager' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $keywords ); ?>" />
        </div>

        <div class="search_location">
            <label for="search_location"><?php _e( 'Location', 'wp-job-manager' ); ?></label>
            <input type="text" name="search_location" id="search_location" placeholder="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Location', 'wp-job-manager' ); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $location ); ?>" />
        </div>

        <?php if ( $categories ) : ?>
            <?php foreach ( $categories as $category ) : ?>
                <input type="hidden" name="search_categories[]" value="<?php echo sanitize_title( $category ); ?>" />
            <?php endforeach; ?>
        <?php elseif ( $show_categories && ! is_tax( 'job_listing_category' ) && get_terms( 'job_listing_category' ) ) : ?>
            <div class="search_categories">
                <label for="search_categories"><?php _e( 'Category', 'wp-job-manager' ); ?></label>
                <?php if ( $show_category_multiselect ) : ?>
                    <?php job_manager_dropdown_categories( array( 'placeholder' => __( 'Choose a sector&hellip;', 'your-text-domain' ), 'taxonomy' => 'job_listing_category', 'hierarchical' => 1, 'name' => 'search_categories', 'orderby' => 'name', 'selected' => $selected_category, 'hide_empty' => false ) ); ?>
                <?php else : ?>
                    <?php job_manager_dropdown_categories( array( 'placeholder' => __( 'Choose a sector&hellip;', 'your-text-domain' ), 'taxonomy' => 'job_listing_category', 'hierarchical' => 1, 'show_option_all' => __( 'Any category', 'wp-job-manager' ), 'name' => 'search_categories', 'orderby' => 'name', 'selected' => $selected_category, 'multiple' => false ) ); ?>
                <?php endif; ?>
            </div>
        <?php endif; ?>

        <?php do_action( 'job_manager_job_filters_search_jobs_end', $atts ); ?>
    </div>

    <?php do_action( 'job_manager_job_filters_end', $atts ); ?>
</form>

<?php do_action( 'job_manager_job_filters_after', $atts ); ?>

<noscript><?php _e( 'Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled. JavaScript must be enabled in order to view listings.', 'wp-job-manager' ); ?></noscript>

An alternative method of altering the Choose a category… text is to use the gettext filter:

add_filter('gettext', 'wpse243242_change_wp_job_manager_text', 20, 3 );
function wpse243242_change_wp_job_manager_text( $translated_text, $untranslated_text, $domain ) {
    if ( 'wp-job-manager' !== $domain ) {
        return $translated_text;        
    }

    // make the changes to the text
    switch( $untranslated_text ) {
            // Multi category select
            case 'Choose a category&hellip;':
                $translated_text = __( 'Choose a sector&hellip;', 'text_domain' );
            break;

            // Single category select
            case 'Any category':
                $translated_text = __( 'Any sector', 'text_domain' );
            break;

            // add more items
     }

    return $translated_text;        
}