Hi All,
I would like to translate Moodle into Jawi script. (Jawi script is a modified Arabic script of the Malay language.)
Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Hi Mark,
If you do not expect a Jawi-specific reply, here are some hints that you may find useful.
The proposed way to do translation is through the Moodle string translation interface. Here, you can go php file by php file selected from a drop-down menu, and you can also translate the help files through this interface.
Although I have created a translation memory for the sake of maintaining consistency, that is not much use as the above tool does not support using it.
The main problem as you go will be related to the string lacking a context. You will find a string is to be rendered into the target language in one way in one of the php files, and in another in some other php file. Unless you find a way, you will end up with a localized version that does not always produce the strings pertaining to the specific context.
My work-around has been to run another instance of Moodle why doing the translation and trying to produce the various contexts so I can see whether the string just translated is fine there.
You will also have to develop a strategy for maintaining consistency between the php files and the help files. Titles of a large number of the help files (html files) will be identical to corresponding php strings.
The php strings are not directly translated into your target language folder, a subdirectory named yourlanguage_utf8_local will be created and your translations will be saved there. This is fine as long as you do your first plunge. Later on, this will be the folder for the missing strings only, so you will have to paste recently translated strings into the core translation directory files, which is quite a nuisance.
There is no automatic way to keep track of strings/files becoming obsolete or removed.
Other language localizers will surely provide you with a lot more advice.
Karoly
If you do not expect a Jawi-specific reply, here are some hints that you may find useful.
The proposed way to do translation is through the Moodle string translation interface. Here, you can go php file by php file selected from a drop-down menu, and you can also translate the help files through this interface.
Although I have created a translation memory for the sake of maintaining consistency, that is not much use as the above tool does not support using it.
The main problem as you go will be related to the string lacking a context. You will find a string is to be rendered into the target language in one way in one of the php files, and in another in some other php file. Unless you find a way, you will end up with a localized version that does not always produce the strings pertaining to the specific context.
My work-around has been to run another instance of Moodle why doing the translation and trying to produce the various contexts so I can see whether the string just translated is fine there.
You will also have to develop a strategy for maintaining consistency between the php files and the help files. Titles of a large number of the help files (html files) will be identical to corresponding php strings.
The php strings are not directly translated into your target language folder, a subdirectory named yourlanguage_utf8_local will be created and your translations will be saved there. This is fine as long as you do your first plunge. Later on, this will be the folder for the missing strings only, so you will have to paste recently translated strings into the core translation directory files, which is quite a nuisance.
There is no automatic way to keep track of strings/files becoming obsolete or removed.
Other language localizers will surely provide you with a lot more advice.
Karoly
Hi Mark and welcome aboard!
You should start reading documentation - Translation. If you want your work being published here at download.moodle.org, read also about CVS repository or ask Koen to handle this for you.
Let me slightly correct Karoly's valuable comment: if you plan to become the language pack maintainer, you should assign yourself a capability to edit so called master language pack. Then you will be able to edit core language files. The _local folder is meant for local customizations on other servers.
You should start reading documentation - Translation. If you want your work being published here at download.moodle.org, read also about CVS repository or ask Koen to handle this for you.
Let me slightly correct Karoly's valuable comment: if you plan to become the language pack maintainer, you should assign yourself a capability to edit so called master language pack. Then you will be able to edit core language files. The _local folder is meant for local customizations on other servers.