Consider Migrating translations to self-hosted Weblate

[stoecker]

See comment:170:ticket:8645

Over the years Weblate became much better. A new attempt to switch from Launchpad to a better translation plattform should be considered.

• Modern interface, but still easy to use
• No more errors
• Git or SVN instead of Bazaar for translations
• Internal checks for translation errors (missing XML, dots at the end, ...)
• Self-hostable

Test instance by Woazboat: ​https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/josm_translate_test/

[Woazboat]

For reference, Panoramax also have their own self-hosted Weblate instance: ​https://weblate.panoramax.xyz/

[Woazboat]

Continued from #24164

Replying to stoecker:

Replying to Woazboat:

Many people said they wanted to help, but the issues with Launchpad prevented them from doing so.

Replying to Woazboat:

To be clear, what most of them said was that they did start translating but then gave up after a while because of issues with Launchpad.

It was another time - Launchpad was nearly unusable. You had error messages for most of the requests and 20-30 reloads didn't get results. They didn't fully solve the issue, but at least it is mitigated so much, that it is only a slight nuisance instead of a blocker. Today most translators are using Launchpad for the main work (i.e. Norwegian was translated with Launchpad interface in the last days), so while it could be better it is usable.

I've seen people complain about Launchpad very recently only in the past few days, not years ago. It's obvious that Launchpad still presents a barrier to entry that is turning potential contributors away.

[stoecker]

Replying to Woazboat:

I've seen people complain about Launchpad very recently only in the past few days, not years ago. It's obvious that Launchpad still presents a barrier to entry that is turning potential contributors away.

Seen these as well, but these are the "I would help if" people. Never seen before, will never see them again and from experience I know whatever I do, they will find new excuses. It's not always easy to decide, but spending to much time on "would if" requests takes away time from changing things which will actually help people doing something. The very translation stuff of JOSM started with such a "would if" guy. Many good requests and when I implemented the stuff I NEVER heard of him again. Didn't translate a single word.

Anyway I will see if I can setup an own Weblate instance in the next weeks and see if I can get it working reliable and better than Launchpad. Please keep the test instance running if possible.

[Hb---]

Replying to stoecker:

Test instance by Woazboat: ​https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/josm_translate_test/

Looks better than transifex and better than Launchpad. Direct links from strings to source code are also available.

[jibec]

I've been a long time OSM contributor ​https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/JIBEC and I'm involved into localization for Fedora operating system, which included helping dozen of projects to Weblate ​https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Jibecfed

I noticed your request to get more translation, and I'm sure a better tooling would help.
Also, have all content to translate using the translation platform would also increase contributor's efficiency.

As an admin of Fedora Weblate instance, I'll be happy to make some room for your project on ​https://translate.fedoraproject.org
Please note you can also have free hosting on ​https://hosted.weblate.org and probably on codeberg too.

Whatever what hosting you want (yours or a an ally project), weblate always interact with git repositories.
As long as it works with one Weblate instance, changing it over time is easy.

If needed:
. I can help you to migrate the translation platform wherever you decide (configure projects in Weblate, help with git management etc.).
. I can help you to migrate existing processes to weblate (the app, the plugins, the startup changelog)

I will not help in system administration if you wish to selfhost (even if I do have basic knowledge since I created the YNH package for Weblate a few years back ​https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/weblate_ynh/ you are welcome to reuse part of this if you don't want to use docker images provided by weblate team).

Hope this helps:)

[Ceirios]

Very happy to see this ticket being opened and it's very encouraging, however I'd like to raise this from the previous thread:
Replying to stoecker:

Today most translators are using Launchpad for the main work (i.e. Norwegian was translated with Launchpad interface in the last days), so while it could be better it is usable. [...] Doing 10-20 strings a week is easy with the interface, even if it lacks a lot of nice helper functions (like showing similar strings, fuzzy strings, ...)

Simply "usable" doesn't necessarily equate to a good experience. Doing 10-20 strings per week is also an extremely slow rate, considering how many strings there are to translate and the technology we have now that Weblate, etc provide. These "helper functions" are in the vast majority of CAT programmes today and save an incredible amount of time. 10-20 strings can be done in minutes.

[stoecker]

Replying to Ceirios:

Doing 10-20 strings per week is also an extremely slow rate

10-20 new strings per week, that's JOSMs typical change rate.

[Ceirios]

That makes a lot more sense :)

[gaben]

I think this would greatly improve the i18n situation on JOSM.

Also, I would like to make my plugin translation (about 10 strings in total) available here if possible.

[stoecker]

Replying to gaben:

I think this would greatly improve the i18n situation on JOSM.

That's the plan, thought I need a bit time for this...

Also, I would like to make my plugin translation (about 10 strings in total) available here if possible.

If you move the plugin to JOSM group and thus allow checkins of the lang files when I update, you can that have already now.