Using Transifex for localization of qtranslate-x

[bekatoros]

Hi, I want to propose the use of https://www.transifex.com for the localization of the plugin. It is free for open source projects.

[johnclause]

Do you mean to translate -X content itself, or to translate client content? I am open to both, I just do not have time to deal with it right now. Do you wish to take the lead and to make it work?

[bekatoros]

I can make a try.

[johnclause]

It would be great. Which one:

Do you mean to translate -X content itself, or to translate client content?

[pedro-mendonca]

I use Transifex for some wordpress projects, it have a good UI and some usefull tools. At the moment it's more complete than glotpress.

[bekatoros]

I have set up the project using the POT and PO files https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/qtranslate-x/ you can make a request to join and i will accept as soon as possible.

[pedro-mendonca]

There is a comunity of WP-Translations, a lot of projects are there: https://www.transifex.com/organization/wp-translations/

[pedro-mendonca]

More on that here: http://wp-translations.org/

[pedro-mendonca]

I relly a lot on poedit to translate and debug some string problems, but from the author point of view, putting the plugin in the spotlight at a community like wp-translations will surely bring a lot more people to complete language translations, probably way more than having qtranslate itself as an isolated project on transifex. @johnclause you should consider managing a close dedicated team for qtranslate plugin and other related plugins, or register qtranslate-x here: http://wp-translations.org/developers-wp-translations/ for a more wide community of translators.

[bekatoros]

@johnclause when you make a request to join I will add you as an administrator, just sent me the username if it is different .

[qtranslateteam]

I cannot find a button "join" so far. username: 'qtranslateteam'

[qtranslateteam]

Are they going to translate for free? I wonder how that can be possible without seeing a context?

[bekatoros]

Of course, you can add it as a link at the plugin readme, I have added you as a administrator.

[qtranslateteam]

Is there a way to add qtranslateteam to Maintainers on page https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/qtranslate-x/? Are you, @bekatoros, going to translate some?

[johnclause]

Pedro (@pedro-mendonca), would you prefer to use it over poedit?

Marios, is there a way to upload new .pot file from a linux script? And then from a script, also check what new translations are available, and download them?

[bekatoros]

Yes i started the greek localization. They have an API but I dont know if someone has created a script. http://docs.transifex.com/developer/api/resources

[johnclause]

The "Details" section shows source line, which I was missing at first place. It seems reasonable to me, but it is up to translators to say if they want to use it. I guess, we already have a vote from Marios (@bekatoros)? I think I will figure out a way to script it, if translators say they want to use it.

How sure are you that it will stay free after 30 days: https://www.transifex.com/pricing/ ?

[pedro-mendonca]

I'm pretty ok with Poedit, it works like a charm. At the speed that this qTranslate-X is being developed I really like more the Poedit system because I can sweep directly the code and check context of strings. This is much of a help in case of debugging strings and so forth. About the price of Transifex, don't know anything about it, I use it mostly for translating other users stuff, the price is on their side. Still, don't know if it would cost anything if registred within wp-translations-team, as they are the owners of the account, and rely on volunteer work to translate wordpress registered themes and plugins projects. Even if qtranslate is going to Transifex or self hosted Glotpress, for now, as I've explained above, I'll keep for my personal use the Poedit method, at least while I'll keep finding bugs and suggesting features, as I like to keep an eye on the code. In the future, when qtranslate-x enters cruise speed and slows a bit the development, I might just translate whatever new strings keep appearing, without worries and with no need to step in the strings syntax etc. One more point, I think Transifex looks great from a translators point of view, but have no idea how it's kept synced with the source code, and in the last weeks a lot keeps changing every day, I like watching the code in github and update language files directly on it. Still, this is an issue that over the time will stabilize, as qtranslate gets more and more mature. One experience I have with Glotpress self hosted projects for translation, the admin sends some emails to alert translators that there are new strings to translate. Don't know how that works within Transifex admin dashboard. In GitHub we just keep receiving update notifications directly, and just have to check in Poedit if there are any new untranslated strings waiting. In resume, I'm ok with how it is now, I will use other system if you'll implement it, but I'm keeping Poedit for a while. Still, it's a good idea to check these other possibilities.

[Grafcom]

There's something I noticed in Transifex. If anything has changed in the (pre-existing) original text, then the box to translate is empty. Some long texts must then be completely retranslated. In PoEdit is the previous translation still visible (fuzzy) and easy to adjust again. But maybe I missed something.

