Simplify translation process with Weblate

rob006

askvortsov You would need to split document to smaller translatable parts and put into format recognized by Weblate. There are tools for that (like po4a), but I'm not sure how reliable they are - you would need to test it on actual documentation to spot any problems. So while it is possible, Weblate itself does not support this usecase and there may be better tools for translating documentation.

rob006

Some "news":

I finally improved docs for this project:
- I created separate page describing benefits of using this project for your language pack.
- I finally created description how to integrate language pack with Weblate.
- Today I published template for language pack, which should simplify creating new language packs.
So far 10 languages is using this project for maintaining their language packs.
Currently, almost 200 extensions are supported.

rob006

Just a reminder that upcoming Flarum 1.0.0 introduces breaking change in pluralization syntax used in translations. Some extensions already released new versions targeting Flarum 1.0.0 and using new ICU syntax for translations, and Weblate fetched these new releases (it always picks newest release). So you need to be careful and NOT translate these phrases if you still want to support beta 16 release in your language pack (there is probably like 1-2 weeks to 1.0.0 release and new extensions are released targeting beta 16, so cutting off 0.1.x line may be premature right now). If you want to target 1.0.0 and translate all new extensions, remember to update constraints in composer.json of your language pack to "flarum/core": "^1.0", so people on beta 16 will not install new version of your language pack with incompatible syntax.

AFAIK right now there are only 3 extensions with translations changes targeting 1.0.0 - I suggest to ignore them for now if you want to support beta 16 (it should be fine, since beta 16 users cannot install them, and 1.0.0 was not released, so there are no users that would need translations for them):

Justoverclock

@rob006 i'm about to finish the language pack for 1.0. and i have a question for you.

i need to create a new tag for the 1.0 version of course, but weblate can handle the new translations changes?

rob006

Justoverclock I'm not sure what do you mean by "handle". New format of translations in Flarum is still just a string. And Weblate does not process these strings in any way, so it does not matter what kind of format for translations Flarum is using, as long they will be represented a string.

Right now the only problem is that Weblate always picks translations from the last release of extension. So if extension already released version for Flarum 1.0.0, new translations will be available in Weblate (and extension will be marked as incompatible on translation status page). If not, translations for old version will be available. So right now we have mix of translations for extensions targeting stable and non-stable Flarum.
And since Flarum core and official extensions did not released new versions, their translations in Weblate use non-ICU format. You can still translate new phrases on Weblate to match Flarum 1.0.0, but you need to ignore source displayed on Weblate and translate source directly from GitHub (see https://discuss.flarum.org/d/27235-extension-developers-flarum-10-qa-phase-update-period/17). But in general I suggest to wait to actual release of Flarum 1.0.0 - releasing extension targeting unreleased version of Flarum may bring more harm than good.

Justoverclock

rob006 actually i've tagged a 1.0 compatible version of my language pack, but the bot will revert all the changes?

justoverclockl/flarum-italian-ext37feb48

rob006

Justoverclock That is how it works - bot always overwrites translations files with state from Weblate, because Weblate is the single source of truth. You need to made these translations on Weblate to avoid this.

In general you should not edit .yml files directly in your language pack. There is not much point in using Weblate if you want to do that.

Justoverclock

rob006 so what we are going to do after 1.0 release?
whats the plan?

rob006

Justoverclock Hopefully Flarum 1.0.0 will be released tomorrow, Weblate will switch to translations for stable Flarum, and we leave this whole 0.1.0-beta mess behind. I hope that Flarum 1.x -> 2.0.0 transition will use some sane versioning and I will be able to prepare better for it, so this situation will not happen again.

maicol07

rob006 I really like how you set up weblate to translate Flarum! I already have translated my SSO extension to italian in its repo. Can they be imported/synced with its Weblate component?

Justoverclock

maicol07 simply u need to translate your extension here in the language pack:
https://weblate.rob006.net/translate/flarum/maicol07-sso/it/?type=todo

and will be automatically added to italian language pack 🙂

as a mantainer, i will approve your translation instantly 😉

rob006

maicol07 I could add an exception for your extension, so it won't be displayed on Weblate for languages, that are already bundled in your extension. In general it is better to keep translations in extension, so I suggest to keep it that way and adjust Weblate to not duplicate translations.

maicol07

Justoverclock ok, but since I already have a translation file (here) I think it's faster to import it instead of pasting them one by one

Justoverclock

maicol07 i dont remember well, but i think this could be done if is in json format, @rob006 can confirm this. if yes i could do this for you

edit: oh...just a few line...i will do this manually

maicol07

rob006 or better we can sync my repo translations with Weblate

Justoverclock

maicol07 https://weblate.rob006.net/projects/flarum/maicol07-sso/it/ done

rob006

maicol07 I could do that, but as I said, keeping them in extension is more reliable. In that way translations are always available (for example right now there are two Italian language packs - if you remove bundled translations from your extension, it won't be translated if someone is using https://packagist.org/packages/nearata/lang-italian) and always match extension version, so you never have situation where translations from language pack are for different version of extension than you have installed. Do far if extension have bundled translations maintained by extension author, I ignored them on Weblate, because it is just easier to maintain it in one place by one person. I just never do that retroactively, and support for Italian language was added to Weblate after your extension was added to list of supported extensions, so I never noticed that Italian translation is not needed for your extension.

maicol07

rob006 I think that maybe if someone wants to translate the extension is easier on Weblate instead of forking the repo and then create the PR. Syncing the extension repo with Weblate will push PRs directly to the master branch and then I'll merge them with the extension. This way the translations are bundled with the extension

rob006

maicol07 I was talking only about Italian language - if you're able to translate extension to Italian by yourself, it is better to do that directly in extension and not rely on Weblate and language packs (there will always be a delay in adjusting language pack, and translators may not fully understand the context of specific phrases, so as an author of extension you may be more competent to translate them correctly). For other languages it is better to keep translations on Weblate and language packs, since you will not be able to verify them anyway.

But in any case I don't think it is a good idea to have duplicated translations both in extension and language pack. I'm not sure how Flarum merges duplicated translations for the same key, but there is always the risk that outdated translation will take precedence.

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