Getting started

I want to translate an upstream project. Can I use Launchpad?

• If the project is already registered in Launchpad, is officially using Launchpad Translations and not using Closed access permission, you can probably go ahead and translate it for your language. Go to https://translations.launchpad.net and look for it. You will be able to translate it from there. If your language is not translated at all, please check in the project's website that there isn't a translation for your language already.

  • If the project is not up for translation with Launchpad, you can try to get it imported. Read our import policy to see the general rules for admitting new projects in.

How do I join my language's Ubuntu translation team?

You just need to go to your team's Launchpad page (for example, French would be https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-l10n-fr/) and click on "Join the team" at the left block of the "Overview" tab. Depending on how the team is setup, you may have to wait a bit until your team leader approves you to join. Once you're an Approved Member, you'll be able to do official Ubuntu translations for that language.

I can't find any Ubuntu translation team for my language in the [[https://translations.launchpad.net/+groups/ubuntu-translators|team list]]. What should I do?

It is generally recommended that you create a team for translations for your language. To do so, create a team with the name "ubuntu-l10n-XX", where XX is your language ISO 639-1 code (two letter code like "en" for English) if it exists, or ISO 639-2 code (three-letter code) otherwise. Once you do that, ask Translations team to set your team up for translating Ubuntu.

My language has no ISO 639 code assigned. Can I still translate in Launchpad without one?

Launchpad's policy is that having a language code assigned in ISO 639 is a requirement for us to be able to setup a translation team. In most cases, getting a code assigned by ISO is not complicated. Visit the Library of Congress' website to get more information on how to do this.

Translation process

How do I coordinate with other translators in my team?

Normally translators for a given language gather around a mailing list, where they discuss their translation policies, get work assigned and discuss their translation process. If you don't have a mailing list to discuss your Ubuntu translation, don't hesitate to ask for one at mailman@lists.ubuntu.com.

I don't see the upstream project in Launchpad, how can I import it?

• Before doing anything else, have a look at our import policy and see if we will be able to handle your request.

  • Make sure the upcoming product series is registered in Launchpad. You can check whether it already exists from https://launchpad.net/products. If you don't see it, you can add a product from https://launchpad.net/products/+new, and then, you need to add a series for the translations you want to import.

  • Use the Request Translation Upload links in your release series pages to upload a tarball with the .pot AND ALL PO FILES. This means we can import not just one language, but the complete state of upstream, and it greatly improves the way we can work with upstream.

  • Check the status of your import request using the translation import queue.

My project is now imported. How can people join and translate it?

Launchpad can assign translators that are members of a given team. If you don't have very specific needs for translation permissions for your projects, we strongly encourage you to assign your project to the Ubuntu Translation Team, which has many translators assigned in many Language subteams, and will take care of translating your application for you.

I want people to translate my development branch

Launchpad currently tries to give more visual relevance to the templates shipped with Ubuntu, mainly because those translations will be the ones which will be used immediately by Ubuntu users, via 'language packs'. We acknowledge that program authors may not necessarily be interested as much in this feature, and really want to push people to translate the bleeding edge strings. We're working on making both the templates supplied by Ubuntu and those supplied by the product maintainer reasonable visibility.

What happens with the translations done on the Ubuntu templates for a product? Do they get shared with my template for my development branch?

All translations introduced into the Launchpad system get included in a huge "translation memory". If someone translates an application for its Ubuntu breezy series, these translations will appear as suggestions when someone else translates another series of that product.

• A planned feature for Launchpad Translations is "Translation Sharing", which would allow a translation to apply to all series of a product when it's updated in just one, which will make it a lot easier to do.

I am translating an Ubuntu documentation piece in Launchpad. Should I translate the strange looking strings such as <example>?

• No, these strings should not be translated but should be left as they are.

I see a "Translate this Application" link in many Ubuntu applications, but the message itself isn't translated into my language. Where can I find it?

That message belongs to the "launchpad integration" module.

Launchpad and GNU Gettext Plural Forms

Launchpad asked me for plural forms information. What info do you need?

The plural form information is to handle correctly the plurals in your language. You can read more about it here.

• As a summary, the rules we need to define are related with the number of objects/things/persons you are talking about, for instance, in English we have:
  • 0 items
  • 1 item
  • 2 items
  • 3 items
  • ...
  • n item(s)
  With that, we get that only when n == 1 is singular and when n != 1, it's plural. In this case, the plural form expression is: "n==1 ? 0 : 1" and the gettext's nplurals value == 2. In a non programming language, "n==1 ? 0 : 1" means: If 'n' is 1, then use the first entry, otherwise, use the second. 'n' is the number of items and usually, in computer programming we start counting with '0' instead of '1'.

How the plural forms affect Launchpad?

If you get a message to translate with plural forms, you will get as much entries fields as plural forms defined for your language so you should be aware of your plural form expression and fill the fields as needed.