How Translators can affect the strings in the code?

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Balu Ertl's picture
Posted by Balu Ertl on January 11, 2014 at 8:28am

Hi All Translators,

I'm not so experienced yet with the depth of Drupal community, I just occassionally contributed some hundreds translation suggestions to the Hungarian team during the years. However as I went through those strings on l.d.o, sometimes I just realized some mistakes in the English strings themselves, which not even the Translation Team Managers has access to correct.

My question to the translation gurus is that, how can we translators affect the original sources? As far as I know, these translatable strings are automatically collected from new releases of modules, if they use the t() function. So my guess, we should knock on the door of the module maintainers to make corrections directly in the code itself? If I am right, then I already submitted an issue for Webform module: https://drupal.org/node/2171485

What is the best practice? Do you usually deal with these minor problems or just skip it over?

Comments

Your guess is correct: Engage directly with module maintainers.

Posted by DYdave on January 14, 2014 at 5:47am
DYdave's picture

Hi @Balu Ertl,

Thanks a lot for your work, contributed translations and for raising this question.

So my guess, we should knock on the door of the module maintainers to make corrections directly in the code itself? If I am right, then I already submitted an issue for Webform module: https://drupal.org/node/2171485

Indeed, you did exactly the right thing and I personally wouldn't know any other ways original text strings could be modified in a contributed module's code.

In my opinion, the best practice would be exactly what you did:
Report the problem by creating a new issue in corresponding project's tracker.
Ideally, if you were able to code, you could try submitting a patch, which would simplify maintainers' work even further.

Otherwise, I would recommend you perhaps try pointing out the exact lines of code that would be affected, with links to the repository viewer, for example in this case: webform.install, line 1567.

I hope I was able to answer your questions, but feel free to let me know at anytime if I would have missed or overlooked anything.

Feel free to let us know if you would have any more comments, ideas, questions, suggestions, objections or issues on any aspects of the translation strings, it we would surely be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your comments and feedbacks.
Cheers!

Thanks for your supportive response

Posted by Balu Ertl on January 16, 2014 at 8:46am
Balu Ertl's picture

Then I'll read further, how to code patch files properly.

< offtopic >P.s.: I spent a few days a couple of weeks ago in Shanghai :)

Glad to hear you were in SH! Let us know next time you're around

Posted by DYdave on January 16, 2014 at 9:07am
DYdave's picture

Hi @Balu Ertl,

Thanks for your prompt reply and I'm glad to hear you were in Shanghai a few weeks ago.

We would definitely be very happy to meet you, next time, if you have another opportunity to drop by in SH!
Feel free to directly get in touch with me next time, I would surely be glad to arrange a meeting whether informal (for a drink or food in a local bar/restaurant) or better organized as part of the regular Drupal events in Shanghai.

If you would like to learn more about how to make a patch for Drupal, I would strongly recommend you take a closer look at the following resources:

Feel free to let me know if you would have any more comments, ideas, questions, suggestions or concerns on any aspects of the translations work, I would surely be glad to provide more information.

Once again, thank you very much for your involvement and engagement in the Drupal community, for stepping in and contributing translations, reporting or testing in issues.
Hoping we could potentially meet some day.
Cheers!