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<languages/>
'''Localisation''' is in general the process of providing a Software with a multiple language user interface. In FreeCAD you can set the language of the user interface under ''Edit→Preferences→Application''. FreeCAD uses [[wikipedia:Qt (toolkit)|Qt]] to enable multiple language support. On Unix/Linux systems, FreeCAD uses the current locale settings of your system by default.
{{docnav|Branding|Extra python modules}}

'''Localisation''' is in general the process of providing a Software with a multiple language user interface. In FreeCAD you can set the language of the user interface under {{MenuCommand|Edit → Preferences → Application}}. FreeCAD uses [[wikipedia:Qt (toolkit)|Qt]] to enable multiple language support. On Unix/Linux systems, FreeCAD uses the current locale settings of your system by default.


== Helping to translate FreeCAD ==
== Helping to translate FreeCAD ==


One of the very important things you can do for FreeCAD if you are not a programmer, is to help to translate the program in your language. To do so is now easier than ever, with the use of the [http://crowdin.net Crowdin] collaborative on-line translation system.
One of the very important things users can contribute to FreeCAD (if for example they don't have programming skills) is to help translate its different aspects (source code, wiki, website, documentation etc...) in to another language. Here are the ways to do that


== Translate the FreeCAD source code ==
=== How to Translate ===
FreeCAD utilizes a third party collaborative on-line translation system called [https://crowdin.net Crowdin]. It is proprietary software but free to FOSS projects. Below are instructions on how to use it:


* Go to the [http://crowdin.net/project/freecad FreeCAD translation project page on Crowdin];
* Go to the [http://crowdin.net/project/freecad FreeCAD translation project page on Crowdin]
* Login by creating a new profile, or using a third-party account like your GMail address;
* Login by creating a new profile, or using a third-party account (GitHub, GitLab, GMail etc...)
* Click on the language you wish to work on;
* Click on the language you wish to translate
* Start translating by clicking on the Translate button next to one of the files. For example, ''FreeCAD.ts'' contains the text strings for the FreeCAD main GUI.
* Start translating by clicking on the {{Button|Translate}} button next to one of the files. For example, {{FileName|FreeCAD.ts}} contains the text strings for the FreeCAD main GUI.
* You can vote for existing translations, or you can create your own.
* You can vote for existing translations, or you can create your own.


'''Note''': If you are actively taking part in translating FreeCAD and want to be
{{Message|If you are actively taking part in translating FreeCAD and want to be informed before next release is ready to be launched, so there is time to review your translation, please subscribe to one of the Crowdin FreeCAD translation teams.}}
informed before next release is ready to be launched,
so there is time to review your translation, please subscribe
to this issue: http://www.freecadweb.org/tracker/view.php?id=137


== Translate the FreeCAD wiki ==


This wiki hosts a lot of contents, the majority of which build up the manual. You can browse the documentation starting from the [[Main Page]], or have a look at the user's manual [[Online Help Toc]].
=== Translating with Qt-Linguist (old way) ===


To translate the wiki, you must have wiki edit permissions; see [[FAQ#How can I get edit permission on the wiki?|How can I get edit permission on the wiki?]].
The following information doesn't need to be used anymore and will likely become obsolete. It is being kept here so that programmers may familiarize themselves with how it works.


You should also have enough knowledge of wiki markup and follow the general styling guidelines described on [[WikiPages]].
* Open all of the language folders of FreeCAD shown below
* Verify that a .ts file with your language code doesn't exist ("fr" for french, "de" for german, etc...)
* If it exists, you can download that file, if you want to modify/review/better the translation (click the file, then download)
* If it doesn't exist, download the .ts file without language code (or any other .ts available, it will work too)
* Rename that file with your language code
* Open it with the Qt-Linguist program
* Start translating (Qt Linguist is very easy to use)
* Once it's completely done, save your file
* [http://www.freecadweb.org/tracker/main_page.php send the files to us] so we can include them in the freecad source code so they benefit other users too.


