Can we translate .pot files using Google's Cloud Translation?

[bobbingwide]

Having developed the proposal to support localization of Full Site Editing theme's templates and template parts, I now want to look at the possibility of using Google's Cloud Translation service to produce first pass translations into other languages.

Requirement

• Automatically translate a .pot file into any locale supported by WordPress.
• Use Google Cloud translation service.

Proposed solution

• [ ] Send only the changes / new strings for translation.
• [ ] Load WordPress's string versions to see if the strings already been translated for core.
• [ ] Find a way to mark auto translated strings in the locale .po file.
• [ ] Since I have schoolboy French, it makes sense to start with this as the first additional language.
• [ ] Estimate the cost of translation in terms of characters being translated per plugin/theme per language per month.
• [ ] Determine the feasibility of using this service vs polyglots.
• [ ] Implement using oik-batch initially, then support WP-CLI

Here are some extracts from Google’s Cloud Translation guide.

https://cloud.google.com/translate/docs/advanced/translating-text-v3#comparing-models

The input text can be plain text or HTML. Cloud Translation API does not translate any HTML tags in the input, only text that appears between the tags. The output retains the (untranslated) HTML tags, with the translated text between the tags to the extent possible due to differences between the source and target languages. The order of HTML tags in the output may differ from the order in the input text due to word order changes in the translation.

Above 500,000 characters per month, Cloud translation (Basic ) costs $20 per million characters translated. See https://cloud.google.com/translate/pricing

The cost to translate WordPress to another language using Google Translate can be estimated from the file size of the .pot files. I don’t have the .pot files so let’s work from the .po files.

[bobbingwide]

From a blog post I haven't yet published on herbmiller.me

The cost to translate WordPress to another language using Google Translate can be estimated from the file size of the .pot files. I don’t have the .pot files so let’s work from the .po files.

File	Bytes	Notes
admin-bb_BB.po	681,631	WordPress - 5.6.x - Development - Administration
admin-network-bb_BB.po	61,607	- 5.6.x - Development - Administration - Network Admin
bb_BB.po	584,271	WordPress 5.6.x - Development

Note: .pot files are under half the size of the bb_BB language .po files.

The cost to translate the Fizzie theme’s .html files is hardly anything. The total file size of the 40 templates and template parts is 21,820 bytes.

I've started a spreadsheet in the \Google folder