115 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
115 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
|
# Managing strings
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
We use Android's [resource system](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/localization) to localize
|
||
|
|
user-visible strings in our apps.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Our source language is English (American English to be more precise, but simply "English" (en) on Weblate).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Translations of source strings happen exclusively in our
|
||
|
|
[Weblate project](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tb-android/). This means the source language is only modified by
|
||
|
|
changes to this repository, i.e. via pull requests. Translations are only updated on Weblate and then merged into this
|
||
|
|
repository by the Thunderbird team. This is to avoid overlapping changes in both repositories that will lead to merge
|
||
|
|
conflicts.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Adding a string
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Add a new string to the appropriate `res/values/strings.xml` file.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Please don't add any translations for this new string to this repository. If you can also provide a translation for the
|
||
|
|
new string, wait until the change is merged into this repository and propagated to Weblate. Then translate the new
|
||
|
|
string on Weblate.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Changing a string
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Changing a string is only acceptable if you are fixing typos or grammar in English. If you need to change the meaning of
|
||
|
|
a string, or otherwise make a change that would affect other strings, please instead remove the string and add a new one
|
||
|
|
with a different key.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Removing a string
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Remove the source string from `res/values/strings.xml`. Don't modify translations under `res/values-<lang>/strings.xml`.
|
||
|
|
The next merge from Weblate will automatically get rid of the translated strings.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Changing translations in this repository
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This should be avoided whenever possible, as it can create merge conflicts between Weblate and this repository. If you
|
||
|
|
need to change individual strings, please translate them on Weblate instead. If a mechanical change is necessary across
|
||
|
|
all languages, this should be discussed with the core team who will use this procedure:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
1. Lock all components on Weblate by clicking the "Lock" button in the
|
||
|
|
[repository maintenance](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tb-android/#repository) screen.
|
||
|
|
2. Commit all outstanding changes by clicking the "Commit" button in the same screen.
|
||
|
|
3. Trigger creating a pull request containing translation updates from Weblate by clicking the "Push" button in the
|
||
|
|
repository maintenance screen.
|
||
|
|
4. Merge that pull request containing updates from Weblate into this repository.
|
||
|
|
5. Create a pull request to change the translated files, following the established procedures to get it merged. Make
|
||
|
|
sure you've rebased against the latest changes.
|
||
|
|
6. Wait for the changes in this repository to be automatically propagated to and processed by Weblate.
|
||
|
|
7. Unlock components on Weblate by clicking the "Unlock" button in the
|
||
|
|
[repository maintenance](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tb-android/#repository) screen.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Merging Weblate pull requests
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
When merging a pull request from Weblate, please check the following:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
* If the PR contains changes to the cs, lt or sk locales, make sure that plural forms are correctly
|
||
|
|
maintained. Weblate does not manage this automatically due to https://github.com/WeblateOrg/weblate/issues/7520 . You
|
||
|
|
will need to manually add a patch that makes sure the strings have both a `many` and an `other` translation. If you
|
||
|
|
don't speak the language, using the same value for the two variants is an acceptable trade-off.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
# Managing translations
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Right now we're using the `androidResources.localeFilters` mechanism provided by the Android Gradle Plugin to limit
|
||
|
|
which languages are included in builds of the app,
|
||
|
|
See [localFilters](<https://developer.android.com/reference/tools/gradle-api/8.8/com/android/build/api/dsl/ApplicationAndroidResources#localeFilters()>).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This list needs to be kept in sync with the string array `supported_languages`, so the in-app language picker offers
|
||
|
|
exactly the languages that are included in the app.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Removing a language
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
1. Remove the language code from the `androidResources.localeFilters` list in `app-thunderbird/build.gradle.kts` and
|
||
|
|
`app-k9mail/build.gradle.kts`.
|
||
|
|
2. Remove the entry from `supported_languages` in `app/core/src/main/res/values/arrays_general_settings_values.xml`.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Adding a language
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
1. Add the language code to the `androidResources.localeFilters` list in `app-thunderbird/build.gradle.kts` and
|
||
|
|
`app-k9mail/build.gradle.kts`.
|
||
|
|
2. Add an entry to `supported_languages` in `app/core/src/main/res/values/arrays_general_settings_values.xml`.
|
||
|
|
3. Make sure that `language_values` in `app/core/src/main/res/values/arrays_general_settings_values.xml` contains an
|
||
|
|
entry for the language code you just added. If not:
|
||
|
|
1. Add the language name (in its native script) to `language_entries` in
|
||
|
|
`app/ui/legacy/src/main/res/values/arrays_general_settings_strings.xml`. Please note that this list should be
|
||
|
|
ordered using the Unicode default collation order.
|
||
|
|
2. Add the language code to `language_values` in `app/core/src/main/res/values/arrays_general_settings_values.xml`
|
||
|
|
so that the index in the list matches that of the newly added entry in `language_entries`.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Adding a component on Weblate
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
When adding a new code module that is including translatable strings, a new components needs to be added to Weblate.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
1. Go the the Weblate page to [add a component](https://hosted.weblate.org/create/component/?project=3696).
|
||
|
|
2. Switch to the "From existing component" tab.
|
||
|
|
3. Enter a name for the component.
|
||
|
|
4. For "Component", select "K-9 Mail/Thunderbird/ui-legacy".
|
||
|
|
5. Press the "Continue" button.
|
||
|
|
6. Under "Choose translation files to import", select "Specify configuration manually".
|
||
|
|
7. Press the "Continue" button.
|
||
|
|
8. For "File format", select "Android String Resource".
|
||
|
|
9. Under "File mask", enter the path to the string resource files with a wildcard,
|
||
|
|
e.g. `feature/account/common/src/main/res/values-*/strings.xml`.
|
||
|
|
10. Under "Monolingual base language file", enter the path to the string source file,
|
||
|
|
e.g. `feature/account/common/src/main/res/values/strings.xml`.
|
||
|
|
11. Uncheck "Edit base file".
|
||
|
|
12. For "Translation license", select "Apache License 2.0".
|
||
|
|
13. Press the "Save" button.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Things to note
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
For some languages Android uses different language codes than typical translation tools, e.g. Hebrew's code is _he_ on
|
||
|
|
Weblate, but _iw_ on Android. When writing automation tools, there needs to be a mapping step involved.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
See [translation-cli](https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/blob/ed07da8be5513ac74aabb1c934a4545aaae4f5a3/cli/translation-cli/src/main/kotlin/net/thunderbird/cli/translation/LanguageCodeLoader.kt#L12-L13)
|
||
|
|
for an example.
|