==== Available translation files ====
=== Mediawiki Translation Extension===


When the wiki moved away from SourceForge, [[User:Yorik|Yorik]] installed [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate MediaWiki's Translation extension] which facilitates translating pages. Advantages of the translation extension are that the page title can now be translated, it keeps track of translations, it notifies if the original page has been updated, and it maintains translations in sync with the original English page.
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Gui/Language/ FreeCAD main GUI]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Complete/Gui/Resources/translations/ Complete Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Drawing/Gui/Resources/translations/ Drawing Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Draft/Languages/ Draft Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/ReverseEngineering/Gui/Resources/translations/ Reverse Engineering Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Fem/Gui/Resources/translations/ FEM Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Robot/Gui/Resources/translations/ Robot Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Image/Gui/Resources/translations/ Image Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Sketcher/Gui/Resources/translations/ Sketcher Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Mesh/Gui/Resources/translations/ Mesh Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Test/Gui/Resources/translations/ Test Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Points/Gui/Resources/translations/ Points Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Raytracing/Gui/Resources/translations/ Raytracing Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Part/Gui/Resources/translations/ Part Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/PartDesign/Gui/Resources/translations/ PartDesign Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/Assembly/Gui/Resources/translations/ Assembly Workbench]
* [http://free-cad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/free-cad/trunk/src/Mod/MeshPart/Gui/Resources/translations/ MeshPart Workbench]


The tool is documented in [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate Help:Extension:Translate], and is part of [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Language_Extension_Bundle MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle].
== Preparing your own modules/applications for translation ==


To quickly get started on preparing a page for translation, please read the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate/Page_translation_example Page translation example]. Essentially, a pair of {{incode|<nowiki><translate> ... </translate></nowiki>}} tags need to surround the entire page to activate the translation system, and the page needs to be marked for translation.
=== Prerequisites ===


To see an example of how the translation tool works, visit the [[Main Page]]. You will see an automatically generated language bar at the top. Click on [[Main Page/de|Hauptseite]] (German), it will get you to [[Main Page/de]]. Right under the title, you can read <small>{{Emphasis|This page is a translated version of the page Main Page and the translation is XX% complete}}</small>, XX being the current percentage of translation. Click on "Translate" at the top of the page to start the translation utility to update, correct and review the existing translation.
To localise your application module your need to helpers that come with ''Qt''. You can download them from the [http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/downloads Trolltech-Website], but they are also contained in the [[Third Party Libraries|LibPack]]:
;qmake: Generates project files
;lupdate: Extracts or updates the original texts in your project by scanning the source code
;Qt-Linguist: The ''Qt-Linguist'' is very easy to use and helps you translating with nice features like a phrase book for common sentences.


If you go to [[Main Page/de]], you will notice that you cannot edit the page directly anymore by clicking the [Edit] tags, and the top link "Edit" has been substituted by the "Translate" link that opens the translation utility.
=== Project Setup ===


When adding new content, the English page should be created first, then translated into another language. If someone wants to change or add content in a page, the English page should be modified first.
To start the localisation of your project go to the GUI-Part of you module and type on the command line:
<pre>
qmake -project
</pre>
This scans your project directory for files containing text strings and creates a project file like the following example:
<pre>
######################################################################
# Automatically generated by qmake (1.06c) Do 2. Nov 14:44:21 2006
######################################################################
TEMPLATE = app
DEPENDPATH += .\Icons
INCLUDEPATH += .
# Input
HEADERS += ViewProvider.h Workbench.h
SOURCES += AppMyModGui.cpp \
Command.cpp \
ViewProvider.cpp \
Workbench.cpp
TRANSLATIONS += MyMod_de.ts
</pre>


If you are unsure on how to proceed with the translations, don't hesitate to ask for help in the [https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewforum.php?f=21 Development → Wiki subforum] or in the [https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewforum.php?f=11 specific language subforum] in the [http://forum.freecadweb.org FreeCAD forum].
You can manually add files here. The section <tt>TRANSLATIONS</tt> contains a list of files with the translation for each language. In the above example ''MyMod_de.ts'' is the german translation.


===Important notes===
Now you need to run <tt>lupdate</tt> to extract all string literals in your GUI. Running <tt>lupdate</tt> after changes in the source code is allways safe since it never deletes strings from your translations files. It only adds new strings.


