ente/web/docs/translations.md

Translations

We use Crowdin for translations, and the i18next library to load these at runtime.

Within our project we have the source strings - these are the key value pairs in the packages/next/locales/en-US/translation.json file.

Volunteers can add a new translation in their language corresponding to each such source key-value to our Crowdin project.

Everyday, we run a GitHub workflow that

• Uploads sources to Crowdin - So any new key value pair we add in the source translation.json becomes available to translators to translate.

• Downloads translations from Crowdin - So any new translations that translators have made on the Crowdin dashboard (for existing sources) will be added to the corresponding lang/translation.json.

The workflow also uploads existing translations and also downloads new sources from Crowdin, but these two should be no-ops.

Adding a new string

• Add a new entry in packages/next/locales/en-US/translation.json (the source translation.json).
• Use the new key in code with the t function (import { t } from "i18next").
• During the next sync, the workflow will upload this source item to Crowdin's dashboard, allowing translators to translate it.

Updating an existing string

• Update the existing value for the key in the source translation.json.
• During the next sync, the workflow will clear out all the existing translations so that they can be translated afresh.

Deleting an existing string

• Remove the key value pair from the source translation.json.
• During the next sync, the workflow will delete that source item from all existing translations (both in the Crowdin project and also from the he other lang/translation.json files in the repository).