Translating Horde Applications

Table of Contents

This information is valid for Horde 4 and later only. See Doc/Dev/TranslationH3 for Horde 3.

This document is intended to help developers translate Horde 4 modules using the /horde/bin/horde-translation script.

See also horde/docs/TRANSLATIONS.

The Translation Script

$ php horde/bin/horde-translation

Usage: horde-translation [options] command [command-options]
       horde-translation [help|-h|--help] [command]

Helper application to create and maintain translations for the Horde
framework and its applications.
For further information, see horde/docs/TRANSLATIONS.

Commands:
  help        Show this help message.
  compendium  Rebuild the compendium file. Warning: This overwrites the
              current compendium.
  extract     Generate PO template (.pot) files.
  init        Create one or more PO files for a new locale. Warning: This
              overwrites the existing PO files of this locale.
  merge       Merge the current PO file with the current PO template file.
  update      Run extract and merge sequent.
  update-help Extract all new and changed entries from the English XML help
              file and merge them with the existing ones.
  cleanup     Cleans the PO files up from untranslated and obsolete entries.
  make        Build binary MO files from the specified PO files.
  make-help   Mark all entries in the XML help file being up-to-date and
              prepare the file for the next execution of update-help. You
              should only run make-help AFTER update-help and revising the
              help file.
  commit      Commit translations to the CVS server.
  commit-help Commit help files to the CVS server.

Options:
  -b, --base=/PATH  Full path to the (Horde) base directory that should be
                    used.
  -d, --debug       Show error messages from the executed binaries.
  -h, --help        Show this help message.
  -t, --test        Show the executed commands but don't run anything.

Please report any bugs to i18n@lists.horde.org.

Any commands can be called with horde-translation help COMMAND for further information.

Making a Translation

Intialize/Merge the Translation

If this is the first time, run:

<?php

php horde-translation init --module=MODULE --locale=xx_XX
?>

where MODULE is the module folder and xx_XX is the locale (country and language code), e.g. en_GB or es_ES

If you didn't create one before, build the compendium with all existing translations for the locale from other Horde applications:

<?php

php horde-translation compendium --locale=xx_XX
?>

Finally, try to get as many translations as possible from the compendium into the new translation:

<?php

php horde-translation merge --module=MODULE --locale=xx_XX
?>

Edit and Update the Translation

Create the compendium file (do this one time only):

<?php

php horde-translation compendium --locale=xx_XX
?>

Clean up obsolete entries:

<?php

php horde-translation cleanup
?>

Prepare the file to edit:

<?php

php horde-translation update --module=MODULE --locale=xx_XX
?>

Edit the translation file horde/MODULE/locale/xx_XX/LC_MESSAGES/module.po using a suitable gettext editing program, such as KBabel or poedit and save the file.

Compile the translation:

<?php

php horde-translation make --module=MODULE --locale=xx_XX
?>

If you want to see the changes right away, restart the http server (i.e. service httpd restart in Fedora, CentOS? and similar OSes).

Translating Help Files

First extract all new and changed entries from the English XML help file and merge them with the existing ones:

<?php

php horde-translation update-help --module=MODULE --locale=xx_XX
?>

Then edit the help file for the necessary language using a text editor or vi:

<?php

$ vi horde/MODULE/locale/xx_XX/help.xml
?>

Finally:

<?php

php horde-translation make-help --module=MODULE --locale=xx_XX
?>

Translating framework modules

You MUST manually create a locale/ folder in the base of the module in order for the translation script to recognize the module. Then, you can use the translation script as normal to generate the appropriate files (the module name is Horde_PACKAGE where PACKAGE is the package name).