Every wiki user that has "Editor" permissions is able to launch the translate utility and write, save, and review translations.
Now you need to add the <tt>.ts</tt>-files to your VisualStudio project. Specifiy the following custom build method for them:
<syntaxhighlight>
python ..\..\..\Tools\qembed.py "$(InputDir)\$(InputName).ts"
"$(InputDir)\$(InputName).h" "$(InputName)"
</syntaxhighlight>
Note: Enter this in one command line, the line break is only for layout purpose.


However, only users with "Administrator" permissions are able to mark pages for translation. A page that is not marked for translation won't make use of the translation extension and won't be correctly synchronized to the English information.
By compiling the <tt>.ts</tt>-file of the above example, a header file ''MyMod_de.h'' is created. The best place to include this is in ''App<Modul>Gui.cpp''. In our example this would be ''AppMyModGui.cpp''. There you add the line
<syntaxhighlight>
new Gui::LanguageProducer("Deutsch", <Modul>_de_h_data, <Modul>_de_h_len);
</syntaxhighlight>
to publish your translation in the application.


The left sidebar is also translatable, but only Administrators can modify this element of the site. Please follow the dedicated instructions on [[Localisation Sidebar]].
=== Setting up python files for translation ===


The first time you switch a page to the new translation system, it loses all its old "manual" translations. To recover a translation, you should save an offline copy of the old text before the switch. Then you can use this old translated text to fill in the translation units in the new system. You can also open an earlier version from the history, and get the old text in this way. This has to be done for every language that had a translated page.
To ease localization for the py files you can use the tool "pylupdate4" which accepts one or more py files. With the -ts option you can prepare/update one or more .ts files. For instance to prepare a .ts file for French simply enter into the command line:
<pre>
pylupdate4 *.py -ts YourModule_fr.ts
</pre>
the pylupdate tool will scan your .py files for translate() or tr() functions and create a YourModule_fr.ts file. That file can the be translated with QLinguist and a YourModule_fr.qm file produced from QLinguist or with the command
<pre>
lrelease YourModule_fr.ts
</pre>
Beware that the pylupdate4 tool is not very good at recognizing translate() functions, they need to be formatted very specifically ( see the Draft module files for examples). Inside your file, you can then setup a translator like this (after loading your QApplication but BEFORE creating any qt widget):
<pre>
translator = QtCore.QTranslator()
translator.load("YourModule_"+languages[ln])
QtGui.QApplication.installTranslator(translator)
</pre>
Optionally, you can also create the file XML Draft.qrc with this content:
<pre>
<RCC>
<qresource prefix="/translations" >
<file>Draft_fr.qm</file>
</qresource>
</RCC>
</pre>
and running pyrcc4 Draft.qrc -o qrc_Draft.py creates a big Python containing all resources. BTW this approach also works to put icon files in one resource file

== Translating the wiki ==

This wiki is hosting a lot of contents, the majority of which build up the manual. You can browse the documentation starting from the [[Main Page]], or have a look at the User's manual [[Online Help Toc]].

===Translation plugin===

When the Wiki moved away from SourceForge, [[User:Yorik|Yorik]] installed a [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate Translation plugin] which allows to ease translations between pages. For example, the page title can now be translated. Other advantages of the Translation plugin are that it keeps track of translations, notifies if the original page has been updated, and maintains translations in sync with the original English page.

The tool is documented in [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate Extension:Translate], and is part of a [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Language_Extension_Bundle Language Extension Bundle].

To quickly get started on preparing a page for translation and activating the plugin, please read the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate/Page_translation_example Page translation example].

To see an example of how the Translation tool works once the translation plugin is activated on a page, you can visit the [[Main Page]]. You will see a new language menu bar at the bottom. It is automatically generated. Click for instance on the German link, it will get you to [[Main Page/de]]. Right under the title, you can read "This page is a '''translated version''' of a page Main Page and the translation is xx% complete." (xx being the actual percentage of translation). Click on the "translated version" link to start translation, or to update or correct the existing translation.

You will notice that you cannot directly edit a page anymore once it's been marked as a translation. You have to go through the translation utility.

When adding new content, the English page should be created first, then translated into another language. If someone wants to change/add content in a page, he should do the English one first.

