nextcloud-docs/developer_manual/app_development/translation_setup.rst

.. _Translation setup:

=================
Translation setup
=================

Nextcloud's translation system is powered by `Transifex <https://explore.transifex.com/nextcloud/>`_. To start translating sign up and enter a group. If your community app should be translated by the `Nextcloud community on Transifex <https://explore.transifex.com/nextcloud/>`_ just follow the setup section below.

Translation tool
----------------

.. note::

  The tool-based translation currently only supports repositories hosted on ``github.com``. If your app is hosted elsewhere, you can try to follow the :ref:`manual-translation` instead.

The `translation tool <https://github.com/nextcloud/docker-ci/tree/master/translations/translationtool>`_ scrapes the source code for method calls to  ``t()``
or ``n()`` to extract the strings that should be translated. If you check
in minified JS code for example then those method names are also quite
common and could cause wrong extractions. For this reason we allow to
specify a list of files that the translation tool will not scrape for
strings. You simply need to add a file named :file:`.l10nignore` into
the root folder of your app and specify the files one per line::

    # compiled vue templates
    js/bruteforcesettings.js



Setup of the transifex sync
---------------------------

Transifex configuration ``.tx/config``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To setup the transifex sync within the Nextcloud community you need to add first the
transifex config to your app folder at :file:`.tx/config` (please replace ``MYAPP`` with your apps id):

.. code-block:: ini

    [main]
    host     = https://www.transifex.com
    lang_map = hu_HU: hu, nb_NO: nb, sk_SK: sk, th_TH: th, ja_JP: ja, bg_BG: bg, cs_CZ: cs, fi_FI: fi

    [o:nextcloud:p:nextcloud:r:{{APPID}}]
    file_filter = translationfiles/<lang>/{{APPID}}.po
    source_file = translationfiles/templates/{{APPID}}.pot
    source_lang = en
    type        = PO

Then create a folder :file:`l10n` and a file :file:`l10n/.gitkeep` to create an
empty folder which later holds the translations.

Branch selection ``.tx/backport``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The bot will run every night and only push commits to the following branches branch once there is an update to the translation:

* main
* master
* stableX (X being the recent 3 versions of Nextcloud Server)

You can overwrite this list by creating a file ``.tx/backport`` in your repository with the following content::

    develop stable

That would sync the translations for the branches (``main`` and ``master`` are added automatically):

* main
* master
* develop
* stable

Excluding files ``.l10nignore``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Add one more file called :file:`.l10nignore` in root of the repository and the files and folders to ignore for translations.
This should be used to exclude files that create false-positive translations, such as:

- Compiled JavaScript files ``js/``
- 3rd-party PHP dependencies ``vendor/``
- Non-shipped files and documentation ``docs/``

Validate source strings
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After finishing the setup, you can validate the translation source strings which outlines some common mistakes.
Clone the `nextcloud/docker-ci <https://github.com/nextcloud/docker-ci/>`_ repository and afterwards run the following script:

.. code:: sh

  bash translations/validateSyncSetup.sh Owner Repository

Repository permissions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now the GitHub account `@nextcloud-bot <https://github.com/nextcloud-bot>`_ needs to get ``write`` access to your repository.
You can invite it from your repository settings::

    https://github.com/<user-name>/<repo-name>/settings/access

After sending the invitation, please `open a ticket using the "Request translations" template <https://github.com/nextcloud/docker-ci/issues/new/choose>`_.

.. attention::

    In general you should enable the
    `protected branches feature <https://help.github.com/articles/configuring-protected-branches/>`_
    for default and stable branches. If you do that, you need to grant the
    `@nextcloud-bot <https://github.com/nextcloud-bot>`_ ``admin`` permissions and allow administrators to bypass the protection.
    This feature however is only possible for repositories owned by organizations, not in repositories owned by individuals!
    You can `create your own organization <https://docs.github.com/en/organizations/collaborating-with-groups-in-organizations/creating-a-new-organization-from-scratch>`_

If you need help just `open a ticket with the request <https://github.com/nextcloud/docker-ci/issues/new/choose>`_
and we can also guide you through the steps.

.. _manual-translation:

Manual translation
------------------

If Transifex is not the right choice or the app is not accepted for translation,
generate the gettext strings by yourself by executing our
`translation tool <https://github.com/nextcloud/docker-ci/tree/master/translations/translationtool>`_
in the app folder::


    cd /srv/http/nextcloud/apps/myapp
    translationtool.phar create-pot-files

The translation tool requires ``gettext``, installable via::

    apt-get install gettext

The above tool generates a template that can be used to translate all strings
of an app. This template is located in the folder :file:`translationfiles/template/` with the
name :file:`myapp.pot`. It can be used by your favored translation tool such
as `Poedit <https://poedit.net>`_. It then creates a :file:`.po` file. 
The :file:`.po` file needs to be placed in a folder named like the language code
with the app name as filename - for example :file:`translationfiles/es/myapp.po`.
After this step the tool needs to be invoked to transfer the po file into our
own fileformat that is more easily readable by the server code::

    translationtool.phar convert-po-files

Now the following folder structure is available::

    myapp/l10n
    |-- es.js
    |-- es.json
    myapp/translationfiles
    |-- es
    |   |-- myapp.po
    |-- templates
        |-- myapp.pot

You then just need the :file:`.json` and :file:`.js` files for a working localized app.