I was reading through the news thread and saw the Translator badge. I then looked in the group and saw 7 new people were added. So it's safe to assume that Internationalization progress is underway? ;)
Congrats guys. :)
Pretty much. The team decided to let translators get started translating directly to the files, and use the translation tools once it is completed.
Ahh, which explains why I couldn't find a translation tool on here. ;)
It is easy to translate the files if you have experience, all you have to have is enthusiasm, we also translate most having nothing, only scraps and experience
So what parts get translated in a file exactly?
Every one of the language files has $txt strings in it.
Here's a slice from SimpleDesk.english.php.
/**
* This file contains all of the principle language strings used by SimpleDesk and are loaded on every page.
*
* @package language
* @todo Document the text groups in this file.
* @since 1.0
*/
$txt['shd_helpdesk'] = 'Helpdesk';
//! @name Admininstration panel strings
//@{
$txt['shd_admin_welcome'] = 'Welcome to the main helpdesk administration center!';
$txt['shd_admin_title'] = 'Helpdesk Administration Center';
$txt['shd_staff_list'] = 'Helpdesk staff';
$txt['shd_update_available'] = 'New version available!';
$txt['shd_update_message'] = 'A new version of SimpleDesk has been released. We recommened you to <a href="#" id="update-link">update to the latest version</a> in order to stay secure and enjoy all features our modification have to offer.
<span style="display: none;" id="information-link-span"><br />For more information on what is new in this release, please visit <a href="#" id="information-link" target="_blank">our website</a>.</span><br />
<strong>The SimpleDesk Team</strong>';
//@}
//! @name Urgency levels, ties to helpdesk_tickets.urgency
//@{
$txt['shd_urgency_0'] = 'Low';
$txt['shd_urgency_1'] = 'Medium';
$txt['shd_urgency_2'] = 'High';
$txt['shd_urgency_3'] = 'Very High';
$txt['shd_urgency_4'] = 'Severe';
$txt['shd_urgency_5'] = 'Critical';
$txt['shd_urgency_increase'] = 'Increase';
$txt['shd_urgency_decrease'] = 'Decrease';
//@}
The bits that begin with // and /* are comments (the /* */ comments are phpDocumentor docblocks, the // stuff is Doxygen from when we were using that, but it's useful to keep in because it's nice to actually delineate blocks of language strings)
$txt is a container of all the language strings in SMF. The left part, e.g. 'shd_urgency_decrease' is an identifier you wouldn't translate, nor would you translate any of the comments.
You translate the bit on the right, inside the quotes, being careful not to touch any HTML or breaking quotes (i.e. having a ' instead a string encapsulated by ' marks without proper style of \ in front of it)
For example, let's say we were going to translate to Pig Latin as an arbitrary example, and we're just looking at the urgency levels. The result would be:
//! @name Urgency levels, ties to helpdesk_tickets.urgency
//@{
$txt['shd_urgency_0'] = 'Owlay';
$txt['shd_urgency_1'] = 'Ediummay';
$txt['shd_urgency_2'] = 'Ighhay';
$txt['shd_urgency_3'] = 'Eryvay Ighhay';
$txt['shd_urgency_4'] = 'Everesay';
$txt['shd_urgency_5'] = 'Iticalcray';
$txt['shd_urgency_increase'] = 'Increaseway;
$txt['shd_urgency_decrease'] = 'Ecreaseday';
//@}
So we haven't touched the comments or the identifiers, just the strings.
Ahhh, so are all the files of SimpleDesk translated or just SimpleDesk.english.php?
It needs to be all 5 files in 1.0 - SimpleDesk.english.php, SimpleDesk-Admin.english.php, SimpleDesk-LogAction.english.php, SimpleDesk-Permissions.english.php and SimpleDesk-Who.english.php.
Ahhh, I understand now. Thanks Arantor. :)