'''REMARK: The first time you switch a page to the new translation system, it looses all its old 'manual' translations. To recover the translation, you need to open an earlier version from the history, and copy/paste manually the paragraphs to the new translation system.'''

Remark: to be able to translate in the wiki, you must of course [[FAQ#How_can_I_get_edit_permission_on_the_wiki.3F|gain wiki edit permission]].


===Old translation instructions===
===Old translation instructions===
These instructions are for historical background only, while the pages are being passed to the new translation plugin.


{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable"
So the first step is to '''check if the manual translation has already been started for your language''' (look in the left sidebar, under "manual").
|These instructions are for historical background only. Translations should use the new system with the [[#Mediawiki Translation Extension]] described above.
|-
|
So the first step is to '''check if the manual translation has already been started for your language''' (look in the left sidebar, under "manual").<br />
If not, head to the [http://forum.freecadweb.org/ forum] and say that you want to start a new translation, we'll create the basic setup for the language you want to work on.<br />
You must then [[FAQ#How_can_I_get_edit_permission_on_the_wiki.3F|gain wiki edit permission]].<br />
If your language is already listed, see what pages are still missing a translation (they will be listed in red). The technique is simple: '''go into a red page, and copy/paste the contents of the corresponding English page, and start translating'''.<br />
Do not forget to include all the tags and templates from the original English page. Some of those templates will have an equivalent in your language (for example, there is a French Docnav template called Docnav/fr). You should use '''a slash and your language code''' in almost all the links. Look at other already translated pages to see how they did it.<br />
Add a slash and your language code in the categories, like <nowiki>[[Category:Developer Documentation/fr]]</nowiki> <br />
And if you are unsure, head to the forums and ask people to check what you did and tell you if it's right or not.<br />
Four templates are commonly used in manual pages. These 4 templates have localized versions (Template:Docnav/fr, Template:fr, etc...)
* [[Template:GuiCommand]] : is the Gui Command information block in upper-right of command documentation.
* [[Template:Docnav]] : it is the navigation bar at the bottom of the pages, showing previous and next pages.
* [[Template:Userdocnavi]] : gives direct links to the main base pages<br />
''' Page Naming Convention '''<br />
Please take note that, due to limitations in the Sourceforge implementation of the MediaWiki engine, we require that your pages all keep their original English counterpart's name, appending a slash and your language code. For example, the translated page for About FreeCAD should be About Freecad/es for Spanish, About FreeCAD/pl for polish, etc. The reason is simple: so that if translators go away, the wiki's administrators, who do not speak all languages, will know what these pages are for. This will facilitate maintenance and avoid lost pages.<br />
If you want the Docnav template to show linked pages in your language, you can use '''redirect pages'''. They are basically shortcut links to the actual page. Here is an example with the French page for About FreeCAD.<br />
* The page About FreeCAD/fr is the page with content
* The page À propos de FreeCAD contains this code:
#REDIRECT <nowiki>[[About_FreeCAD/fr]]</nowiki>
* In the About FreeCAD/fr page, the Docnav code will look like this:
<nowiki>{{docnav/fr|[[Online_Help_Startpage/fr|Bienvenue dans l'aide en ligne de FreeCAD]]|[[Feature_list/fr|Fonctionnalités]]}}</nowiki>
The page "Bienvenue dans l'aide en ligne de FreeCAD" redirects to Online_Help_Startpage/fr, and the page "Fonctionnalités" redirects to Feature_list/fr.
|}


== Translate the FreeCAD website ==
If not, head to the [http://forum.freecadweb.org/ forum] and say that you want to start a new translation, we'll create the basic setup for the language you want to work on.
Translation of the FreeCAD website is now done through [https://crowdin.com/translate/freecad/561/en-en Crowdin]. The file is named {{FileName|homepage.po}}.


== Translate the FreeCAD documentation ==
You must then [[FAQ#How_can_I_get_edit_permission_on_the_wiki.3F|gain wiki edit permission]].


== Development - How to Add Localisation ==
If your language is already listed, see what pages are still missing a translation (they will be listed in red). The technique is simple: '''go into a red page, and copy/paste the contents of the corresponding English page, and start translating'''.
This section is for developers who want to add localisation to their code.


