Title: Developer take care of the… Author: Daniele Scasciafratte Published: January 24, 2017 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mte90/) [Daniele Scasciafratte](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mte90/) 2:02 pm _on_ January 24, 2017   # Developer take care of the… **Developer take care of the translators!** Yes, I am a developer and translator and I see a bad behaviour that it is easy to fix and can help the translation of your 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. from the community. _First rule_: No automatic translation! As I already said on the last [WP Translation Day](https://www.crowdcast.io/e/gwtd2/21) the English language is not very good for translation and it is easy to spot when they are automatic. The communities have a glossary and rules that the automatic translator doesn’t follow. So the PTEProject Translation Editor A Project Translation Editor (often referred to as PTE) is a person, who has access to validate strings on a specific project (for example BuddyPress, WooCommerce or Twenty Fourteen) for one specific locale. A project translation editor can approve strings that are added by translation contributors. Per project translation, editors are appointed by a [general translation editor](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/glossary/#general-translation-editor) after a [request by the project author](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/rosetta/theme-plugin-directories/#requesting-new-translation-editors) or by the contributors themselves. has to check every stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. that usually is rejected and that time could be used to approve beautiful translations. _Second Rule_: Why put your name as developer and links of your website or of the plugin site under the __(),_e() etc? GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers [Translate.WordPress.org](http://translate.wordpress.org). More information is available at [glotpress.org](http://glotpress.org/). detect them and ask to translator to translate! It’s useless! Do you have any other rules for the developers that need to be followed to improve the life of a translator? ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=threads) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=bluesky) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=facebook) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=x) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=mastodon) * [ WhatsApp ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=jetpack-whatsapp) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?share=linkedin) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fpolyglots%2F2017%2F01%2F24%2Fdeveloper-take-care-of-the%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) * [To-do](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?output_format=md#) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4ec496e84e28f9d86d863cdfeb04f272474dc9b58587a65527b09506a8f20ee8? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Pascal Casier](https://profiles.wordpress.org/casiepa/) 2:16 pm _on_ January 24, 2017 3. Hi Daniele, 4. Something extra: **Please give comments**. We are not into your code, so help the translators and give an explanation on the line just above: 5. /* translators: Timeout is if payment failed or user did not complete the process*/ __( ‘Timeout’, ‘my-text-domain’ ); 6. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/890bd890338f9b6a17143a65ac10a20410e135583d95106bb09f20d91f66afe2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Tor-Björn Fjellner](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobifjellner/) 8:18 am _on_ January 26, 2017 * Note that there are actually two ways to handle this: When there are some placeables, the best approach is use a comment on the line immediately before line where the stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. occurs, like Pascal just showed. But: for stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. of just one-two words, that may not be clear directly, or where their use may not be directly understood, it may be better to use the context approach. This tells the translator how the translated string is going to be used, and makes sure that the translation won’t be automatically used in a different place, there the string happens to look exactly the same, but might have a different meaning. * ```notranslate $translated_text1 = _x( 'Help', 'Verb. Used on button', 'my-text-domain' ); _ex( 'Help', 'Noun. Used in top-level menu', 'my-text-domain' ); ``` 7. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/890bd890338f9b6a17143a65ac10a20410e135583d95106bb09f20d91f66afe2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 8. [Tor-Björn Fjellner](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobifjellner/) 12:16 am _on_ January 26, 2017 9. There’s more: Don’t build concatenated stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings.. In some languages you may translate different parts of a stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. separately and then combine it together to a full phrase. But for many languages that’s an impossible task. (Russian example: Edit – Редактировать, page – страница, but Edit page – Редактировать страниц**у**) 10. Make sure that you handle plurals correctly. Whenever you have phrase where you report a variable number of something, then you SHALL use the functions for plurals. Because: Different languages handles plurals in different ways. And with the correct I18NInternationalization Internationalization (sometimes shortened to **I18N**, meaning “I - eighteen letters -N”) is the process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can easily be adapted to specific local languages and cultures, a process called localization. This is the process of making software translatable. Information about Internationalization for developers can be found in the [Developer’s handbooks](https://developer.wordpress.org/). you make it possible to make it right. Did you know, that Russian uses singular not only for 1, but also for 21, 31, 41… (But, if something talks about, say, 48 hours, and you know that you aren’t really going to change this parameter, then you give that just as an ordinary phrase “The process takes up to 48 hours.” No need to overdo the plural complexity here.) 11. When you have more than one plaeable in a string, make sure to use ordering parameters(% 1$s, rather than %s). This makes it possible for the translator to build a phrase that feels logical in the target language. 12. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/890bd890338f9b6a17143a65ac10a20410e135583d95106bb09f20d91f66afe2? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 13. [Tor-Björn Fjellner](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobifjellner/) 4:54 pm _on_ January 26, 2017 14. One more thing: Avoid overly long stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings.. If you put 4-5 sentences or more in one single stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings., then it becomes a bit heavy for translation. 15. * There’s a bigger risk that the translator misses some details that might be important. * In case you change anything the translation has to be done again. Really small changes usually create so called _fuzzy matches_. But for a fuzyy match, the editor has to figure out what has changed and whether anything needs to be changed in the translation, (for instance _httpHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands._ -> _httpsHTTPS HTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information._ or _the best_ -> _one of the best_). The longer the string, the more job to figure this out. ### Leave a Reply 󠀁[Cancel reply](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/developer-take-care-of-the/?output_format=md#respond)󠁿 You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fpolyglots%2F2017%2F01%2F24%2Fdeveloper-take-care-of-the%2F&locale=en_US) to post a comment. # Post navigation [← Hi, I’d like to contribute…](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/23/hi-id-like-to-contribute/) [Hello Polyglots, I am the… →](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/01/24/hello-polyglots-i-am-the-38/)