Milestone Implement a translation workflow for the community

[Libor Polčák]

Hello,

Michael, thank you for your list of translation tools. I went through the tools 
and I append my notes on the projects.

* Weblate
    * https://weblate.org/en/
    * https://github.com/WeblateOrg/weblate
Does the software support the i18n format used by webextensions?
- Yes https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/formats/webextension.html
Advantages:
- Automatic integration with Pagure 
https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/admin/continuous.html#pagure-setup
- Continuous localization 
https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/admin/continuous.html#continuous-translation 
with notifications 
https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/user/profile.html#subscriptions
- It seems that a project can have a glossary that is independent on the 
translation file https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/user/glossary.html. When 
localizing JShelter I found a need to integrate one string into another string. 
This feature seems to help with the issue.
- several translation states with approvals etc. 
https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/workflows.html#translation-states. Fuzzy 
matching could be a nice feature but I am not sure how it actually works.
- Can be integrated with various machine translators 
https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/admin/machine.html
Things to consider:
- Looking at https://weblate.org/en/hosting/,I think that we do not have other option 
than the self-hosted platform. What puzzles me is the cross in the "Weblate 
upgrades" column. I want to interpret that we do need to update by ourselves. But a 
part of me says that we need to interpret it as updates are going to be tough. There is a 
docs page on upgrades https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/admin/upgrade.html, so hopefully 
upgrades will go smoothly.
My preference:
Weblast looks like the best tool from the list but we should evaluate the 
software first


* OmegaT (offline)
    * https://omegat.org/
    * 
https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/translators-and-free-software-a-practical-introduction-to-omegat/
Does the software support the i18n format used by webextensions?
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OmegaT&action=edit&section=6 
According to my brief searching, it seems that there is no direct support of 
webextensions JSON, there is likely a way to add own format
Advantages:
- As it is offline, we would not need to maintain the server.
- Seems to be used a lot by translators.
- Seems to include useful features like stemming, spellchecking, grammar 
checking an others
- glossaries 
https://omegat.sourceforge.io/manual-standard/en/chapter.panes.html#panes.glossary
- machine translations 
https://omegat.sourceforge.io/manual-standard/en/chapter.panes.html#panes.machinetranslation
Disadvantage:
- User need to download, it is Java application and could be missing in the 
repository or there is only an old version
- According to the LibrePlanet video, it seems that people need to spend time 
to set the program up. This might prevent translators to translate JShelter.
Uncertainties:
- Are there sth like workflows with the possibility to review translations of 
others? Status checking for multiple languages? Maybe team projects with a 
separate repository 
https://omegat.sourceforge.io/manual-standard/en/chapter.how.to.html#how.to.setup.team.project
My preference:
- I think that this will not suite us, let's explore other options



* Tolgee
    * https://github.com/tolgee/tolgee-platform/
    * 
https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/software-localization-translation-of-web-based-projects/
Does the software support the i18n format used by webextensions?
I am not sure from the docs but it seems to aim at web projects
Advantages:
- In context translations https://tolgee.io/features/dev-tools#in-context (not 
sure if they would work with a webextension well, e.g. popup windows)
- translations memories 
https://tolgee.io/features/translation-assistance#translation-memory, machine 
translations 
https://tolgee.io/features/translation-assistance#machine-translation, auto 
translations https://tolgee.io/features/translation-assistance#auto-translation
- reviewing tools
Disadvantage:
- From the video, I get that our current approach to translations would need to 
be redone
- It seems less advanced compared to the tools above
My preference:
I fear that the approach does not work with webextensions



* Fluent
    * https://projectfluent.org/
    * https://github.com/projectfluent/fluent, I am not sure what is the 
difference between fluent and fluentjs 
https://github.com/projectfluent/fluent.js
Does the software support the i18n format used by webextensions?
AFAIU, this tool does not provide a way to manage the workflow of the 
translations but instead is a library that helps to add complex grammar 
structure. We have a couple of strings that would likely benefit from Fluent 
but right now it seems to me that fluent is not necessary to us




* Pontoon (Mozilla)
    * https://github.com/mozilla/pontoon/
    * https://pontoon.mozilla.org/
    * https://mozilla-l10n.github.io/localizer-documentation/
Advantages:
- terms looks like a glossary of tools above
- keeps history of translations
- automated translation suggestions from Machine Translation, Translation 
Memory and Terminology services.
Disadvantage:
- Seems to focus on mercurial
My preference:
Weblate seems to be better suited to me



* Translate Toolkit
    * https://github.com/translate/translate
    * https://toolkit.translatehouse.org/
Does the software support the i18n format used by webextensions?
Yes, 
http://docs.translatehouse.org/projects/translate-toolkit/en/latest/formats/json.html
Advantages:
Disadvantage:
- The feature list 
http://docs.translatehouse.org/projects/translate-toolkit/en/latest/features.html
 is missing some functionality that is available in other tools like machine 
translations, translation memory etc.
- It seems that the workflow needs converting the JSON to PO and back 
http://docs.translatehouse.org/projects/translate-toolkit/en/latest/commands/index.html
 - this might result in some lost information, however, the PO tools can be 
useful even if we do not use the toolkit as the primary tool
My preference:
We can use PO tools as a secondary tool



* Pootle (Unmaintained)
    * Formerly used by the GNU project.
    * https://github.com/translate/pootle/issues/6920



* Transifex
    * Not self-hostable, but would be gratis for our project.
    * https://www.transifex.com/open-source/
    * Used by NoScript.
Does the software support the i18n format used by webextensions?
It works for NoScript :)
Advantages:
- reviews available
- branch support
- Machine Translation, Translation Memory 
https://www.transifex.com/solutions/for-managers/
Disadvantages:
- Pagure is not listed as an option for intergration 
https://www.transifex.com/integrations/, however, we could use the old 
jsrestrictor github repository for the intergraion 
https://www.transifex.com/features/localization-automation/
- Webpages full of trackers


====

My personal preference is to try Weblate. Pontoon and Transifex looks like the 
next tools to look at if Weblate does not work for us.

Best wishes

Libor