Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@olafgrabienski

olafgrabienski/backdrop-translation-server-status-ideas.md

Created June 8, 2017 16:15
Show Gist options
  • Star 1 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 0 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save olafgrabienski/46cac48eb9ab838e41b2b2275c47cc4b to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save olafgrabienski/46cac48eb9ab838e41b2b2275c47cc4b to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
Building a Backdrop Translation Server, Status and Ideas
Raw
backdrop-translation-server-status-ideas.md

Building a Backdrop Translation Server, Status and Ideas

8th of June, 2017

Backdrop doesn't have a working translation server to provide non-English language files. Such language files are needed to run Backdrop as a multilingual or a localized website. As a workaround, Backdrop is linking to the Drupal translation server (https://localize.drupal.org) which has some drawbacks:

  • The link doesn't go to a specific page. Interested persons have to search the relevant language file of the latest Drupal core 7.x release.
  • The Drupal core language files don't catch up with the progress made by Backdrop:
    • Backdrop continues to include new language strings, or change existing ones.
    • Backdrop has integrated former Drupal contrib modules like Views, Pathauto, Token and more in Backdrop core. To get these language strings from the Drupal translation server, you have to look for the relevant module's language files.

At February 2017 @serundeputy and me started to build a minimum viable product on https://localize.backdropcms.org, with the following roles:

  • @serundeputy: English speaking developer with little multilanguage experience (I believe), tasks: server setup, port of the potx language extractor module, support regarding coding questions
  • @olafgrabienski: German speaking site builder with little coding skills but some experience regarding multilingual and localized Drupal sites, tasks: server configuration via the user interface, testing, discussing the concept from a user's perspective

While the translation server isn't usable yet we made some progress in the beginning, see the roadmap on backdrop-ops/localize.backdropcms.org#5. We however stopped to make progress for quite a while now.

To mention a blocker: At the moment we're not able to generate English Backdrop language files in a reliable manner. Related issues/comments:

More generally, I'll try to mention some reasons for our moderate progress:

  1. Limited time.
  2. Lack of specific know-how, or: not ideal distribution of skills.
  3. Little feedback and involvement by other persons so far.

Well, not uncommon conditions for such a project. How can we improve the situation? Some ideas:

  1. The available time varies based on the personal situation. More available time is however difficult to achieve unless more people get involved.
  2. We need some help by an experienced developer who knows or is able to adopt the technical translation concept of Drupal 7.
  3. Feedback and involvement are of course appreciated. Maybe we have to ask better questions?

In my opinion we should concentrate on (2), which could include:

  • Asking @quicksketch for more involvement.
  • Posting a call for contributors on the website and/or via Twitter.
  • Asking for support in the Drupal localization community.
  • Announcing a dev meeting on the topic, inviting particularly non English language Backdrop members.
  • Organizing a translation server sprint.

Some other ideas, or workarounds:

  • Build a community (forum? Gitter channel?) of non English language Backdrop members.
  • Provide existing Backdrop language files in an informal way. As me and others run localized sites (e.g. German, Russian, Spanish?), we could provide the option to upload our files in a temporary section of the translation server.
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment