Integration with translation websites

[Chris Forsythe]

Hi,

We're looking at using Transifex for localizing with Growl, and I'd like to request the ability for someone translating to submit a file to Transifex via iLocalize. We're working on making all of our products strings based translation in order to make things hopefully easier, and I'd like to skip a few steps if I could.

Transifex has an API for this (I've only read it for 5 minutes, but it seems to be pretty much what's necessary): http://help.transifex.net/features/api/api-v2.html

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Chris Forsythe

[Jean Bovet]

Hi Chris,

That's an interesting web integration indeed. I'll play with it for iLocalize itself to become more familiarized and will see what I can do. Is anyone else on the list using this system or another one? Any feedback on it?

Thanks!

Jean

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[Chris Forsythe]

If you have questions about it, the transifex/indifex folks are really responsive. If you can see it, here's how we're using their site so far:

https://www.transifex.net/projects/p/TGP/

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Chris Forsythe

[Alexander Henket]

As a Growl localizer, I'm somewhat forced to use it :-)

Transifex has many hiccups being new in the game. It's handling of encoding is simple: base encoding determines encoding for all languages, I did not see how anything beyond .strings files could be handled (i.e. HTML, plist, images, …) There's no glossary feature, and there's no good search/replace mechanism. So in my short initial reaction would be: promising, but really not fit for any small app beyond .strings translation.

Growl is just such an app, so it might work. However: Transifex as a website is not exactly a good localization environment without glossaries, project wide search etc. So iLocalize has all the benefits that I as a localizer want, except for a few things that Transifex does:

- cooperation with others in the project and language
- notifications of updates on one file without a need for the developer to send out the whole thing

So, in my mind, and only from a localizers perspective you could aim for something along these lines:

- iLocalize uses REST interface to set up the base project by importing all resources from Transifex
- Its likely that initial setup requires the actually full app bundle containing the executables as well, so maybe initial setup through Transifex is not feasible

- iLocalize checks, at a certain interval, if the developer, or co-localizers working on the same language have posted updates to Transifex

- iLocalize notifies the user on updates and offers to update the base and/or localized file

- If a localizer wants to start working on a file that came from Transifex, he needs to lock it first at Transfex

- If a localizer propagates a translation, he might touch files he didn't have a lock for yet. In order to accept a propagated translation, he should lock that file at Transifex first

- You would need a new symbol on files that says "Has lock", and functionality surrounding locking and the exception handling thereof.

There's probably a zillion details in all this. Let the list know what your assessment leads to.

Alexander Henket

[Chris Forsythe]

Keep in mind that we're simply using Transifex on Growl as a way to keep from having to hand pass strings files back and forth multiple times, and to validate the percentage of strings completed. I'm not looking to replace iLocalize from the workflow here, just change the export to possibly have another option. There are a few ways to have the other file types that were mentioned here. Without RTF though I can't use their site for everything obviously, and there's quite a few other things to consider here as well.

That said, what Alexander has said here is really powerful if you take it a few more steps further. Transifex has an option to automatically update based on a url that can be in a repo. So in theory, I could update a strings file in mercurial. Once the strings file is updated and detected, Transifex pulls that in. Then iLocalize performs something like what Alexander talks about here. I think that'd be pretty neat. It'd remove a whole lot of back and forth for developers that could use that workflow, which would be ideal. In theory the only interaction on the actual website itself could be setting up accounts, and then the final strings updates performed by the developer to the project itself. This removes quite a few steps I think, on both sides.

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Chris Forsythe

[Dimitris Glezos]

Hey guys,

I'm Dimitris, one of the Transifex folks. Great to see this thread!
Would love to see an integration with iLocalize. I'd be happy to
answer any questions regarding Transifex and integration.

I believe using iLocalize as the front-end and Transifex as the
backend/storage/sync would be a great idea.

A couple of points which were raised in the discussion: You can find
the file format Transifex supports on the docs section (http://
help.transifex.net/features/formats.html), and also the glossary
feature is also available (eg. for Growl at
https://www.transifex.net/projects/p/TGP/glossary/l/en/).

-d

[Jean Bovet]

Hi Dimitris,

Yes, it would be a nice integration. I suppose I can use the REST interface directly from iLocalize and feed Transifex directly with xliff or other supported formats directly, right?

Jean

[Dimitris Glezos]

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 7:42 PM, Jean Bovet <jean_...@mac.com> wrote:
> Yes, it would be a nice integration. I suppose I can use the REST interface
> directly from iLocalize and feed Transifex directly with xliff or other
> supported formats directly, right?

Hi Jean,

Yup, this is possible. What use cases are you considerign? I'm thinking about
the following two, which both hook up iLocalize with Transifex's crowdsourcing
platform.

1. The developer will want to push his source language files to his project on
Transifex (Tx) for crowdsourcing. At some point he'll pull the translation
files to package them in his app.

2. A translator on the other hand might want to contribute to a number of
projects. So a "Browser Projects from Tx" would be useful, where he can
select a project, a file and download it locally. When he finishes,
iLocalize can upload it back to the repo on Tx.

-d

--
Dimitris Glezos
Founder and CEO, Transifex
US Tel: +1.650.440.2308

Social Localization Crowdsourcing
http://www.transifex.com/ -- http://angel.co/transifex