Natty Translations Plans III: the Ubuntu Translations Portal

Following the series of blog posts about the Ubuntu Translations plans for the Natty cycle, this week I’m thrilled to report on the Ubuntu Translations Portal, and to announce its initial test deployment.

The idea behind the portal is to aggregate all existing content and to be the main entry point to the translations community for new contributors, providing them answers, inspiration and excitement. For experienced translators it will be a central point for resources and news about translating Ubuntu.

The main goal for this cycle is the deployment of the portal, with an official news feed and planet-like and microblogging feeds, all nicely wrapped in an Ubuntu-Light-based theme. I’m happy to report that we’re doing good progress on this.

So without further ado, here’s a preview of what the portal will look like:

• The Ubuntu Translations Portal test site

Note that as it stands now, this is very much an alpha deployment on an external site, for development and testing purposes. As such, you’ll see that there is not much content, and that that content has been put there to help with development. You’ll also see that the theme still needs work in several parts of the site, but the current state will already give you a good idea of the shape the portal is taking.

Also note that one of the main requirements is that the site is multilingual, so that everyone can see it in their own language. We’ve been setting up the infrastructure for that, so that next cycle we can start translating the portal in all of the Ubuntu languages, but the first iteration this cycle will probably be in English.

Contribute

Do you want to take part in shaping up the Ubuntu Translations portal?

There are many ways in which you can help. Here are just a few:

Discuss. Participate in the discussion, ask your questions and stay up to date with the latest developments and announcements in the portal.

 

Develop. Have you got web development or web design skills? We need you! Help us developing the theme and infrastructure for the portal.

 

Report. Have you been using the portal and have noticed any bugs or anything that needs improvement? Report them as bugs in the Ubuntu Translations Portal project in Launchpad.

Write. Do you want to submit articles related to translation, help with content editing or moderation? Join the Ubuntu Translations Portal editors team and put your writing skills to work.

Stay tuned for more updates. Looking forward to everyone’s participation!

Other posts in this series:

• Natty Translations Plans I: Translations Stories
• Natty Translations Plans II: Translations Training Sessions

Project Unity L10N

We all know about Unity, the project that is changing the way we interact with our computer by bringing a consistent user experience and a solid, elegant design for desktop and netbook users.

We want to make sure Unity is for everyone, and one of the key aspects to make it possible is that it is available in everyone’s language.

Unity is already available in more than 60 languages, and can be translated into almost any other. Unity is also Free Software, which means it is in your own hands to make it happen.

So, if your language is not in that list, how can you translate Unity?

• If you are new to translations, you might want to read the Ubuntu Translations Quickstart Guide.
• Next thing you can do is go to the Unity translations page and start translating online right away.
• You can then do the same with the Applications and Files places and translate them as well.
• That’s it! You’ll find that contributing to Ubuntu by translating it is one of the easiest and most rewarding ways you can start

If you’ve got any questions, you can contact the translations team in whichever way you prefer.

We’ve got about 150 Ubuntu translation teams, and I’m pretty sure we can make that by the time Ubuntu Natty Narwhal is released there is a translation from each one of these teams.

Hence, I’m proud to announce the Unity L10N project, stay tuned for more updates and join the translation party!

Natty Translations Plans II: Translations Training Sessions

Following the first in the series of posts about the plans for Ubuntu Translations on this cycle and their progress, this week I’d like to talk about Translations Training Sessions.

What we’d like is to run a series of regular events where translators can just attend and learn, in a hands-on way, all the different aspects of translating our favourite distro. There, they should also be able to ask their questions and discuss any topics related to translations. Another goal is to also provide material for all teams to adapt and reuse for their own training events for new translators.

The plan is to start by running a regular series of IRC training events focused on particular translation topics. Here are some suggestions:

• The Launchpad Translations web interface
• Translating Ubuntu online and offline
• Ubuntu Translations review workflow
• …

Do you want to help grow your translations community in your language? Help us with the training sessions by providing suggestions for topics you’d like to see covered in them. You can also help by running the sessions yourself!

You can leave them as comments on this post or directly on the wiki page we’ve set up for that here.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

New Translations Videocast: First Steps Translating Ubuntu

After the first Ubuntu Translations videocast two weeks ago, join me tomorrow in a new edition where I’ll talk about the first steps to get you started translating Ubuntu.

So if are either:

• new to Ubuntu and would like to learn more and join the awesome translations community…
• not involved in translations but would like to know more about how Ubuntu is translated…
• an experienced translator that would like to ask questions or share your workflow…

… then this show is definitely for you.

