Getting Started

Getting started with translating strings for Simple:Press

Here’s a short introduction on how to use the Simple:Press GlotPress site for the best, most correct and speediest results.

Organization

The Simple:Press GlotPress site organizes translations in projects and sub projects, so that you could have, say, the “Simple:Press” project and a sub-project for every version. The main projects for Simple:Press are Core, Plugins and Themes. For each of those projects there are sub-projects for the translations.

Every project uses an underlying strings file, which is no more than the file that stores the collected strings from the source code for that particular project. This file only contains strings in English. When users translate strings, the corresponding final files can then be generated and exported (formats vary according to platform) and are the ones actually used by the corresponding application localization functions to dynamically show content in other languages.

Users

Simple:Press GlotPress users have one of three profiles: guest, contributor or validator. Guests can see the projects and their translations, while contributors can suggest translations. Validators can do a bit more, but their role consists mostly of approving or discarding suggestions. If you register and login to our translation site, you are automatically a contributor (you can register a username here, if you don’t already have one).

Getting Started

To contribute, start by logging in to Simple:Press GlotPress. If you don’t have an account, you can register and get one. Choose the project (and sub-project) you will be working on, and after that the language to which you will be translating (called a “translation set”, in GlotPress).

You will see a list of strings and their translations. Across the top of that list you will see links to the filtering and sorting functions which will help you narrow down the strings you want to work on. (users with a validator profile will see additional options, more on that further down)

Strings have “statuses” – they can be untranslated, suggested, approved (or current) and fuzzy. Each of these states can have a “warning” flag, meaning that there’s something potentially wrong with the translation (missing or unmatched HTML tags are an example of a situation where a warning is triggered)

Translating

You can now start translating strings, simply by double-clicking on them (or clicking “Details”). The string’s line will expand and you’ll be presented with a text box where the translation can be written, and also with some more information to help you understand that particular string’s context, such as the source code file where it is used, its status and priority. Type your suggestion for the translation and click the “Suggest new translation” button. That’s it! You have just contributed your first translation. Once your suggestion is sent, a box will open for the next string, and so on.

A cool feature, next to the “Suggest new translation” button, is the “Translation from Google” link. Clicking it will query Google’s automatic translation API and place its suggestion on the box. Make sure to check it for correctness as Google Translate isn’t always 100% accurate. Finally, the “Copy from original” link will do just that, in case you find it easier to just write over the original string. In both cases, don’t forget to click the “Suggest new translation” button.

Suggest as many or as little strings as you want. Be aware that the same string can have any number of different suggestions, from different users. It will be up to the “validators” to decide which one fits best.

If you don’t see your language available for translation, please use our Contact Form and let us know. We will get it added shortly.

Validating

The translation platform is open for any user to suggest a new translation. When they do, that leaves those strings with a status of “suggested”. In order to transform them into “approved” strings (which are the only ones that are deployed), a validator needs to accept (or reject) those suggestions. Validators will see a “Bulk” link on the top left-hand corner of the screen which will allow them to select several strings at once and approve them, reject them or even bulk query Google Translate for suggestions. Strings suggested by Google Translate will have a status of “fuzzy”, meaning that they’ll need to be explicitly corrected (if need be) and approved, before they are “current”.

In addition to these permissions, a validator can also:

  • see only the “waiting” suggestions (suggested but not approved)
  • see only the translations that have generated warnings
  • see only the “fuzzy” translations (i.e. generated in bulk by Google Translate)
  • upload external files
  • discard warnings

Keep in mind that a string translated by a validator is automatically approved (but will still generate all applicable warnings)

Importing external files

There may be the case where a validator needs to import translations from an external file (current supported formats are .po, .android and .rrc). When the file is imported, only untranslated strings will be written. Also, if the imported file contains original strings not present in the GlotPress list, those strings will be ignored.

Requesting access

There is no technical limit on how many users can be validators, however, for our Simple:Press translation communities we plan to limit each project to a couple of validators so that we can keep track of who to talk to should the need arise. If you would like to volunteer to be a validator for a project, please let us know via our Contact Form. Of course, you should have already started translating.