[pedro-mendonca]

That's right, Poedit shows a close old string with #fuzzy. Sometimes is too different and I still pick it up opening .po in notepad.

[johnclause]

This seems to be a big one ... I was also looking for 'fuzzy' and did not see it in transifex, but I did not realized that it is even worse. They completely remove all commented translations.

Well, it does not hurt to have both ways for now and let people to decide individually. Marios, do you have experience with poedit to be able to compare?

[pedro-mendonca]

Same problem with Glotpress, both platforms give up the control you have in local files via Poedit.

[Grafcom]

A "simple" instruction for using Poedit in combination with GitHub would be very useful for many translators :-)

[pedro-mendonca]

I've discussed that in a sort of looong issue with @johnclause, maybe it's time to make a wiki page on translation. :)

[Grafcom]

@pedro-mendonca, That would be totally awesome :-) :-) :-)

[bekatoros]

I personally have also used the poedit but I find it more difficult for translating.

[Grafcom]

@bekatoros,

Can you explain to me why this is more difficult, so I understand what you mean?

[johnclause]

Could someone take initiative and word such a document out? Also please suggest where it would be better to publish it, https://qtranslatexteam.wordpress.com/about/, or GitHub wiki, or anywhere else?

[pedro-mendonca]

I can compile everything we dissussed before and write it to a wiki for start. As we are using GitHub to pull language files, I think this might be the right place to put this information. After it's done and reviewed by you, maybe you can include some link to it in the blog. Another suggestion I have is divide all the info on readme to some more pages, as it is getting bigger every day. In a few minutes I'll send you my first step suggestion.

[pedro-mendonca]

This is my start suggestion, it's basically the same readme but with some markdown according GitHub rules to improve the rendering of readme in the fron page. https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/pull/73

Keeping both .txt and .md is redundant. Maybe keeping both is helpfull for different contexts as .md is very helpfull for GitHub render readme a lot better, .txt is the probably the best for one who reads it locally after plugin download. To keep it simple, might be helpfull to just make them both with same markdown.

Another issue on wiki and readme, after seeing this readme.md, I believe that some of this info might migrate to the wiki pages, as some of it will probably be present in basic plugin info etc.

[pedro-mendonca]

As can be read here: https://help.github.com/articles/about-github-wikis/ "GitHub Wikis are a place in your repository where you can share long-form content about your project, such as how to use it, how it's been designed, manifestos on its core principles, and so on. Whereas a README is intended to quickly orient readers as to what your project can do, wikis can be used to provide additional documentation."

@johnclause what do you think of migrating some of the actual too long readme to some organized pages? If so, which ones would you suggest? i would go for FAQ, Features, Installation and the Translation How To that we've been discussing. One thing that you probably should watch closely is that everyone can edit, as I did, without any pull request. Still, you're probably notified and should keep a private copy of it all to reset if necessary.

[pedro-mendonca]

I've started the paste here a lot of stuff from readme. Please take this as a first kick suggestion, feel free to delete it if it's not according to your intent. https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/wiki

The translation procedures will come here. https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/wiki/Translation @johnclause what do you think of squeezing the necessary info from here https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/issues/3 ?

[johnclause]

It seems to me that from simple user point of view this site https://qtranslatexteam.wordpress.com looks much better and it also related to wordpress, which make people feel comfortable. GitHub is better for techy people and for developers.

I would keep tech instructions and documentation for translators at GitHub, since as you correctly noted, this is where translators will have to come anyway, while non-tech stuff probably better to live at https://qtranslatexteam.wordpress.com, and we will crosslink both places. What do you think?

Let us populate https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/wiki/Translation page as the next priority, and once it is ready I will link it from everywhere where it is possible. Is that a good plan?

[Grafcom]

I completely agree with John and @pedro-mendonca nice work so far!

[pedro-mendonca]

I agree. I just created this pages to introduce some text before the Translation one, and thought that copying from readme would make sense so that the text on that process is not isolated on the wiki. I used this also as a test to understand how to create wikis and sidebar. Of course you should centralize everything, and the Website is a good option.

I will take translation stuff and start the wiki with the conclusions we came on the early issue.

[johnclause]

Marios (@bekatoros), when you are done with greek translation, please, let me know, since I am not sure if I get an automated message from transifex for now. I hope they will not lock your work after 30 days asking for payment ... Although, it would be even better, if you submit pull request with your updated .po file on github, but any way is good - I most appreciate that you are doing the hardest part - translation itself.

