Translating Apereo Software: A Case Study using Sakai and Transifex

Open Apereo 2015 Higher Education ... Open Source in a New Age

Translating Apereo Software: A Case Study using Sakai and Transifex Yuji Tokiwa (Hosei University, Japan) Daisuke Deguchi (Nagoya University, Japan) Juan Jose Merono Sanchez (University of Murcia, Spain) Jose Mariano Lujan Gonzalez (Universidad de Murcia, Spain) Diego del Blanco Orobitg (SCRIBA, Spain)

Agenda ■  Overview

■  Benefits for Apereo community

■  Context dependent translation by gettext Portable Object

■  Community translation strategy in Sakai Spanish Users (S2U)

■  Automatized process by Jenkins

Overview

Translation Style

～ 2012

2013 ～

Translator Tool

Individual

Community

Stand-alone

Cloud

Crowdin and Transifex

Crowdin Transifex

Sakai i18n community

Ja Sakai community

Ja Sakai community project - Development of Common TMX

.prop.

Common TMX

.php

.php

.prop.

.php

.php

Transifex

Transifex in a Normal Setting

Properties files in flat directory

Reorganization of Properties file

Properties file included in each module set in each directory

Free of Charge Transifex for Sakai

Transifex is used in many OSSs for localization

Benefits for Apereo community

Strategy l  Use Crowdin and Transifex

l  Up to regional communities to use Crowdin or Transifex because both platforms have almost same functions

•  Interoperability by a Translation memory

•  User interface

l  Transifex will be maintained by JaSakai community.

Benefit l  Sustainable

•  Not lock in one system (There are pros and cons)

l  Economic

•  Free of Charge

l  Functional

•  Functionally complement for one another

Context dependent translation by gettext Portable Object

L10n problems in Sakai CLE (1)

❖  There are too many properties files for translation Difficult to keep translation consistency between files

chat chat-impl

chat.properties chat-message.properties

chat-tool chat.properties permissions.properties

citations citations-util

More than 200 files for translation

Sakai 10.x


❖  Sakai CLE uses Java properties file for i18n

Format of Java properties file

❖  Each line contains single translation associated with key

➢  “key” and “value” are separated by “=“ or “:”

❖  Key should be unique in a properties file ➢  But this may not be hold between properties files

java.acccess = Access: java.theresource = The resource was not found. java.youdonot = You do not have permissions to access this resource. java.from = From: java.subject = Subject: java.attach = Attachments:

Example: access.properties of access module


❖  Sakai CLE uses Java properties file for i18n ➢  A same key is reused between properties files

■  E.g. samigo reuses “assessment_title” for different translation targets

1. assessment_title = Title 2. assessment_title = Assessment Title

Keys in properties files are not unique in Sakai CLE

Approach (1) ❖  Difficult to keep translation consistency between files

➢  Concatenate all Java properties files in each module into a single file

■  Possible to improve consistency by comparing similar English resources in a module

.properties .properties .properties .properties .properties .properties

chat


polls


site

Approach (2) ❖  Keys in properties file are not unique in Sakai CLE

➢  Identify each English resource by a combination of filename + key (translation context)

■  Possible to treat translation strings separately even if it uses the same key

new.page.launch = Content opened in a new window. Make sure pop up windows are allowed in your browser.

basiclti.properties (basiclti tool) new.page.launch = Page opened in new window.

iframe.properties (basiclti tool)

Solution: Module translation via Transifex

❖  Generate Gettext Porable Object (PO) file containing all translation strings existing in each module ➢  PO is utilized in many popular systems for

supporting i18n and l10n

❖  Sync each module (PO file) through Transifex API ➢ Newly added English strings appear in Transifex

1. #. java.acccess 2. #: access.properties:1 3. msgctxt "access.properties:java.acccess" 4. msgid "Access:" 5. msgstr "アクセス:"

Example of PO file

1.  Download latest sources from 2.  Convert ‘.properties’ files of a module to PO file 3.  Upload PO files to Transifex

4.  Community Translation using Transifex

Translation workflow

chat.po

chat chat-impl

chat.properties chat-tool chatz.properties

Web interface of Transifex

Check all translation strings of each module in one view

Find similar translations from Translation memory

4.  Community Translation using Transifex 5.  Download translation from Transifex 6.  Decompose PO file into ‘.properties’ files 7.  Commit “.properties” files to

Translation workflow

chat.po

chat chat-impl

chat.properties chat-tool chatz.properties

Benefit of module translation using Transifex

❖  Possible to keep translation consistent in each module ➢  Translator can concentrate on translating a module

❖  Script program automatically synchronize translations between GitHub and Transifex

➢ No need for setting up translation environment

❖  Everyone can join translation workflow from anywhere

➢ No need for special knowledge about translation tools (Benten, OmegaT, etc.)

Remaining problems

❖  Context is important to choose appropriate translation ➢  Impossible to distinguish noun and verb only from

original English text (e.g. “grade”, “grade item”)

➢ Difficult to guess omitted words from short English sentence (e.g. “From”, “of”, etc.)

➢  There are multiple translation candidates ■  “Submit” can be translated to “送信”, “提出”, etc.

Community translation strategy in Sakai Spanish Users (S2U)

CROWDIN PROS

-  Easy UI -  Great functionality

CONS

-  Problems with updates -  Problems exporting

-  Special characters. -  Extensions.

-  Translation by file, no by tool.

2013-2014 manually editing

.property files

CONS -  hard to divide work -  hard to review

translations -  manual updates

start - 2013 TRANSIFEX

PROS -  Clear UI -  Automatized -  Daily update -  Same functionality

as Crowdin

2014-2015

Background S2U

-  Sakai 10.3 was the first Sakai release to be fully 100% translated to Spanish

•  Crowdin •  We started to use it to manage translations. •  Sakai 10, first release out with 100% Spanish translation. •  Also used for other official languages in Spain.

Open Apereo ‘14 - ReThink

-  After Open Apereo 2014 -  Started joint effort with JA-Sakai -  One member translate / Other member reviews -  Include translations reviews in our Weekly calls

-  Transifex TAG: S2U-REVIEW -  Improve consistency by looking for ‘Concordance

Search’ -  Plan Monthly exports from Transifex to Sakai

Master (Sakai’s base code).

New strategy https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/sakai-trunk/

Translations for 10.x and Master -  Started working with

10.x. Sakai 10.3 was the very first Sakai release to be 100% fully translated to Spanish

-  Now more focus on

translating Master (Trunk)


S2U translators


Review old translations

S2U successfully maintains 3 languages using Transifex: -  Spanish -  Catalan -  Basque

Automatized process by Jenkins

Deal with the dirty work

Translate from English to Spanish

Keep English updated (Ja-Sakai)

Download spanish translations and submit PR (S2U)

Daily Monthly

-  Japanese community shared their python scripts. -  We used them to import es locale to transifex. -  We use them to download all translations from tx.

-  Jenkins help us to: -  Get a fresh clone from sakai master. -  Install python scripts. -  Run scripts to get all reviewed translations. -  Generate a patch for master. -  Optionally send the patch by email.


-  Then manually we complete the cycle: -  Review the generated patch. -  File the jira to update “es” translations. -  Create the Pull Request to merge translations

into master. -  We do this cycle monthly. -  Master branch is almost 100% translated.


Date post:	11-Aug-2015
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Translating Apereo Software: A Case Study using Sakai and Transifex

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