369070 - Integrate l10n Platform for Extensions

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Developer Pages, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1
Build Identifier: 

The feature version of Remora should integrate a l10n platform like Babelzilla or Wiki-based system and automate the packaging of localized extensions.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

I don't know that this needs to be part of the AMO site, and the presence of language packs mean that there shouldn't be any repackaging of localized extensions required.

A wiki page or newsgroup thread would be a better way to explain the details of what you'd like people to be able to do, and why babelzilla isn't the right place for that work to happen.

Comment 2

[Kaori Negoro]

We thought this can be one of the ideal resolution to solve the below problems. In Japan, there exist many extension localizers who wants to localize extensions but hesitate to or bother to contact the developers directly. As one of the idea to resolve this situation, we came up with an idea that our system can support that kind of communication and let extension l10n easier...

Kohei tried to post this kind of proposal at Remora Feedback Wiki (http://wiki.mozilla.org/Update:Remora_Feedback), but we figured out that is only for Remora Alpha and then the wiki said "If you're more comfortable filing bugs, you're welcome to do that instead."

We understand that this kind of request will not be implemented in the short-term, but we appreciate if we have time to discuss with you what the appropriate extension platform for international people. We also plan to learn more about extension localizers in Japan, and then, we are happy to share their thoughts.

Comment 3

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

We've been talking about this a bit on today's l10n-drivers call, and I'd like to share my view of the world.

When it comes down to workflows and UE paradigms, there doesn't seem to be any kind of 'known good way' for localization programs, whether they're on the desktop or on the web. It might be valuable to have some UI for changing localization strings in extensions, but more than that, I would wish for an architecture to bridge localization efforts in distinct systems. All systems I have seen so far are putting the ecosystem around one particular extension into some kind of vendor lock-in, be that plain text editors, PO tools, babelzilla or MT.

Some API (see bug 377903 ?) to get localization data in and out of AMO would be good, together with an infrastructure to actually bundle the extension and the localizations up. Which speaks for my pessimism about independent language packs and dependencies, we shouldn't plan for those ahead, IMHO. Seeing a non-cumbersome workflow there doesn't seem to be on the PRD for fx3, at least as far as I can see on http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3/Product_Requirements_Document#Add-ons. Yeah, blame me for not using minefield, I have no idea if anything changed there yet, but I expect robstrong to be buried in vista still.

Comment 4

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

This has been reappearing lately and there have been rumors of progress in 2010.  No dates/plan yet though.  Last update was: sethb to talk to babelzilla about workflow, scalability, planning, and goals.

Comment 5

[Tim Babych]

Transifex integration would be great, once they add support for Mozilla l10n formats, see http://trac.transifex.org/ticket/89

Comment 6

[Sebastian Zartner [:sebo]]

Regarding comment 4:
My last status of Babelzilla (of April 2010) is, that they are just two guys working on it. At that time I discussed a lot of points with its main developer Jürgen Berg. Since then I didn't get responses from him anymore. So I assume we cannot expect too much from Babelzilla.

In the hope Mozilla wants to help extension translators in the future by creating its own platform I summarized the points, that I discussed with Jürgen in relation to Babelzilla:

1. Clear and unified site structure
Babelzilla uses different systems for different parts of the page. Also it puts too much options and information onto the site. Both lead to confusion at the translators.

Solution:
Use a (configurable) dashboard as homepage. Use a simple, unified UI across the different parts of the platform.

2. Translation aids
Babelzilla offers some help for translators to find the right phrases. Though most of them are they are either hidden or inconvenient to use.

Solution:
Provide different options to help the user like variable recognition, glossaries, a voting system, a screen keyboard etc.

3. Voting system for translations
Not offered by Babelzilla, but facebook has such a system.
That means, translators can rate translations of others.

4. Statistics and awards
Also not offered by Babelzilla, but e.g. dict.cc has that.
Users should be able to see different statistics about the extensions, translations and themselves. Also there should be a ranking system and special "milestones" a user can reach.

If there's interest in my suggestions, I'd be more than happy to explain them in detail.

Sebastian

Comment 7

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

There's new talk on the ecosystem side, notably, the babelzilla guys are talking with Tim, who did adofex (addons l10n based on transifex), and plan to integrate the two.

The hope is to get a better localization experience out of that without abondoning the rich community that babelzilla has today.

Comment 8

[Sebastian Zartner [:sebo]]

Thanks for the update. I guess this issue is also interesting for Honza.

Sebastian

Comment 9

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Thanks for filing this.  In an effort to not drown in existing reports we're aggressively closing old enhancements and bugs to get the buglist to a reasonable level so we can scope and process bug sprints in an effective manner.

Patches for this bug are still welcome.

Comment 10

[Sebastian Zartner [:sebo]]

Just because there was no activity on this report for years doesn't mean that the need for it is gone.

BabelZilla unfortunately has a poor UX and is mostly unmaintained. So to not leave add-on developers and translators in the lurch Mozilla should either support the BabelZilla team to finish beta.babelzilla.org or develop its own translation system for add-ons.

Sebastian