• TranslatorsCorner

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Introduction

These pages provide details of everything you need to know relating to the translation of the text you see in the QGIS user interface. It is managed by the community assistant (GUI translation team lead) Werner Macho.

If you plan to contribute to an existing language or you want to translate the QGIS gui into a not yet existing language and for any other related questions, please contact him or Otto Dassau using the qgis-community-team mailing list.

If you are interested to translate or update and extend the "User and Installation Guide", please get information from the DocumentationWritersCorner.

Mailing List

A (currently low volume) mailing list is available for discussion of both, translation of the QGIS user interface and documentation (User and Installation Guide) issues. We strongly encourage anyone joining the documentation effort to join this list!

Becoming the official translator for a new language

The QGIS project is always looking for people who are willing to invest some more time translating QGIS into a foreign language - even perhaps to coordinate the translation effort. We are trying to improve our project management process and spread the load more evenly between people who each have a specific area of resposibility, so any contribution you have to make will be greately appreciated.

If you would like to nominate yourself as a coordinator for a new language please go ahead. If more than one person nominates themselves as coordinator for the same language, please contact each other and resolve how you will manage your efforts. Please add your details to the Translators List below and also contact the Community Assistant and GUI translation team lead Werner Macho via the qgis-community-team mailing list.

Helping with an existing translation

If you like to help translating QGIS into a foreign language please contact the coordinator and additional contributors for that language and add your details to the Translators List below so you can manage your efforts.

Translators List

Please add your details to the list below. If you would like to nominate yourself as a coordinator for a language please go ahead. If more than one person nominates themselves as coordinator for the same language, please contact each other and resolve how you will manage your efforts.

To start QGIS with the appropriate localization run qgis with the option --lang=<language code> or change localization in QGIS under 'Settings -> Options -> Locale'.

The translation process explained

We use Qt4's translation system for managing translation of the text you see in the QGIS user interface. Instead of rewriting the Qt4 documentation again, its better to point you to the Qt Linguist documentation and then explain the nuances pertinent to QGIS. See also HowToTranslateQGIS page.

Creating a .ts file for a new language

In order to create the .ts files needed by Linguist, there is a special script available in the source of QGIS called create_new_ts.sh. So first you need to check out the sources from subversion. This is described on the DevelopersManual (Section 2) page in this wiki. Next you need to run the create_new_ts.sh script like this.

cd <top of qgis source tree>
chmod +x scripts/*.sh
create_new_ts.sh [Your locale abbreviation]

So for example to generate a new .ts file for en_GB do this:

create_new_ts.sh en_GB

A new .ts file will be created in i18n that you can then proceed to translate using linguist or kbabel.

Note: For some OS you might need to adapt the path to qmake-qt4 and lupdate-qt4 in the script create_new_ts.sh

Updating .ts file for existing translations

You should regularly regenerate your .ts file to update it with string changes in SVN. From time to time the release manager will do this too and commit them in a batch to svn.

In order to regenerate the .ts files needed by Linguist, there is a special script available in the source of QGIS called update_ts_files.sh. So first you need to check out the sources from subversion. This is described on the DevelopersManual (Section 2) page in this wiki. Next you need to run the update_ts_files.sh script which should give output like this.

tim-suttons-computer:~/dev/cpp/qgis timsutton$ ./update_ts_files.sh
Creating qmake project file
Updating translation files
src/gui/qgsvectorlayer.cpp:1133: Unbalanced braces in C++ code (or abuse of the C++ preprocessor)
src/providers/delimitedtext/qgsdelimitedtextprovider.cpp:760: Class 'QgsDelimitedTextProvider' lacks Q_OBJECT macro
src/providers/mysql/qgsmysqlprovider.cpp:171: Class 'QgsMySQLProvider' lacks Q_OBJECT macro
Updating 'i18n/qgis_cs_CZ.ts'...
    Found 2037 source texts (0 new and 2037 already existing)
Updating 'i18n/qgis_de.ts'...
    Found 2037 source texts (0 new and 2037 already existing)
...etc...
Removing qmake project file

For 0.9.x version updating translation files is done like this:

scripts/update_ts_files.sh

Once that is done, open the translation file you will be working on with Linguist e.g. :

linguist qgis_pt_BR.ts

or in kbabel

kbabel qgis_de.ts

Now proceed with your updates. When the work you were planning is complete, email the file to werner.macho [at] gmail.com (Werner Macho) or otto.dassau [at] gmx.de (Otto Dassau) and we will commit your changes (unless you already have commit access).

Note: It is not neccessary to build all the sources first to generate the ts files.

Note: For some OS you might need to adapt the path to qmake-qt4 and lupdate-qt4 in the script create_new_ts.sh

As the source code is changed, small (or sometimes large) changes may be made to text in the user interface. You should regulary update your svn working copy and rerun the ts file updater. You can do this as often as you like - it should not lose existing changes you have made in your ts file (though keeping backups of your work is always a good idea).