Come along tomorrow and watch the introduction on how to get started, the general translations workflow, and participate by asking your questions!

• WHAT: Videocast - First Steps Translating Ubuntu
• WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 16th, 16:00 UTC
• WHERE: Ustream Ubuntu Translations channel

Note that if you wish to participate in the online chat, you’ll need to sign up for a ustream account (it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes), but I’ll also be answering your questions on the #ubuntu-translators IRC channel on Freenode.

Talk to you all tomorrow!

New Maverick language packs ready for testing

We’ve uploaded  language packs in the maverick-proposed repository for everyone to test before they are released to all users. These should contain all the updates and fixes in translations done since the Maverick release date.

I’d like to ask translation teams and other community members to test them and provide an indication that they’ve done so by following some simple steps and submitting a sign-off, so that we know that translations have been successfully tested.

Simply follow the instructions in this page and add your sign-off in the table at the bottom:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/LanguagePackUpdatesQA

The deadline for the testing is the 17th of December (in a weeks’ time). After that, we’ll update the language packs we’ve received feedback for into maverick-updates, so that all users can benefit from the new translations and fixes.

Remember that you’ll have to enable the maverick-proposed repository to get these updates.

Some Notes

Language Pack Update Schedule

Kenneth Nielsen from the Ubuntu Danish translation team has been rocking in getting the language packs schedule project into shape this cycle. Give him a hug if you see him around!

We’ve now got a plan for the Maverick schedule, including a wiki calendar, a google calendar and an iCal feed:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/MaverickLanguagePackReleaseSchedule

You can now subscribe to the calendar with your calendar client (e.g. with Evolution) or web e-mail account, so that you can stay up to date on the next scheduled updates and coordinate translations accordingly.

You’ll find the links on the wiki calendar page.

Bugs

If there are open bugs for the translations in your language, it would be great if you could you check that they are fixed and mark them as “Fix Released”.

You can see if there are bugs for your language by going to the following URL:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-l10n-<yourlanguagecode>

As an example, the German team’s URL would be:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-l10n-de

Help us getting the language pack tested and get all those fixes and new translations to everyone!

Chromium opens to community translations in Launchpad

I’m very much thrilled to announce that Chromium, the Open Source project behind Google Chrome, the browser that is transforming the way we experience the web, is now open for community translation in Launchpad.

Chromium will be hosting its translations in Launchpad Translations, the collaborative online tool for translating Open Source projects and building community around them.

You can now translate Chromium online into almost any language. Using Launchpad’s simple web interface you’ll only need a Launchpad account, a web browser and good knowledge of English and the language you’ll be translating into.

Under the Hood

For the technically minded among us, here’s an overview of how everything fits together.

But first of all, I need to mention that all this would not have been possible without the fantastic work of Fabien Tassin, the legendary Ubuntu community member of Chromium and Firefox packaging fame. Big thanks also go to Evan Martin from the Chromium project, the Launchpad Translations developers and anyone else involved in making this possible.

In short, after seeing the willingness from the Chromium project to use translations infrastructure in Launchpad, Fabien single-handedly designed and implemented the machinery that performs the conversion between the Chrome translation format and Gettext, the widely-used standard format Launchpad understands.  He did not stop here, and he also devised a way to package these translations and submit them to upstream.

The following diagram illustrates the Chromium translations lifecycle:

Chromium Translations Lifecycle - Diagram by Fabien Tassin

The work is happening between Fabien’s server, where he maintains a local copy of the Chromium upstream branches, and Launchpad, where the PPA builds and translations happen. These are the two big blocks you see on the diagram.

The existing Chromium translations are imported into Launchpad after being converted to the gettext format. The result is then committed in a bzr branch, which is enabled with automatic translation imports to make the translations available through the web UI.

At this point translators can do their work: either complete missing translations, improve existing ones or add new languages.

This work is then committed daily to another bzr branch making use of another cool Launchpad integration feature: automatic translation exports.

The rest of the process is also fully automatic: every day, a bot in Fabien’s server fetches the translations export branch, converts back from gettext to the Chromium translation format, merges that with the upstream trunk and lands the changes in the corresponding PPA of the daily builds. For other branches the process is the same, except that it is only run when there is a new upstream release.

From there, patches with the translations are generated daily for anyone else interested in using them.

Q+A

What does community translation mean?
It means that any Open Source enthusiast will be able to translate Chromium to their language through volunteer contributions.

