HelpHub Localisation Plan

Hi! This is Jon from docs team. This post outlines our plan for localising HelpHub for Rosetta sites. HelpHub is currently live on English wordpress.org site and can be accessed from https://wordpress.org/support/ (e.g. https://wordpress.org/support/category/getting-started/ ).

We’d like Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/.’s input to make this translation as smoothly as possible.

Background

At  WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe (Summit) we discussed the localisationLocalization Localization (sometimes shortened to "l10n") is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and desired local "look-and-feel." of WordPress systems such as DevHub and HelpHub.

We recognised that GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org. was not great for long-form translation and we evaluated the possibility of actually re-engineering GlotPress (or at least translate.wordpress.orgtranslate.wordpress.org The platform for contributing to the translation of WordPress core, themes and plugins.) to work for it. But this is a huge undertaking and it may involve formalisation of the whole of WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/’s translation.

So it was indicated it might be best for HelpHub to look at translation out of GlotPress.

Therefore HelpHub was designed as a stand-alone 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 that could be activated at numerous places such as 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.

Plan Phases (Proposal)

Phase 1

Goals

  • Test HelpHub localisation on one localeLocale 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/’s Rosetta site.
  • Migrate existing English content, but update notification/diff will not be available yet.

Candidate 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/

  • Japanese, since they maintain their own Codex site with a large number of docs
  • French (France), since they want to set up a fr_FR Documentation team (~10 volunteers for the moment)

Process

  1. Activate HelpHub plugin on Rosetta [MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.]
    1. Need Meta help as Rosetta sites are likely on a different network
  2. Migrate English content over (without activating HelpHub’s home interface) [Locale Team]
    1. Explore automated process (but unlikely due to WordPress.org infra)
    2. At this phase, this may need to be a manual process
    3. If manual process, adapt and refine tracking system of migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. designed by Docs Team
  3. Translation by locale team based on English contents [Locale Team]
  4. Possibly re-take related screenshots in locale language [Locale Team]
    1. Create a list of needed screenshots so other locale’s volunteers can contribute as needed
  5. Development work to link English and localised content [Meta]
  6. Define a syndication plan to track updates of the English version and trigger notifications to localisation team [Meta] [Docs]
  7. Activate HelpHub’s home interface on the Rosetta (just this test locale) on /support [Meta]
  8. Adjust the documentation links on the Rosetta site from Codex to HelpHub [Locale Team]
  9. “Push” forums link back to /support/forums [Meta]
  10. Redirect locale’s version of Codex or support materials to locale HelpHub (e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Redirects) [Locale Team]
  11. Establish communication channel between English HelpHub and locale teams [Docs] [Locale Team]
  12. Write a blog post on the locale news page to announce the move of user support resources [Locale Team]
  13. Do a retrospective and identify pain points [Docs] [Locale Team]
  14. Refine Phase 1 Plan for other locales based on first candidate [Docs]

Phase 2

Goal

Roll out the localisation to more Rosetta sites.

Process

  1. Enable HelpHub plugin on active Rosetta site (individual sign up) [Meta]
    1. What happens to teams without active volunteers? Maybe we’ll show English docs on their site
    2. Explore the possibility of showing machine-translated content
  2. Allow main WordPress.org to reveal that there are other locales’ HelpHubs/Support [Meta]
  3. (To be determined)

+make.wordpress.org/docs

#documentation, #helphub, #rosetta