Move translations from Transifex to Crowdin?

[MekDrop]

At current moment I think we use Transifex for translations but I think Crowdin would be for us a bit better.

I'm not sure how on Transifex it would be possible to find projects that you could translate, so I'm not sure how many wannable translators finds our place and tries to translate something. But with Crowdin that is easy. Just take a look here -> https://crowdin.com/projects#showcases/cms

I'm not sure right now how Transifex works right now. But I think I could make to export crowdin results periodically with help of Travis to retro branch. So, we always could keep with latest translations.

What do you think?

[fiammybe]

The state of translations is a bit in limbo. The solution I put together was based upon a script on my PC, so that wasn't really scalable. Transifex is based on file templates, and the translations are generated from there. Adding a translation section to the website would be a good thing, and integrating the translation service we want to use will be necessary for that.
I don't know how crowdin works, I might try it out with the translations for the billboard module.

[comradekingu]

@MekDrop I think both Transifex and Crowdin are lackluster in terms of discovery, but that is the least of their problems.
Going from one to the other seems meaningless to me, as they are crucially broken in the same ways.
Most libre software projects use Weblate.

[MekDrop]

@comradekingu thanks I didn't know this tool... and I think I know why...

I tried to give it a try and my experience is that joining translation there is much easier than in Crowdin but adding your own project there is harder. But from the interface perspective, I like Crowdin much more.

[fiammybe]

@comradekingu could you elaborate where you think transifex and crowdin are fundamentally broken? I've tried them both and find them a big help in translating the texts I needed to. Crowdin is a bit smoother in the UX department, even though setting up a new project can be somewhat complex.

[comradekingu]

@MekDrop https://github.com/apps/weblate
It can be self-hosted. Setup leaves something to be desired, but I can help with that.

@fiammybe
Closed source as-a-service-only.
No ability to see strings without logging in. No ability to log in without accepting terms.
No ability to see multiple languages at once, or many strings at once.
Either strings held up in voting (crowdin) or a system that relies on the authority of finding good language coordinators and reviewers to lock strings.
Slow UI, no good communication, no community, no good system of automated checks.

Transifex has the worst UI I agree, but Crowdin only looks better, it doesn't actually function if you want to get anywhere close to a quality result. This is all evident from the amount of interaction and the resulting quality in any of the projects on there.

[MekDrop]

Crowdin is very similar like Transifex if we talk about "translations from templates". But the way how there you can contribute to any open source project is kinda different.

[fiammybe]

I tried Transifex again, as I noticed that we have quite complete Mandarin chinese (schinese) translations for the core. A lot of functionality has been added and changed in the months since I used it last. Let's keep Transifex at the moment, see if we can integrate both crowdin and transifex and have a look at what is easiest. In the mean time, let's make some noise about wanting people to translate :-)

[comradekingu]

Why would you settle on the two worst platforms possible.
Someone has taken the time to submit what is possibly a good quality translation.
Despite the great difficulty in doing so on any of those platforms, now you are further ensuring no consistency can be had by making the communication even more difficult.

[MekDrop]

I would like only one system to use not both. More places = harder for new users to know where to go work to do.

For me Transifex has one issue and I'm not sure how to fix it. For new users you need there to specify language before translation begin even if it exists. But if I don't know if I really could help seeing what is done and what we need that prevents me from going further.

[fiammybe]

I added a mapping file for Transifex in PR #356 , just to be able to use what is already there. I needed something fast for 1.3.11

[fiammybe]

We could test out the translations for 2.0 on crowdin. We might look into the translation system to see if there are better alternatives that exist currently for the user interface.

[MekDrop]

I think maybe we should back to this topic later. At the moment it would be good enough just to make icms code to move forward. Right now we have many not closed and I think more important issues.

[fiammybe]

As a matter of fact, we have a crowdin Enterprise instance for ImpressCMS here : http://impresscms.crowdin.com/

It has been neglected a bit lately, but it is up-to-date with the latest translations. Just need some more people willing to take on translating languages I don't know.

[comradekingu]

"3 contributors. No activity in the last 14 days".
Crowdin is the enemy of libre software translations. Hoping I can somehow help you avoid going down that road.
I have set up and do manage quite a few Weblate projects.
The offer is limited to Weblate, which is all the utility available from by my experience of doing the same on other platforms.

[fiammybe]

I didn't know weblate to be honest, and given that we don't really have a group of people contributing translations, I'm not against giving it a shot.
Handling multiple languages is one of the focus points in ImpressCMS, so having as many languages available could be a big asset.

[comradekingu]

You however do have a platform taking translations and any activity to mean it can do whatever it pleases, as per its terms and services. That is where I don't want my work to end up.
Otherwise, happy to help. :)