=== Preparing your FreeCAD/master modules for translation ===
Do not forget to include all the tags and templates from the original English page. Some of those templates will have an equivalent in your language (for example, there is a French Docnav template called Docnav/fr). You should use '''a slash and your language code''' in almost all the links. Look at other already translated pages to see how they did it.
These are the parts to the FreeCAD translation process:
* extract text strings from source code into *.ts files
* load *.ts files into [http://crowdin.net/project/freecad FreeCAD Crowdin].
* translation of strings within Crowdin
* extract modified/new *.ts files from Crowdin
* convert *.ts files into *.qm files and update each module's *.qrc file
* update FreeCAD master


All of the above steps are performed by the "translation scripts" which are run by an administrator periodically.
Add a slash and your language code in the categories, like <nowiki>[[Category:Developer Documentation/fr]]</nowiki>


Preparing your module for translation is quite easy. First, you need to ensure that you have a "translations" directory in {{FileName|myModule/Gui/Resources}}. Then open a terminal window (or Windows/OSX equivalent) in your "translations" directory and enter the following command:
And if you are unsure, head to the forums and ask people to check what you did and tell you if it's right or not.
{{Code|code=lupdate -ts myModule.ts}}


This creates an empty translation file. Once this is done, you need to ensure that the translation scripts are updated as in this [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/810 pull request].
Four templates are commonly used in manual pages. These 4 templates have localized versions (Template:Docnav/fr, Template:fr, etc...)
* [[Template:GuiCommand]] : is the Gui Command information block in upper-right of command documentation.
* [[Template:Docnav]] : it is the navigation bar at the bottom of the pages, showing previous and next pages.


Everything after this is automatic as far as a developer is concerned. The administrator will extract the text strings, the translators will translate them, then the administrator will extract the translations and update FreeCAD/master.
====Page Naming Convention====


=== Preparing your 3rd party module or macro for translation ===
Please take note that, due to limitations in the Sourceforge implementation of the MediaWiki engine, we require that your pages all keep their original English counterpart's name, appending a slash and your language code. For example, the translated page for About FreeCAD should be About Freecad/es for Spanish, About FreeCAD/pl for polish, etc. The reason is simple: so that if translators go away, the wiki's administrators, who do not speak all languages, will know what these pages are for. This will facilitate maintenance and avoid lost pages.
3rd party modules or macros are translated in much the same fashion, except that you must do some of the work yourself.
This [https://www.forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25180 forum discussion] describes the details .


=== Older module translation techniques ===
If you want the Docnav template to show linked pages in your language, you can use '''redirect pages'''. They are basically shortcut links to the actual page. Here is an example with the French page for About FreeCAD.
[[Localization Older Methods]] describes the use of translation tools such as Qt Linguist, lupdate, lrelease, pylupdate4, etc in detail. Most of this is no longer required for FreeCAD/master modules, but may be helpful preparing and updating 3rd party modules.


== Automating Crowdin Translation Updates ==
* The page About FreeCAD/fr is the page with content
Currently FreeCAD maintainers use the Crowdin API via [[Crowdin Scripts]] to pull and push translations in to Crowdin and back in to the Github repo. The Crowdin API gives FreeCAD maintainers the ability to automate aspects of the project's translation workflow, for more info refer to the [https://support.crowdin.com/api/api-integration-setup/ Crowdin API documentation].
* The page À propos de FreeCAD contains this code:
#REDIRECT <nowiki>[[About FreeCAD/fr]]</nowiki>
* In the About FreeCAD/fr page, the Docnav code will look like this:
<nowiki>{{docnav/fr|Bienvenue sur l'aide en ligne|Fonctionnalités}}</nowiki>
The page "Bienvenue sur l'aide en ligne" redirects to Online Help Startpage/fr, and the page "Fonctionnalités" redirects to Feature list/fr.


