Getting Involved: Translating section work

Well, CVS is still needed, and will be until the common translation server at translation_or_something_like_that.drupal.org is up and going.

However, the following information should be added:

• There are two different ways of working on translations, the old one (po-files) and local translation servers
• Telling people to look at http://drupal.org/project/l10n_server to see if there's a local server for their language
• Describing how to set up your own server if you want one, and there isn't one for your language
• ...and mentioning the bright and shining future of the common server, of course :-)

I've started a draft for a handbook page (or pages) on localization servers here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/10959. I'll add it to the handbook when it's finished.

Thanks for taking this on!

Ooops, April is a long time ago. I'll try to finish that handbook page on localization server soonish.

Meanwhile, here's a suggestion on reorg of the chapter on contributing to translation:

Landing page:

http://drupal.org/translators and http://drupal.org/contribute/translations should point to the same page. This should contain a brief overview (and do mean brief :-), explaining that there are two main ways of contributing: Editing .po-files and using a localization server. How to find out what your translation team is using. Work in progress at http://drupal.org/node/296338. (I'm planning to finish this page 28th September.) - done. (Could always be better, but is OK for now)

It should have "Read more" links to:
- http://drupal.org/mailing-lists
- http://groups.drupal.org/translations
- The handbook page Translation, multilanguage content, and internationalization
- For developers: How to write translatable interfaces (a handbook page that's not written yet, see #194962: How to write Drupal translatable interfaces) - done

It should probably also incorporate some of Translation guidelines (but advice people to check for links to local guidelines on the project page) - done (not part of landing page, but own page)

Sub pages:

- How to translate using .po-files. Placeholder page at http://drupal.org/node/314231
-- Translation templates for Drupal core
-- Programs to use for translation
-- Distributing the translation effort
-- Status of the translations (the current page only gives info on how to find this when editing .po-files)
-- Make a single file from the loose .po files from CVS - done

- How to translate using a localization server, cut'n'paste from http://groups.drupal.org/node/10959 - done

- How to commit translations back to drupal.org. Should cover both .po-files and exporting from localization server, and both core (language issue queue) and contrib (project issue queue). Incorporate info from Translation of contributed modules

- Recycling old translations - done (add info on how to do it with the potx module as well)

- Updating translations for Drupal 6 - done

- How to start a project for a new language (new handbook page, needs to be written) done, kind of. I added a link to http://drupal.org/node/11130/ , but might be better to write a new page later

- How to set up a new localization server, mostly finished at http://groups.drupal.org/node/10959 (I need to test a few things to be sure it's correct)

- http://drupal.org/node/11130/ renamed to "Technical background on interface translations" - done, but the title isn't good. Better suggestions very welcome. Possibly some of the content should be moved elsewhere. This was the old landing page.

A few subpages which need to be moved elsewhere:

- Troubleshooting is more about using language files than contributing to them. Move to become subpage under troubleshooting faq, link to from pages about installing translations - done

- Translated Drupal information: Move to archive/outdated, it's covered by http://drupal.org/language-specific-communities. Needs to be done: Check if there are links which need to be copied to "Language-specific communities". - done

Comments? Suggestions?

Might as well take responsibility for seeing this one through. Help/suggestions/ideas on better ways to do stuff very welcome, of course.

I've started writing the new landing page: http://drupal.org/node/296338

Changed the component to reflect the new component categorization. See http://drupal.org/node/301443
-nielsbom

If we use the new draft for the landing page, should the existing http://drupal.org/translators be a sub page of it then or is it meant to completely replace it? (Just wondering about the pretty graphic ;-)) I think we can replace the http://drupal.org/contribute/translations with what you have in your draft.

We can move the existing stuff to be under your new draft page and then move/shift/remove things over time as needed. Not sure which way you'd like to proceed though.

+1 on replacing http://drupal.org/contribute/translations with http://drupal.org/node/296338.

I think that the existing http://drupal.org/translators should not be a sub page though. Can't we incorporate key contents of that to zirvap's draft. These two pages actually have three separate goals. The existing /translators page introduces a translator to the innerworkings of interface translation in Drupal, while the draft already assumed that and delved directly to contribution encouragement and HowTo. As a landing page, I think we should incorporate these three goals.

IMHO, a concised version of the existing /translators page will be a very good introduction to the draft. I am maintaining two translation projects here at d.org and when I started, the first thing I wanted to learn was the innerworkings of interface translation. If a translator does not have that basic concept at the back of his/her mind, then maintainers will just have headaches. If there are no existing projects for a translator's language, and he/she would like to start one, then knowing that basic concept, at the very least, is a must. In contrary to popular belief, providing another language for Drupal is not just about translation of english texts, it's about localization, but that should be another issue.