Why do we need community translations?
Many of the translations already available in Chromium come from private translations originated in Chrome. Until now, Chromium did not have any translation infrastructure to enable the community to localize the software, and therefore some languages were incomplete. In Launchpad you can now a) complete Chromium translations, b) improve them and c) add new languages.

How do I get started translating Chromium?
If you don’t have one already, you’ll need a Launchpad account. Once you’ve created it and selected your prefered languages, simply point your browser to https://translations.launchpad.net/chromium-browser, click on your language of choice, and that’s it, you can now start translating!

I can submit neither translations suggestions nor translations. How can I translate Chromium?
If you aren’t already logged in to Launchpad, try to log in and see if it helps. If it doesn’t, that’s probably because there is no translation team for your language yet. Launchpad Translations is built around a model of community (in the form of translation teams) and permissions (chosen by the project developer).

The permission model for Chromium is Restricted, which provides a good balance between community participation and translation quality. This means that while everyone can submit translations suggestions, only the members of the translation team will be able to accept them after review.

Have a look at the list of teams in the Launchpad Translators group. If there isn’t one, you should be able to start a new team in a matter of minutes following these simple instructions, which will allow you to start translating Chromium once the team is approved.

When I try to translate my translations are saved as suggestions. Why can’t I directly submit translations?
That’s because you are not part of the translation team for your language. You can look for your language’s translation team here and get in touch with them. If you wish, you can ask them if you can join the team or if they can review your suggestions. See the previous question for more information on translation teams, suggestions and permissions.

How do I get support for Launchpad Translations?
There are many ways to get support if you need help. Here are some of them: you can ask a question in Launchpad, you can send an e-mail to the launchpad-users mailing list or you can ask on the #launchpad IRC channel on the Freenode network. You will find more information here.

Will Chromium translations make it to Google Chrome?
Most probably not. Google Chrome and its translations are subject to different QA processes than Chromium and we’re not contemplating this possibility at this time. We are only making those strings either common or specific to Chromium available for translation.

How often will translations be updated?
It depends on the Chromium version and the operating system you are using:

• Ubuntu, stable: if you are using the Chromium version provided in the Ubuntu package through Software Center, you will get a translations update whenever there is a new Chromium stable version released upstream.
• Ubuntu, PPA: If you are using the Chromium daily PPA for Ubuntu, there are several options depending on which actual PPA (channel) you are using: for trunk, once a string is translated in Launchpad it takes about 2 days to be available; for the other channels (dev, beta, stable) translations are only made available whenever there is a Chromium upstream release.
• Other: the frequency of updates in other distributions will depend on the use they make of the translations and their update policies. There are currently no Chromium builds for Windows or Mac.

This is a fully automatic process: translations exported from Launchpad are fetched daily, merged with the upstream trunk and changes are landed in the corresponding PPA of the daily builds.

How can other Operating Systems use the Chromium community translations?
The intention is that any Operating System/Linux distribution can benefit from the work from Launchpad translators, so these translations will be available to anyone interested in using them. They  can even be used for Windows and Mac.

If you are interested in using the translations for another distro, the best thing is to get in touch with Fabien (you’ll also find him as fta in the #chromium IRC channel on Freenode).

If you’ve got more questions, also feel free to ask by sending a comment to this blog post.

Happy translating!

Ja es pot traduir l’Ubuntu Natty Narwhal

Després de l’anunci oficial de la primera versió Alfa de l’Ubuntu Natty Narwhal, ara toca anunciar que ja es pot començar a traduir-la al sistema de traduccions de l’Ubuntu:

Recordeu que si voleu participar en la traducció al català, només cal que us subscrigueu a la llista de correu de l’equip de traducció i que us familiaritzeu amb la Guia d’estil de Softcatalà. Aquí trobareu un resum d’allò que us caldrà per començar a traduir l’Ubuntu d’una manera ben fàcil:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuCatalanTranslators

A banda d’això, hi ha uns quants punts a tenir en compte per als usuaris i traductors d’aquesta versió:

• Traducció. En traduir, recordeu que segons la planificació de l’alliberament del Natty Narwhal, els missatges a traduir no seran estables fins que la interfície d’usuari no ho sigui. La data planificada per a aquesta fita serà el 24 de març.
• Paquets de llengua. Durant el cicle de desenvolupament de l’Ubuntu Natty Narwhal, s’alliberaran paquets de llengua amb les traduccions dos cops per setmana – excepte en els períodes anteriors a l’alliberament de les versions alfa, beta i la candidata final. Això permetrà tant a usuaris com a traductor poder comprovar les traduccions de manera ràpida i àgil.
• Firefox. Els primers paquets de llengua no contindran les traduccions del Firefox. Això és degut al fet que el paquet del Firefox a l’Ubuntu encara s’està adaptant al format nou d’empaquetament de traduccions del projecte original. Ben aviat però, tindrem el Firefox traduït com de costum.
• Comprovació de les traduccions. Si veieu qualsevol cosa que s’hagi de corregir o manqui per traduir, digueu-nos-ho o ajudeu-nos a traduir-ho!.

