Translate Open-Xchange to supported language

Requirements

Tools for translating the UI

For the UI translation a tool like KBabel, Lokalize or poEdit is required. It's also possible to translate the files in a text editor, but it's error-prone.

Tools for translating the manuals

For the translation of the manuals a TM tool is strongly recommended. You can also convert your files to .po. But that has to be done from the beginning. Once, the initial translation is done and no TM tool has been used, there's no alignment. This can be done later though with an alignment tool, but it's essential to use a tool from the beginning. As we have many updates in the single files, also many last minute updates, a translation tool is a must have. It's also possible to use a diff tool, but that way you cannot make use of similar translations or build up a terminology data base with direct access while translating.

File formats

.po files

The letters PO in .po files means Portable Object, to distinguish it from .mo files, where MO stands for Machine Object.

A .po file is made up of many entries, each entry holding the relation between an original untranslated string and its corresponding translation. An entry can look like this:

#: acceptdeny.xml:27 <br>
msgid "You have unconfirmed appointments" 
msgstr "U hebt onbevestigde afspraken"

fuzzy entries

This flag can be generated by the msgmerge program or it can be inserted by the translator. It shows that the msgstr string might no longer be correct. The translator has to check whether the translation requires further modification. Once satisfied with the translation, the fuzzy attribute has to be removed.

Placeholders and shortcuts

Placeholders like %2$s need to stay as they read in other information. & indicates a shortcut and also needs to stay. They must not be modified in any way (e.g., no spaces between the placeholder elements). Please always read the comments in the files.

Address formats

Please always take a look at the comments filed in the .po files. There are some strings that must not be translated, but only adjusted to your language i.e. re-ordered or changed punctuation-wise. Please have a look at the following examples:

#. Address format for 2 line display (card view).
#.
#. DO NOT TRANSLATE THE FIELD NAMES!
#.
#. Only change the order and punctuation.
#. \n separates multiple lines. Other punctuation appears as-is.
#. Available fields are: street, postal_code, city, state, country
msgid ""
"street\n"
"postal_code city"
msgstr ""
"street\n"
"postal_code city"

#. Address format for 4 line display.
#.
#. DO NOT TRANSLATE THE FIELD NAMES!
#.
#. Only change the order and punctuation.
#. \n separates multiple lines. Other punctuation appears as-is.
#. Available fields are: street, postal_code, city, state, country
msgid ""
"street\n"
"postal_code city\n"
"state\n"
"country"
msgstr ""
"street\n"
"postal_code city\n"
"state\n"
"country"

#. The address format for input fields.
#.
#. DO NOT TRANSLATE THE FIELD NAMES!
#.
#. Only change the order.
#. Comma (,) separates lines, slash (/) separates fields in a line.
msgid "street,postal_code/city,country,state"
msgstr "street,postal_code/city,country,state"

Date formats

Please always have a look at the comments field in the .po file. If there's none, stick to your language rules. Here are some date format examples for French:

msgid "d.M.yy"
msgstr "j.M.aa"

msgid "d.M.yyyy"
msgstr "j.M.aaaa"

msgid "d.MM.yy"
msgstr "j.MM.aa"

msgid "dd-MMM-yy"
msgstr "jj-MMM-aa"

msgid "dd.MM.yy"
msgstr "jj.MM.aa"

msgid "dd.MM.yyyy"
msgstr "jj.MM.aaaa"

msgid "dd/MM/yy"
msgstr "jj/MM/aa"

msgid "dd/MM/yyyy"
msgstr "jj/MM/aaaa"

Plural entries

Different language families have different number of plural forms. To solve this issue, there is a plural entry in the header of a .po file. The plural form information can look like this:

Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;

A list of plural entries for the single languages can be found here:
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/l10n/pluralforms