Ubuntu Wiki

Translating Ubuntu Documentation

If you are a translator, and are interested in helping out translating the Ubuntu documentation into your language, all you need to know is how to use the [http://launchpad.net/rosetta Rosetta translation system]. You can find out how to use that on the ["Rosetta"] wiki page. Once you have learnt all of this, the docteam documents can be found in several places: [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+source/ubuntu-docs ubuntu-docs], [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+source/kubuntu-docs kubuntu-docs], and [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+source/xubuntu-docs xubuntu-docs]. That's it!

The rest of this page is a description of how the Documentation Team work gets translated and inserted into Ubuntu. It is primarily intended for reference of the Documentation Team: translators do not need to know all this information.

Package Requirements

To install all packages required to build ubuntu-docs, including translations, run:

• apt-get build-dep ubuntu-docs

Process

There are three steps to getting documentation translated:

1. generating a translation template
2. letting the translators work their magic
3. importing the translations back into our repository

These are taken in turn below.

1. Generating a translation template

• When an English XML document is ready for translation, we make a POT file, which is the template that translators use. To make this, we use the command:

  • xml2po -k -o output.pot input.xml.

• For documents spread over more than one file, these can be included as follows:

  • xml2po -k -o output.pot chapter1.xml chapter2.xml

• IMPORTANT: For documents which have an omf file, these should also be included in the pot file.

• As a result, generally the appropriate command is:

  • xml2po -k -o output.pot C/*.xml C/*.omf

2. Letting the translators work their magic

• The pot file should then be uploaded to rosetta. This is done automatically if the pot is in a source deb package uploaded into the current version of Ubuntu, if not, it must be done manually with the help of the Rosetta Administrators.
• Translators then do the rest!

3. Importing the translations back into our repository

• Automatic exporting from Rosetta into the docteam tree is not implemented. So here is what happens.

• When a good time comes to import the translations, the translations can be downloaded from rosetta (for example, the "Download Translations link [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/dapper/+source/ubuntu-docs/+pots/desktopguide here]).

• The tarball as imported from Rosetta is placed in the relevant document's directory (for example branches/dapper/ubuntu/desktopguide).

• The translation script (translate.sh) is then used to unpack the tarball, and convert the translations back to xml in the appropriate directory.

• The script also checks the resulting xml for validity, and there are generally errors that must be corrected which are displayed onscreen. This must be done manually.
• Now, we check which translations have been updated, and which are *completely* new:

  • svn status

• If there are completely new translations, these need to be added to the relevant Makefile for building html, and to the packaging for {k}{x}ubuntu-docs.

That's it!

CategoryDocteam