Many tools exist that may help make translating strings in Mifos more approachable.

Goals

• reports on which strings have not yet been translated into which locales

• allows for a community review process of strings that have been translated

• exports properties files whenever we need them

Pootle Launch

We've decided to move forward with Pootle as the online translation tool.

TODOs

• (DONE) added the "mifospootle" user on java.net as a Developer to the Mifos project (so commits of .po files can be performed by that user via Pootle). There is a UI for maintaining project roles at java.net.

• (DONE) create locale-specific working copies for Pootle. For example (as root on birch):

  sudo -u pootle svn co \ https://mifos.dev.java.net/svn/mifos/trunk/mifos/src/org/mifos/config/localizedResources/fr \ /var/lib/pootle/gazelle/fr

• create working copy for overriding default translations via Pootle. For example (as root on birch):

  sudo -u pootle svn co \ https://mifos.dev.java.net/svn/mifos/trunk/mifos/src/org/mifos/config/localizedResources/en_US \ /var/lib/pootle/gazelle/en_US

• (DONE for French) convert *_LOCALE.properties to LOCALE/BUNDLENAME_LOCALE.po

• remove *_LOCALE.properties (see issue 2302) ...may need to move locale-specific bundles used only in testing to test/ dir

• (DONE) resolve issue 2144 once the online translation tool is "hard-launched", e.g.: in use by community members

• secure online translation tool Web UI with SSL

• (DONE) integrate generation of locale-specific Java .properties using create_props.sh into build

• migrate conversion scripts to Java

• (DONE) autogenerate pseudolocale translations - *_is_IS.properties

• (DONE) proper DNS record for birch

• (DONE) test roundtrip of strings from SVN -> Pootle -> SVN

• (DONE) soft-launch within team, get feedback

• (DONE) a community showcase (Dimdim meeting or whatever)

• (DONE) contributor agreement (see ContributorAgreement)

• (DONE) documentation

  • OnlineTranslationHOWTO

  • PMOnlineTranslationHOWTO

  • AdminOnlineTranslationHOWTO

• (DONE) commit locale_sync.sh, create_props.sh, and update_defaults.sh to trunk

Background Research

Notes done during research prior to selecting Pootle for the online translation tool follows.

Findings

• CAT tools for .po files are abundant and mature, CAT tools for Java .properties files are not

• Translate Toolkit's prop2po only works on UTF8-encoded .properties files, but .properties files must be latin1 encoded. Early experiments of manually reencoding RolesAndPermission_fr.properties as UTF-8 using Vim (:set fileencoding=utf8) successfully produces a file that prop2po can read.

• prop2po actually produces .pot files, not .po files. These are what Pootle needs to get started with new languages.

• The GNU gettext utilities "msgcat" program seems to discard any non-ascii characters (like é). This was found when trying msgcat -P RolesAndPermission_fr.properties

Off-the-shelf software

Enumerate and evaluate computer-assisted translation tools here.

Pootle

• http://translate.sourceforge.net

• web-based

Pros

• TBD

Cons

• no direct support for Java .properties files (must use prop2po and po2prop from Translate Toolkit)

JasperBabylon

• http://jasperforge.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=283

• web-based

Pros

• works with Java .properties files

Cons

• TBD

Transifex

• https://hosted.fedoraproject.org/transifex/

• web-based

Pros

• TBD

Cons

• only works with gettext .po files

Rosetta (hosted by launchpad)

• https://translations.launchpad.net/

• web-based

Pros

• TBD

Cons

• preferred license for translated files is BSD

• only works with gettext po files

Open Language Tools

• https://open-language-tools.dev.java.net/

• client-side

Pros

• Nice GUI interface for translating

• cross-platform

• FLOSS

Cons

• cannot export to Java .properties files

Okapi Framework

• http://okapi.sourceforge.net

• client-side

Pros

• TBD

Cons

• TBD