Wed 23 Jul 2008 |
2 way synchronization for translator teams
Written by Karol Čejka
We do translate Joomla! resources from English to our Native local language. The only difference is, it is translating on your own or in a team.
When you translate alone, you don't have problems with resources synchronization, if you work with two people on translations, you could need tools for synchronizing resources and also versioning this resource.
Many of us of course use Subversion(SVN) or CVS. In the last years SVN is more popular. It is a good and helpful tool in many cases, but it's not SVN I would like to show you.
In last years my team has grown, and we have problems with resources synchonization. In many cases translators don't know what is versioning system and don't understand what SVN really can do.
They do many mistakes and some work is lost in synchronization (don't understand, source must be updated before work and committed after work). I believe some of our leaders of translation work group have also the same problem.
One way to prevent issues, is don't use SVN directly and translate resources on live web. But how make resources in Sync. with SVN?
Answer is, to use joomla livesite on installed on the Internet, with installed component Translation Manager, and use a simple script executed by cron.
- Joomla! site on Internet (demo site) - basic Joomla! installation not more
- installed Translation Manager - you can find it on http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla_1_5_tr1/ (big thanks to Ifan Evans)
- simple script executed by cron (run on linux)
File: /home/translations/runUpdate.sh
echo "--- copy from web to repository ---"
cp /home/translations/www/preklady.joomlahelp.sk/language/sk-SK/*.* /home/translations/svn/sk_translations/Joomla_1_5_4/src/frontend/sk-SK/
cp /home/translations/www/preklady.joomlahelp.sk/administrator/language/sk-SK/*.* /home/translations/svn/sk_translations/Joomla_1_5_4/src/administrator/sk-SK/
echo "--- jump to repository directory ---"
cd /home/translations/svn/sk_translations
echo "--- run svn update ---"
svn up --username translation_svk --password freewilly
echo "--- run svn commit ---"
svn commit . -m "Commit from WEB preklady.joomlahelp.sk" --username translation_svk --password freewilly
echo "--- copy from repository to web ---"
cp /home/translations/svn/sk_translations/Joomla_1_5_4/src/frontend/sk-SK/*.* /home/translations/www/preklady.joomlahelp.sk/language/sk-SK/
cp /home/translations/svn/sk_translations/Joomla_1_5_4/src/administrator/sk-SK/*.* /home/translations/www/preklady.joomlahelp.sk/administrator/language/sk-SK/
File: /etc/cron.daily/runUpdateSlovakTranslationWeb
/home/translations/runUpdate.sh | mail -v -s "Autocommit/Autoupdate slovak Joomla! translations on www.preklady.joomlahelp.sk"
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As you can see it is pretty simple and useful. And also this has 2 sides, good and poor.
Good:- Users don't need to learn about SVN and how it works
- Translation Manager is easy to use and translators like this component
- All changes are just in time on the web (good for corrections)
- The synchronization is automatized, no need of some extra human work
- skilled users can work directly with flat files and svn (2 way synchronization)
- work on web is anonymized, none knows who to make translations (bad for big ego boys, and also if you need to find the appropriate person who made a poor translation or some changes)
- possible problems with code who can't be merged (I hope this will never be - I trust in svn merge algorithm)
you see it is more positive against negative things.
I use this script as a solution with my translators team, and it work well. I hope other teams also can use this for better cooperation in team and for better quality of translations.
2008-07-24 07:12:48
thanks for pointing this!!
Cheers
Pete
2008-07-25 05:29:48
Thanks for your contributions.
2008-07-25 06:54:20
2008-08-10 20:24:53
Im Mehdi Edalat from IRAN.
Id like to tell you Im working so hard in joomla 1.5.5 language to translate it.
Because all the translated since yet is not complet and understandable.
I found a lot of wrong translated words.
Im sure that Ill send to you less than a week.
thank for your attention.
Best regards. Mehdi Edalat
+989122534550