Translation Service Research
This page is related to the GCI 2011 task "research 3rd party i18n translation support services" (Google Melange, EasyToDo)
Transifex
Website: https://www.transifex.net/
Pros
- can automatically pull language files from an URL (hgweb, bb, ...)
- API and command line tool available
- Transifex is open-source software (based on Django)
Cons
- exchange of translations is only possible between projects of the same maintainer (but thus no licensing issues)
Workflow
- create project
import .pot file from URL (http://hg.moinmo.in/moin/2.0/raw-file/tip/MoinMoin/translations/MoinMoin.pot) and enable automatic update
- (translate)
- pull changes via the tx command line util or use the API
- continue with step 3
Get Localization
Website: https://www.getlocalization.com/
Pros
- API available
- possibility to buy translations (optional of course)
Cons
- Get Localization is closed-source software
Workflow
- create project
- upload .pot file
- (translate)
- download translations and copy them to the Moin repo or pull them using the API
- continue with step 2
Launchpad
Website: https://launchpad.net/
Pros
- exchange of translations between all projects is possible
- Launchpad is open-source software
Cons
- only supports bzr for automatically fetching language files
uploaded language file (.pot) has to meet some guidelines and is reviewed
Workflow
- create project
- upload .pot file
- wait for review
- (translate)
- download an archive containing the translations and copy them to the Moin repo
- continue with step 2
Licensing
- all translators have to agree to license their translations under the BSD license
crowdin
Website: https://crowdin.net/
Pros
- API available
- glossaries/terminology management
- provides localization files that can be used to test for example unicode handling
Cons
- crowdin is closed-source software
- only per-project translation memory
Workflow
- create project
- upload .pot file
- (translate)
- download translations as .zip and copy them to the repo or pull the using the API
- continue with step 2
Pootle
Website: http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/pootle/index
Pros
- terminology matching
- optional VCS integration (can automatically commit new translations)
- support for machine translation to help translators
- Pootle is open-source software (based on Django)
Cons
- only per-project translation memory
Workflow
- set up an own instance or create a project on a public server
- enable VCS integration or upload .pot file
- (translate)
- if VCS integration is enabled: continue with step 3
- manually commit the new translations
- continue with step 2