Community Team Training #11

Using Translate Live

Alex Kirk

WordPress.org	akirk
Blog	alex.kirk.at
Matrix	@alex:kirk.at

Translating WordPress

• Contribute translations from English to a language you speak
• WordPress Core, plugins, and themes
• For many the first step into contributing to WordPress
• Happens at translate.wordpress.org
• Introduction with the Polyglots: Translator's Handbook

Polyglots Handbook

Typical Translation Environment

Typical Translation Environment

Enter a translation

What am I translating?

Which English Strings are displayed first?

Typical Translation Environment

• Often starting to translate "somewhere in the middle"
• Missing Context: is this a headline or a button?
• But: Ecosystem Tools
  • Discussion & History
  • Placeholders, Warnings & Glossary
  • Translations to other languages
  • Translation Memory & Machine Translation
  • Browser Extensions like GlotDict

Translate Live

• Hands-on Approach
• Built on WordPress Playground
• Runs WordPress+plugin/theme inside your browser
• Provides Inline Translation through Local GlotPress
• Submit to translate.wordpress.org when ready

Translate Live

Translate Live Features

• Visually see the current translation state of a plugin
• Add new translations and modify existing ones
• Try translations without submitting them yet
• Tools
  • Placeholders, Warnings & Glossary
  • Machine Translation

How to Access Translate Live

Translate Live Demo

• https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/friends/dev/de/default/playground/
• https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/friends/dev/el/default/playground/
• Example of a flow: https://wordpress.org/plugins/

Translate Live ... the Good

• It's very quick to get started
• Works without a WordPress.org account
  → you receive a PO file instead of submitting directly
• Very visual to see what you are translating

Translate Live ... Is Good For

• Translating a plugin/theme to a new language from scratch
• Reviewing existing translations and improve them on the spot
  • See translated items in context
  • Work with space constraints

Translate Live ... Good to Know

• Be careful to use the Submit button to save your translations
  
• On a 99% translated plugin/theme it's hard to find the missing strings
  → Use the table view for that
• Performance depends on your computer and network speed
  (~7MB initial download, subsequently cached)

Translate Live ... can be improved

• It can be hit or miss, sometimes English text is not recognized
• Very large plugins can be a bit slow
• Some plugins require a lengthy setup process *
• Plugins that depend on other plugins don't work well *

Translate Live ... How it works

• In PHP, English texts are replaced with their translations
• We log these and transmit them to Javascript
• After the page loaded, we find the strings in the DOM
• Wrap them in a HTML tag so it can be right clicked
• Save the translation in a local GlotPress
• Export them to a PO file and import it to translate.wordpress.org

Summary of Translate Live

• An easy way to get new translation contributors started
• Accessible for all plugins and themes on translate.wordpress.org
  Translate Live link on the top right
• Local GlotPress with Inline Translation will come in GlotPress 5.0
  → Can be installed on your own WordPress, too

Thank you!

Questions?