[johnclause]

Pedro, I saw your pages, looks great. I edited a little bit other pages, which you created as examples, we need to make sure that there is no duplicated content. I will tidy it up later.

I linked your "Guide to Translation" from https://qtranslatexteam.wordpress.com/translators/ page.

What would be also good is to have for new translators step-by-step specific instructions on how to fork, clone, edit, update and submit pull request. A few people asked me for this information, and it would be great, if we could simply advise to follow some brainless steps, so that people would not have to search web on how to do it. When it is done at least once, then it is easy, but initial learning is a trouble for most of the people, even if they sincerely want to learn.

BTW, Pedro (@pedro-mendonca) and Marios (@bekatoros), if you have some site to advertise, I can put it on sponsor page https://qtranslatexteam.wordpress.com/credentials/, if it would have any value to you? Write to me through https://qtranslatexteam.wordpress.com/contact-us/. Gunu (@Grafcom) is already there ;)

Thanks!

[pedro-mendonca]

Hi

I've started the guide but not finished yet. The only page that is more or less complete is the one with the best practices to translation. The main page have some headings just to prepare the sketch, but still have no content. I was thinking in two methods, one for tech users who can use GitHub (we can make a simple guide on how to), another option would be by email because I think there are users that can make a great translation work without having the techy barrier of github. In this case, they can simple send you the .po and you would take care of the merge itself. What do you think! Next, I would separate guides to kick start a language translation and to update an existing one. About a link to a website, let me think about it :) Thanks

[johnclause]

can simple send you the .po

Yes, e-mail is fine, but even they need step instructions how to get the latest file from GitHub to translate at first place.

Problem with e-mail is when two people do updates at the same time, which already actually happened with de_DE. Merging is not easy, unless you use GitHub client. I would emphasise that GitHub is preferable option in long run, while e-mail is good for the start. Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks for everything!

[pedro-mendonca]

Yes, I agree. I'll continue this as soon as I can.

[johnclause]

Marios (@bekatoros), can you submit, whatever you already got for translation, since we are about to release a new version of q-X? You do not have to finish it all, something is better than nothing ;) Please, also do not forget to merge your po with the latest from github.

[johnclause]

Marios, @bekatoros, we also do not have 'el' in the list of predefined configurations. Could you give me the values of all the fields, as you enter them on page '/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=qtranslate-x&edit=el'?

[Grafcom]

@pedro-mendonca , it is possible to explain here - https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/wiki/Guide-to-Translation - how translators can do this via github?

[bekatoros]

Language Code : el Name : Ελληνικά Locale : el_GR Date : %d/%m/%y Time: %H:%M Not Available Message : Συγγνώμη,αυτή η εγγραφή είναι διαθέσιμη μόνο στα %LANG:, : και %.

[johnclause]

Thanks, Marios, @bekatoros! I also need Date Format and Time Format? Please, figure out not empty ones, I cannot have blank in predefined language. You may look through examples of other languages in function qtranxf_default_date_format: https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/blob/master/qtranslate_options.php#L250 and function qtranxf_default_time_format: https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/blob/master/qtranslate_options.php#L284

"Name" must be spelled in native language, I do no believe it is "Greek" ;)

"Not Available Message" must be of the form:

Sorry, this entry is only available in %LANG:, : and %.

It must contain %LANG, etc., please, read help text and see the examples of other not available messages in function qtranxf_default_not_available in file qtranslate_options.php: https://github.com/qTranslate-Team/qtranslate-x/blob/master/qtranslate_options.php#L213. Apparently you never saw how this message actually works.

[bekatoros]

I edited my comment and edited the configuration file

[johnclause]

Thanks, Marios!

[pedro-mendonca]

@Grafcom Yes, I'll do it in the next few days.

[pedro-mendonca]

@johnclause I've renamed the Guide to Translation to Guide to Plugin Translation to avoid the confusion between Translation of content vs plugin itself, as this is a translation plugin. Please check the new sidebar tree to see what I'me saying, Guide to Translation in a translation plugin was too ambiguous. If you agree, please don't forget to update it's name and link in the page Translators page in the main qTranslate Team site.

Next, I will do the rest of the missing IN PROGRESS contents, It might be usefull to open a new issue apart from this one to discuss how things can be done ore improved in the wiki.

[johnclause]

I updated the link - thank you, Pedro, for all your help :+1:

[johnclause]

@bekatoros: can you still use transifex? I tried to go there, it looks ok, but when I tried to pretend doing actual translation, it does not work. Is it because we have to pay?