Petya Raykovska 12:56 pm on November 7, 2014
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Notes from the GlotPress discussion at #WCSF Community summit

Notes from the discussion on improving GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org. (Mon, Oct 29th), suggested by Marko for the Community Summit in San Francisco.

Participants

Birgit Olzem, Catia Kitahara, George Stephanis, Mayo Moriyama, Marko Heijnen, Paolo Belcastro, Petya Raykovska, Rafael Funchal, Sam Sidler, Stephane Daury, Xavier Borderie.

If you were there and I missed your name, please leave a comment.

Improving translate.wordpress.orgtranslate.wordpress.org The platform for contributing to the translation of WordPress core, themes and plugins.

We spent a lot of time in this first meeting was explaining the various use cases of GlotPress to new people that were interested in joining helping with the project. Some of the things that were mentioned:

  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. plugins are already in GlotPress
  • PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme directories will go into the RosettaRosetta The code name of the theme for the local WordPress sites (eg. bg.wordpress.org is a “Rosetta” site). All locale specific WordPress sites are referred to as “Rosetta sites.” The name was inspired from the ancient Rosetta Stone, which contained more or less the same text in three different languages. sites soon
  • Plugin and theme translations will go into GlotPress soon
  • Automattic has similar issues because they use GlotPress as well. Will help with some resources.
  • Right now, GlotPress is a tool for developers and power users, not end users. If we want to expand usage and make for an easy translation, it needs some improvements.
  • Public translations – are they on the map – crowd sourcing (like Facebook and Google did). How can that happen?
  • Idea: Maybe create a plugin that allows you to click on a stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. and translate it. Gives you access to GlotPress from wp-admin.
  • GlotPress is in a separate SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. repoWordPress Localization Repository The WordPress Localization Repository at https://i18n.svn.wordpress.org/ is a Subversion repository where official WordPress translations are maintained. See Working with the Translation Repository for details. with a separate blog/site
  • The changes we’re talking about need to be in trac instead of in people’s heads – let’s document them.
  • Need to define the translation memory (and glossary) for newcomers, instead of hoping they can figure it out.
  • We have to be careful with ideas like in-page translation, because translations are something that helps bring local communities together.
  • Should we use Google Translate more? We depend on Google APIs. Can have it, but do we really want it?

Glossary problems and ideas:

  • We can’t use the glossary for the main project (WordPress) on other projects. Right now we need to create a glossary for every separate project.
  • Find a string based on a glossary term and do all of the translations for it
  • We could include a markup checkup to advise users with no tech background and teach them what different htmlHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. tags mean

How to improve translate.wordpress.org?

  • Make it fast: It’s not fast to get to the project you want to translate.
  • Database query could start using memcache.
  • Improve the UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing./UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it.
  • Make it easy to add translations by the community (in page? using a plugin?)
  • Add a bunch of improvements for validators (notifications, better filters, etc)

UI trouble

  • Perhaps create a global search? Or one per project?
  • Searching doesn’t happen right now
  • Filtering is terrible.
  • New user flow is very bad as well. Needs to be easier to encourage more translators.
  • Add notification subscriptions for new stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. to translate (immediate, daily or weekly)
  • Priority strings – developers can mark the strings that are really important, or those strings are marked depending on how often they’re used in the software. Would be really useful for new localesLocale Locale = language version, often a combination of a language code and a region code, for instance es_MX denotes Spanish as it’s used in Mexico. A list of all locales supported by WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ so translators know which strings to start with.

New kids on the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.

The good news is that more people will work on the project, more resources are now dedicated to improving GlotPress. As you may have already noticed, Stephane (@stephdau) has been doing research on various aspects of the project. Aris Blevins (@teamadesign) is already helping with the UX/UI aspect. Core contributor George Stephanis is also on board.

There was a meeting at the third day of the Community Summit dedicated to GlotPress UX/UI, where we discussed different use cases, different types of users of the software and how to make GlotPress more friendly for non technical users. As a result @teamadesign is now working on the UX/UI improvements. If you haven’t already, go fill out these short surveys on the string translation modal to help him out:

For translators: http://poll.fm/50l7c
For validators: http://poll.fm/50l7n

I can imagine every one of you as a translator and validatorValidator See translation editor. has their own GlotPress desires, we should definitely discuss that in one of the weekly meetings to follow. Also, comments!

Cheers!

Petya

#community-summit, #discussion, #glotpress, #notes