View source for ARK2/Localization

= Localization =

Localization is the process of translating the user interface and data into the language and formats of the user.

ARK2 uses the following components for localization and translation:
* The [http://symfony.com/doc/current/components/intl.html Symfony Intl] component as a wrapper for the [http://php.net/manual/en/book.intl.php PHP Intl] extension and ICU, for collation, formatting and parsing
* The [http://symfony.com/doc/current/components/translation.html Symfony Translation] component for translation
* [http://punic.github.io/ Punic], using CLDR, as a source of some translations

== Translation ==

* Translations are stored and transmitted in the XLIFF file format
* Translations uses keys rather than source strings
* Translations will be split in a number of catalogues:
** Core interface
** User interface
** Admin interface
** Schema (one for each created)
* Actor and User IDs are translated using a custom loader from the database

The Admin Interface provides a basic interface for the maintaining of translation. Export and import interfaces are provided for the ???? online translation community.

== Design Decisions To Be Made ==

Potential online portals include:
* [https://www.transifex.com Transifex] - Market leader, but now closed source, offers free hosting to open source projects, large community, great features and automated workflow, API, Github integration, etc.
* [http://zanata.org/ Zanata] - A Red Hat open-source project (in response to Transifex going closed) with free hosting and large existing community, or can be self-hosted (JBoss based), great features and automated workflow, API, Github integration, etc. No RTL?
* [https://weblate.org/en/features/ Weblate] - An open-source project with free and paid-for hosting, but no central community, or can be self-hosted, good features, API, Github integration, etc. Django based.
* [http://translationproject.org/html/welcome.html Translation Project] - A FSF open-source project with free hosting and large existing community, but very basic features and manual workflow.
* [http://pootle.translatehouse.org/index.html Pootle] - An open-source project, self-hosted, Django based

Zanata would seem the preferred option for a hosted service, but Weblate might be better if self-hosting.

A number of options exist for automating extraction of Symfony translations, or for allowing interactive editing inside the admin panel or profiler panel:
* https://jolicode.com/blog/translation-workflow-with-symfony2
* https://github.com/deanc/silex-web-translator
* https://github.com/Aecf/TranslatorToolBundle
* https://github.com/instaclick/TranslationEditorBundle
* https://github.com/lexik/LexikTranslationBundle
* https://github.com/manuelj555/ManuelTranslationBundle

None of these quite match our requirements, but may be adapted to achieve our workflow.