== Related Pages ==
If you are unsure how to proceed, don't hesitate to ask for help in the [http://forum.freecadweb.org/ forum].
* [[Crowdin Administration]]
* [[Crowdin Scripts]]


{{docnav|Branding|Extra python modules}}
{{docnav|Branding|Extra python modules}}

{{Userdocnavi}}


[[Category:Developer Documentation]]
[[Category:Developer Documentation]]

[[Category:Wiki]]


{{clear}}
{{clear}}
<languages/>

Revision as of 10:34, 30 March 2019

Branding
Extra python modules

Localisation is in general the process of providing a Software with a multiple language user interface. In FreeCAD you can set the language of the user interface under Edit → Preferences → Application. FreeCAD uses Qt to enable multiple language support. On Unix/Linux systems, FreeCAD uses the current locale settings of your system by default.

Helping to translate FreeCAD

One of the very important things users can contribute to FreeCAD (if for example they don't have programming skills) is to help translate its different aspects (source code, wiki, website, documentation etc...) in to another language. Here are the ways to do that

Translate the FreeCAD source code

FreeCAD utilizes a third party collaborative on-line translation system called Crowdin. It is proprietary software but free to FOSS projects. Below are instructions on how to use it:

  • Go to the FreeCAD translation project page on Crowdin
  • Login by creating a new profile, or using a third-party account (GitHub, GitLab, GMail etc...)
  • Click on the language you wish to translate
  • Start translating by clicking on the Translate button next to one of the files. For example, FreeCAD.ts contains the text strings for the FreeCAD main GUI.
  • You can vote for existing translations, or you can create your own.
If you are actively taking part in translating FreeCAD and want to be informed before next release is ready to be launched, so there is time to review your translation, please subscribe to one of the Crowdin FreeCAD translation teams.


Translate the FreeCAD wiki

This wiki hosts a lot of contents, the majority of which build up the manual. You can browse the documentation starting from the Main Page, or have a look at the user's manual Online Help Toc.

To translate the wiki, you must have wiki edit permissions; see How can I get edit permission on the wiki?.

You should also have enough knowledge of wiki markup and follow the general styling guidelines described on WikiPages.

Mediawiki Translation Extension

When the wiki moved away from SourceForge, Yorik installed MediaWiki's Translation extension which facilitates translating pages. Advantages of the translation extension are that the page title can now be translated, it keeps track of translations, it notifies if the original page has been updated, and it maintains translations in sync with the original English page.

The tool is documented in Help:Extension:Translate, and is part of MediaWiki Language Extension Bundle.

To quickly get started on preparing a page for translation, please read the Page translation example. Essentially, a pair of <translate> ... </translate> tags need to surround the entire page to activate the translation system, and the page needs to be marked for translation.

To see an example of how the translation tool works, visit the Main Page. You will see an automatically generated language bar at the top. Click on Hauptseite (German), it will get you to Main Page/de. Right under the title, you can read This page is a translated version of the page Main Page and the translation is XX% complete, XX being the current percentage of translation. Click on "Translate" at the top of the page to start the translation utility to update, correct and review the existing translation.

If you go to Main Page/de, you will notice that you cannot edit the page directly anymore by clicking the [Edit] tags, and the top link "Edit" has been substituted by the "Translate" link that opens the translation utility.

When adding new content, the English page should be created first, then translated into another language. If someone wants to change or add content in a page, the English page should be modified first.

If you are unsure on how to proceed with the translations, don't hesitate to ask for help in the Development → Wiki subforum or in the specific language subforum in the FreeCAD forum.

Important notes

Every wiki user that has "Editor" permissions is able to launch the translate utility and write, save, and review translations.

However, only users with "Administrator" permissions are able to mark pages for translation. A page that is not marked for translation won't make use of the translation extension and won't be correctly synchronized to the English information.

The left sidebar is also translatable, but only Administrators can modify this element of the site. Please follow the dedicated instructions on Localisation Sidebar.

The first time you switch a page to the new translation system, it loses all its old "manual" translations. To recover a translation, you should save an offline copy of the old text before the switch. Then you can use this old translated text to fill in the translation units in the new system. You can also open an earlier version from the history, and get the old text in this way. This has to be done for every language that had a translated page.

Old translation instructions

These instructions are for historical background only. Translations should use the new system with the #Mediawiki Translation Extension described above.

