Adapt for translation

+1

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have made a note to do this, hopefully at some point soon.

There shouldn’t be too much to translate, although with my other plugins I’ve found that translations have pretty much come to a standstill because the new glotpress system is complicated especially for getting final approval.

Dan

What do you mean with _complicated getting final approval_?
Do you have any suggestions how to improve that?

Lots of people add translations for their locale on the translate.www.ads-software.com site.

E.g. here: https://translate.www.ads-software.com/locale/de/default/wp-plugins/pdf-embedder

But then it just seems to reach a dead-end. Contributors don’t know how to get the translations approved and thus distributed out to users, and they can’t seem to find out the process.

I think I have some idea of what is supposed to happen – it involves trying to find locale editors to approve you as a plugin translator for the locale, on the make.www.ads-software.com site. Then you might have to manually approve your own translation back on the original site.

But I really couldn’t spell out the steps that are actually needed even though I believe I’ve managed to help a couple of translations get through at some point.

I’ve just seen that you have approved the translation linked above for pdf-embedder. However, it doesn’t seem to have made it into the plugin itself yet (German doesn’t show as a translated language). I just don’t have any idea of the current status of this translation! Contributors might ask me at this point, and I don’t know how to help.

As for suggestions on how to improve the process… I guess a big button on translate.www.ads-software.com, where the contributor has been adding phrases, saying “Submit for Approval” would be easier. I don’t see why it needs to be any more complicated than that!

Contributors shouldn’t need to know what a GTE is, or have to post on make.www.ads-software.com.

The whole thing might make more sense to someone who is already an approved editor for the plugin – perhaps it’s easier to understand the current status in that case.

One way or another, people used to send me po/mo files in the past, and I added them to the plugin repo and all was fine! I appreciate that the current system is an attempt to improve quality though.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Dan

Dan, I thank you for taking the time and writing down your thoughts – a very good summary.

I will report to the polyglots’ slack channels. I consider it being quite useful for us to improve documentation and maybe tools.

The point is: there IS documentation for all (or at least: the most) of the things you mention. But I admit it is very hard to find all corners where the info is hidden ??

Okay, now let’s try to clarify things for you.

You know strings have to be approved by someone with the capabilities to do so. That’s correct.
These people are the PTE (project translation editors). E.g. for German you can become PTE for your own plugin if you are a native speaker, know our guidelines und our glossary. Other locales may vary.
https://de.support.wordpress.com/translation-style-guide/
https://translate.www.ads-software.com/locale/de/default/glossary
https://de.www.ads-software.com/mitwirken/benutzerrollen-fuer-die-deutschsprachige-uebersetzung/

In addition, there are the General Translation Editors (GTE). They can approve strings – and they can grant other users the role of an PTE.
Few of the PTE are allowed to approve strings for ALL plugins and themes in de_DE. So we end up for German with approximately a dozen of people who can approve strings.

Translation Teams

Currently we have approx 65.000 of them waiting (de_DE + de_DE_formal)
https://translate.www.ads-software.com/stats

Unfortunately, we don’t get a notification when new strings arrive for approval.
That’s where Slack enters the stage.

Ideal approach to getting strings approved is if contributors are aware of slack and come to the polyglots channels (national or international) to say hello and paste a link to their translations. This way a PTE or GTE gets aware of new waiting strings.

I admit, only few people do so (speaking for German). And I agree with you that this process should be MUCH easier. And I know: people are working on better solutions and these will come.

That’s why approval of strings can take a very long time.

The reason why your plugin is not listed as “translated to German” is simple: GlotPress (the software behind translate.www.ads-software.com) automatically generates a language pack for distribution – but to start that process, more than 95% of strings in a plugin’s stable trunk have to be translated and approved. Readme files do not count in.

So if you want to speed up the process of approval, you should contact the respective locale team and ask them to look after waiting strings in your plugin.

Translation Teams

https://wp-info.org/2016/01/how-to-get-a-translation-to-full-validation/

Thanks for this – it’s really helpful, and I’ll save it somewhere safe!

Meanwhile, I look forward to improvements over time. Thanks for all your volunteer work in this area.

Regards,

Dan

Update: The latest version of the plugin is localization-ready, so you should now be able to add your translations!

Please get in touch with any questions: email [email protected].

I may not pick up replies to the forum thread here.

Thanks,

Dan