398351 - Simple "Translate this page" functionality

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Software, task, P1, critical)

Description

[David Tenser [:djst]]

When viewing a knowledge base article as a logged in contributor, there should be an easy way to translate it to another language. 

Currently, the workflow is:

1. Pick a page that you want to translate.
2. Create a new page from scratch.
3. Click the "translation" link of the new page.
4. Set the language of your newly created page to the correct language.
5. Tell TikiWiki that your new page is a translated version of the original page using the drop-down menu.
6. Apply the tags that correspond to the page content.

Ideally, the workflow should be:

1. Pick a page that you want to translate.
2. Click a "Translate this page" link.
3. Select the language from a drop-down.
4. TikiWiki would then automatically create a copy of the article, including the tags, and make the connection to the original article.

Comment 1

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Quick comment on today's checkin: The workflow looks very good now. I originally envisioned it being a link in the Actions box reading "Translate this page," similar to the "Edit this page" link. However, it is now placed in the drop-down list of available languages. Maybe that's better, since it will tell anyone looking for a specific translation that it's also possible to translate it yourself. On the other hand, SUMO should have done an automatic language detection anyway, so it's unlikely that the wrong language would be displayed.

I'm simply not sure which is best. Both?

Comment 2

[Nelson Ko [:nkoth]]

Link in Actions box created now, in addition to the one in the drop-down. We can live with both until someone complains . (I've heard arguments that the "translate this page" link could be mistaken for google-type translation, i.e. for viewing, not for editing, although for us only editors can see the link, so I don't know)

There are still bugs to be fixed:

(1) the second drop down list on the next page (to select the destination language) should not show languages that are already in the translation set, and should "try" to default to a user's locale/preferred language instead of showing the first lang (Albanian) all the time.

(2) I will also need to fix the permissions to translate a page. Who should be allowed to create a brand new translation? (I think everyone who has edit rights on the staging area should, which is basically everyone). However, only approvers can modify existing translation set and to add existing page to translation set, right? 

Comment 3

[Nelson Ko [:nkoth]]

on second thoughts, maybe only admins?

>> However, only
approvers can modify existing translation set and to add existing page to
translation set, right? 

Comment 4

[David Tenser [:djst]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Link in Actions box created now, in addition to the one in the drop-down. We
> can live with both until someone complains . (I've heard arguments that the
> "translate this page" link could be mistaken for google-type translation, i.e.
> for viewing, not for editing, although for us only editors can see the link, so
> I don't know)

Why only en-US editors only? Consider this use case:

User has German as primary language, French as secondary, and English as last resort. User visits a page that shows up in French because it's not yet translated to German. He/she should then be able to click "Translate this page" on the French page, select German as the target language, and a copy of the French page would prefill the edit area.

> 
> There are still bugs to be fixed:
> 
> (1) the second drop down list on the next page (to select the destination
> language) should not show languages that are already in the translation set,
> and should "try" to default to a user's locale/preferred language instead of
> showing the first lang (Albanian) all the time.
'
Sounds like a good idea.

> 
> (2) I will also need to fix the permissions to translate a page. Who should be
> allowed to create a brand new translation? (I think everyone who has edit
> rights on the staging area should, which is basically everyone). However, only
> approvers can modify existing translation set and to add existing page to
> translation set, right? 
> 

The ability to create a new translation of an existing article should not require other permissions than creating a new article from scratch. In other words, anyone with edit rights on the staging area (pretty much everyone) would be allowed to create a translation of an existing "knowledge base" category article.

Comment 5

[Nelson Ko [:nkoth]]

The following use case should be the way it works now.

Why only en-US editors only? Consider this use case:

User has German as primary language, French as secondary, and English as last
resort. User visits a page that shows up in French because it's not yet
translated to German. He/she should then be able to click "Translate this page"
on the French page, select German as the target language, and a copy of the
French page would prefill the edit area.

Comment 6

[David Tenser [:djst]]

The workflow is very good and this is certainly good enough. My only nitpick is that it doesn't automatically select my primary language in the drop-down list, as we discussed on IM. If this requires a lot of time to fix, feel free to ignore it for now.

Comment 7

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

Verified FIXED -- Translate this page functionality has been in for a while now.