[CB-4461] Globalization and I18N - Crowdin Proposal Discussion

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 3.0.0
• Labels: documentation globalization translation,
• Assignee: Lisa Seacat DeLuca
• Reporter: Lisa Seacat DeLuca
• Created: 30/Jul/13 21:01
• Updated: 23/Aug/18 06:51
• Resolved: 12/Sep/13 14:15

Description

I have created a project within Transifex for cordova here:
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/cordova

The way it works is:
1. files are upload  to the Transifex system.  Transifex does not have markdown files as one of the options for file type to import but they do have html and plain text.  I have chosen plain text for testing and it appears to work great.  I setup a preferences for the resource to be pulled from github on a daily basis with the latest version of the file. 
2. Users may come in and provide translation or all or part of a file.
3. A "maintainer" or language expert is assigned to each language and approves the translations
4. progress information and status can be shown per file/project.  Once complete, the translated file can be uploaded back into github under the specific language.  This part is a manual process
Other open source projects use Transifex, for example, OpenStack.  

I propose we do the following:
Use Transifex for each major release starting with 3.0.  If it is relatively easy to translate for minor releases we can vote to do so with each.
Assign a language "maintainer" for each supported language to monitor translations. I suggest we start with Spanish and French since those are the languages our group of committers can best contribute to at this time.  (If we have a consensus to use Transfix, please volunteer if you'd like to be the maintainer for a specific language).
Once a section of the documentation is approved by the language moderator, we push the updates to GitHub.

Another thing to think about, Transifex offers automatic translation for faster translation using google translation services or microsoft's which require an api key and a paid subscription.  I don't know if either of those companies offer a free key for open source needs. I know we have a few representatives from those companies that might be able to give us more information.

Why we should be worried about translation?
Globalization! If we can attract more developers to Cordova and make it easier for those developers to get up and running with cordova by providing documentation in their native languages,  cordova will continue to grow in popularity globally.

Issue Links

• is duplicated by: CB-4460 Globalozation and I18N - Transifex Proposal Discussion