So the first step is to check if the manual translation has already been started for your language (look in the left sidebar, under "manual").
If not, head to the forum and say that you want to start a new translation, we'll create the basic setup for the language you want to work on.
You must then gain wiki edit permission.
If your language is already listed, see what pages are still missing a translation (they will be listed in red). The technique is simple: go into a red page, and copy/paste the contents of the corresponding English page, and start translating.
Do not forget to include all the tags and templates from the original English page. Some of those templates will have an equivalent in your language (for example, there is a French Docnav template called Docnav/fr). You should use a slash and your language code in almost all the links. Look at other already translated pages to see how they did it.
Add a slash and your language code in the categories, like [[Category:Developer Documentation/fr]]
And if you are unsure, head to the forums and ask people to check what you did and tell you if it's right or not.
Four templates are commonly used in manual pages. These 4 templates have localized versions (Template:Docnav/fr, Template:fr, etc...)

  • Template:GuiCommand : is the Gui Command information block in upper-right of command documentation.
  • Template:Docnav : it is the navigation bar at the bottom of the pages, showing previous and next pages.
  • Template:Userdocnavi : gives direct links to the main base pages

Page Naming Convention
Please take note that, due to limitations in the Sourceforge implementation of the MediaWiki engine, we require that your pages all keep their original English counterpart's name, appending a slash and your language code. For example, the translated page for About FreeCAD should be About Freecad/es for Spanish, About FreeCAD/pl for polish, etc. The reason is simple: so that if translators go away, the wiki's administrators, who do not speak all languages, will know what these pages are for. This will facilitate maintenance and avoid lost pages.
If you want the Docnav template to show linked pages in your language, you can use redirect pages. They are basically shortcut links to the actual page. Here is an example with the French page for About FreeCAD.

  • The page About FreeCAD/fr is the page with content
  • The page À propos de FreeCAD contains this code:
#REDIRECT [[About_FreeCAD/fr]]
  • In the About FreeCAD/fr page, the Docnav code will look like this:
{{docnav/fr|[[Online_Help_Startpage/fr|Bienvenue dans l'aide en ligne de FreeCAD]]|[[Feature_list/fr|Fonctionnalités]]}}

The page "Bienvenue dans l'aide en ligne de FreeCAD" redirects to Online_Help_Startpage/fr, and the page "Fonctionnalités" redirects to Feature_list/fr.

Translate the FreeCAD website

Translation of the FreeCAD website is now done through Crowdin. The file is named homepage.po.

Translate the FreeCAD documentation

Development - How to Add Localisation

This section is for developers who want to add localisation to their code.

Preparing your FreeCAD/master modules for translation

These are the parts to the FreeCAD translation process:

  • extract text strings from source code into *.ts files
  • load *.ts files into FreeCAD Crowdin.
  • translation of strings within Crowdin
  • extract modified/new *.ts files from Crowdin
  • convert *.ts files into *.qm files and update each module's *.qrc file
  • update FreeCAD master

All of the above steps are performed by the "translation scripts" which are run by an administrator periodically.

Preparing your module for translation is quite easy. First, you need to ensure that you have a "translations" directory in myModule/Gui/Resources. Then open a terminal window (or Windows/OSX equivalent) in your "translations" directory and enter the following command:

lupdate -ts myModule.ts

This creates an empty translation file. Once this is done, you need to ensure that the translation scripts are updated as in this pull request.

Everything after this is automatic as far as a developer is concerned. The administrator will extract the text strings, the translators will translate them, then the administrator will extract the translations and update FreeCAD/master.

Preparing your 3rd party module or macro for translation

3rd party modules or macros are translated in much the same fashion, except that you must do some of the work yourself. This forum discussion describes the details .

Older module translation techniques

Localization Older Methods describes the use of translation tools such as Qt Linguist, lupdate, lrelease, pylupdate4, etc in detail. Most of this is no longer required for FreeCAD/master modules, but may be helpful preparing and updating 3rd party modules.

Automating Crowdin Translation Updates

Currently FreeCAD maintainers use the Crowdin API via Crowdin Scripts to pull and push translations in to Crowdin and back in to the Github repo. The Crowdin API gives FreeCAD maintainers the ability to automate aspects of the project's translation workflow, for more info refer to the Crowdin API documentation.

Related Pages

Branding
Extra python modules