Internationalisation Blueprint

This page looks at ways we can extend the Internationalisation options within Sahana Eden.

Production Options are defined within DeveloperGuidelines/Internationalisation

User perspective is: UserGuidelines/Localisation

ToDo

Below are some tasks that can help in improving the existing translation functionality.

s3translate

• Pootle integration
  • Deprecated strings must not be merged back into ".py" language files when merging from pootle.
  • Setting up a separate sub-project on Pootle for a deployment
  • Upload .po file
    • from URL as well as file (e.g. ​http://pootle.sahanafoundation.org/pootle/export/eden/fr/fr.po)
• Add ability to enable/disable menu options (make this a DB table rather than a deployment_setting?)
• Think about how uploaded files can not conflict with updates from Version Control (currently uploaded updates will be wiped during upgrades)
• Exclude all templates other than current one by default (option to include all templates, defaulting to off)
• Default list of modules to the ones which are active in the running template
• List of modules shouldn't come from list of controllers (e.g. misses translate itself!)
• Exclude Unit Tests folder
• Exclude all full paths (2nd occurrence+ is giving full path)
• Include certain prepop CSV columns (for T(record.field))
• Don't include vars - e.g. T(r.name) shouldn't add "r.name" to the translation file
• Rewrite admin.py translate() so that only opt3 is a REST controller for translate_language (no need for an opt)
  • All other opts should be separate controllers
• Online help to explain that the local languages/code.py will be updated & that uploaded files will be merged
• Online help to explain 'core files'
• Copy code from ​TranslateToolkit internally to avoid having external dependencies & launching a shell

Other

• JavaScript
  • ​dataTables
• Extend web2py2po/po2web2py to support translator comments

  def translate(self, message, symbols):
      """
         user ## to add a comment into a translation string
         the comment can be useful do discriminate different possible
         translations for the same string (for example different locations)
  
         T(' hello world ') -> ' hello world '
         T(' hello world ## token') -> 'hello world'
         T('hello ## world ## token') -> 'hello ## world'
      """
  

Other options

• ​Babel - good toolkit to combine with GNU/gettext
• ​LaunchPad Translations - access to Ubuntu community

• ​GoogleTranslate can be used to help translators get started, but needs humans to make cultural and linguistic refinements
  • Web2Py plugin for this: ​http://www.web2py.com/plugins/default/translate
• ​Google ta3reeb - Arabic 'keyboard' using Latin characters

• MS Localisation Design Pattern: ​http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd129504%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

Notes

• If needing to be able to handle alternate word order with dynamic strings then wrap in XML():
  • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/ccacbdc5286e5c56
• Databases store Unicode characters as 2+ bytes, so string, length=20 may limit to just 10 characters:
  • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/e3927c8a333c9abe
• UTF-8 encoding in Controllers:
  • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/8ae1a2f56a76f2af
• Date fields:
  • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/msg/4a42f83c0989fedd
• Working across Timezones:
  • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/1df15b5238c157d1
• Paragraph Translations:
  • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/cd65f614d2156810
• Currency Formatting:
  • ​http://stackoverflow.com/questions/320929/currency-formatting-in-python

• ​http://logs.sahanafoundation.org/sahana-eden/2011-03-27.txt
  • 18:48 onwards has relevant discussion...

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