I think the draft is very promising! Keep it up and I am offering help, if ever you need it :-)

John
Drupal Norge
_{det offisielle norske nettstedet for Drupal}

I'd prefer the current http://drupal.org/translators as a subpage of the new landing page. I agree that it's interesting and valuable information, but I'd prefer the landing page to be a very concise and to the point description on how to contribute. An important aspect is that most people using this page won't have English as their first language, so it's even more important than for other handbook pages that the text is easy to understand. People who intend to become maintainers will need to look further than the landing page anyway, but someone who just might be willing to translate a few strings shouldn't be faced with a long page of difficult-to-understand technical background on the first page.

I think I'll have to scale down my ambitions a bit from what I described in #4 in order to get things ready to launch on the 28th. Some of the stuff can wait till later, if necessary.

If you have time to help, John (or anyone else who wants to join in), it would be great if you could write a sub page on:

- How to commit translations back to drupal.org. Should cover both .po-files and exporting from localization server, and both core (language issue queue) and contrib (project issue queue). Incorporate info from Translation of contributed modules.

or see if you can add (some of) the missing stuff on:

- How to set up a localization server

or anything else that's listed in #4 that's not done yet. Meanwhile, I'll make finishing the landing page my first priority.

I renamed the draft page and moved the translators page under it for now. Feel free to keep hammering on it and moving things around as needed.

I'll help on some subpages tomorrow. I'll look into them and will update here which ones I can do (and know about) :-)

John

I've done some of the easy tasks done, and have marked them in #4.

Suggestions for http://drupal.org/node/17229:

I think this page shouldn't be here at all. Some of it is info on how to contribute to specific languages. http://drupal.org/node/24627 is like that, I think. That info belongs on the project page for the relevant language. The chance of someone who's interested in translating to Afrikaans actually finding that stuff is greater if it's there. So that subpage should be copied to an issue in http://drupal.org/project/af.

The Polish info, on the other hand, is mostly links to handbooks in Polish, so that belongs in/under http://drupal.org/language-specific-communities. I don't think the detailed links are neccessary, but a link to http://drupal.org.pl/ should be added to that page if the site seems to be in good order, and there isn't a link for the Polish community already. There's one link to translation guidelines in Polish, so that one should be added to an issue for Polish, if it's not linked from the project page already.

Then, when the info on http://drupal.org/node/17229 is copied to the relevant places, the page itself with subpages can be stuffed into Archive.

Does that sound OK?

-1 on archiving the page. I think that we should keep the page and have an explanation that translation to other languages is being done. Users whose primary goal is to translate will go to the "Getting Involved" handbook and not the "Getting Started" handbook. http://drupal.org/language-specific-communities is not about helping but about informing.

On this page, we should link not only to http://drupal.org/language-specific-communities but also to the project page, translation guidelines, etc. But I think we should be clear on the difference of translated documentation and the translation projects for the Drupal core.

+1 on not having subpages of different languages. If we will be linking to the project page, language-specific communities, translation guidelines then subpages here are not necessary.

Good point. I agree with you that we should have a handbook page on translation Drupal documentation. Not sure about placement, but I think that's a topic for a separate issue and a separate discussion, later. It can stay where it is for now.

I suggest you rename it to "Translating Drupal documentation" or something like that. I do think the scope of that page should be just how to translate the docs, not about interface translation. If there's too much duplication of information and links, it becomes a nightmare to maintain. All information on how to contribute to interface translations for a specific language should be available from the project page for that language.

As per discussion we had at #drupal-docs, I just finished http://drupal.org/node/13220

I'll try to look into "commiting translations" next. :-)

Are there just 2 pages remaining?

Remaining tasks:

- How to contribute by editing .po files: Only placeholder, no content

- How to set up a localization server: Mostly finished, but some information is still missing.

- How to commit translations back to drupal.org. Should cover both .po-files and exporting from localization server, and both core (language issue queue) and contrib (project issue queue). Incorporate info from or rewrite Translation of contributed modules

...and of course, read through it all, polish, and identify missing pieces of content, if any.

I'll try to finish the 2 remaining pages tomorrow, so we can have this issue *fixed*. If there's anybody who will give some loving to these two pages:

• How to contribute by editing .po files
• How to set up a localization server

then by all means, go ahead :-)

I really would like to help translating stuff and especially the page "How to contribute by editing .po files" would help me to get a grip. So I would be especially thankful if someone could fill this gap. ;)

Thanks for giving me the nudge to finally finishing this. Please take a look at http://drupal.org/node/314231 now, and post here if anything's unclear or should be better explained.

Thanks a million. Looks precise and I have no questions so far.

So officially the last remaining issue before this can be set to fixed is the "incomplete" status of http://drupal.org/node/302196 (perhaps I can get a second hero to reveal himself).

Now the central server is almost ready, so there's not much point in translation groups setting up their own servers. I posted a warning about this at http://drupal.org/node/302196. When http://localize.drupal.org/ is up and running, we should move that page to obsolete, or re-write it and move it to the contrib docs. And, we should then write some new documentation on how to translate using the new server.

Meanwhile, I'm setting this to fixed. We can open a new issue when the central localization server is ready.