Si voleu donar-nos un cop de mà, us esperem a l’equip de traducció!

La imatge (still) open la creà en  Joseph Robertson sota la llicència: CC by-nc-sa 2.0

Ubuntu Natty open for translation

After the new Natty Narwhal Alpha 1 pre-release, I am pleased to announce that Natty is now open for translation:

• Translation caveats. Remember that according to the release schedule translatable messages might be subject to change until the User Interface Freeze on the 24th of March.
• Language packs. During the Natty development cycle, language packs containing translations will be released twice per week except for the freeze periods. This will allow users and translators to quickly see and test the results of translations.
• Firefox. The first language packs will not yet contain Firefox translations. We’ll get them in soon as we’re adapting to the new upstream langpack packaging structure, so that Firefox is localized by default as usual.
• Test and report bugs. If you notice any issues (e.g. untranslated strings or applications), do check with the translation team for your language first. If you think it is a genuine bug, please report it.

That’s it, happy translating!

(still) open image by Joseph Robertson – License: CC by-nc-sa 2.0

After the first translations videocast

So, after having done the first translations videocast on the Ubuntu Translations channel yesterday, I can just say it was great fun, and from the feedback I got after the show it seems people liked it too, which is fantastic.

First of all though, big thanks to those of you who joined in with your comments and questions.

I was really really pleased to see lots of participation, both in the ustream chat in the show’s page and in the #ubuntu-translators IRC channel. I think that’s the best format to make it your show as well: do ask your questions, comment and make it more interactive. I can go on forever rambling on… err… talking about translations, but your participation makes it more fun and more personal, which is one of the objectives of these shows.

So for those of you who missed it, here’s the link to the recording to watch it in your own time:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11209840

One thing I did not manage, though, was to match Daniel’s comedy gold moment. Dogs and door bells apart, remember to watch his next show on Thursday next week for more Ubuntu Development goodness!

As it was the first time I ever did this, it was a bit experimental. I’ve been pondering about topics for the next shows, and here’s a list of the things I think folks might find interesting:

• Ubuntu Translations Workflow – How is Ubuntu translated
• Natty Translations Roadmap – An overview on the translations community projects this cycle and their progress
• Translating Ubuntu in Launchpad – A tutorial on how to use Launchpad to translate Ubuntu
• Best Practices for Translation Teams – Tips and advice for translation teams when translating Ubuntu
• Internationalizing your application – Introduction on how to internationalize and make applications translatable
  
• …

So what do you think? What would you like to know more about? Do you have any other ideas or suggestions for topics? Do let me know by commenting here or on the Ubuntu translators Facebook page. The main thing is that the biweekly videocasts are useful for you all.

I’ve already scheduled the next show, so I hope to see you on Translations TV – same time in two weeks time.

Do add it to your calendars!

Translations on the telly

The plan for the community team to dominate social media first and the world afterwards goes on unabated. First it was At Home with Jono Bacon, then Ubuntu Development with Daniel Holbach.

This time it’s translations.

Join me tomorrow on the first ever Ubuntu Translations videocast and learn more about our ever amazing community. I’ll be talking about how Ubuntu is translated, how translation teams work, and whatever else time allows. On later shows I’ll focus in more detail on particular subjects (upstreams, best practices, etc. – I’ll also take requests!).

Tell your friends and bring them along! This is a great opportunity to learn something new, to have a relaxed chat and to ask anything you always wanted to know about Ubuntu translations.

• WHAT: Ubuntu Translations with David Planella
• WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 2nd, 16:00 UTC
• WHERE: Ustream Ubuntu Translations channel

Some quick notes: if you wish to participate in the online chat, you’ll need to sign up for a ustream account (it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes), but I’ll also be answering your questions on the #ubuntu-translators IRC channel on Freenode.

I’m sure it’s going to be great fun, see you all tomorrow!