Web based translation support systems such as Crowdin and Transifex make it easy for regional Sakai communities to collaborate globally in translation. In the fall and winter of 2014, Spanish Sakai community and Japanese Sakai community are collaborating in translation of Sakai 10 using Transifex as a common translation platform. This collaboration brought a lot of things to two communities. For instance, to develop a tool to import resource bundle files to Transifex in a specific manner, we can have an ease of use platform to translate modular designed software such as Sakai. And this platform will be extended for every regional community and for every project in Apereo community. During this session we will talk about followings; (1) Overview (2) Benefits for Apereo community (3) Context dependent translation by gettext Portable Object (4) Community translation strategy in Sakai Spanish Users (S2U) (5) Automatized process by Jenkins

1. Open Apereo 2015
Higher Education ... Open Source in a New Age
Translating Apereo Software:
A Case Study using Sakai and Transifex
Yuji Tokiwa (Hosei University, Japan)
Daisuke Deguchi (Nagoya University, Japan)
Juan Jose Merono Sanchez (University of Murcia, Spain)
Jose Mariano Lujan Gonzalez (Universidad de Murcia, Spain)
Diego del Blanco Orobitg (SCRIBA, Spain)

2. Agenda
■ Overview
■ Benefits for Apereo community
■ Context dependent translation by gettext Portable
Object
■ Community translation strategy in Sakai Spanish Users
(S2U)
■ Automatized process by Jenkins

3. Overview

4. Translation Style
∼ 2012
2013 ∼
Translator
Tool
Individual
Community
Stand-alone
Cloud

5. Crowdin and Transifex
Crowdin
Transifex
Sakai i18n
community
Ja Sakai
community

6. Ja Sakai community project -
Development of Common TMX
.prop.
Common
TMX
.php
.php
.prop.
.php
.php
Transifex

7. Transifex in a Normal Setting
Properties files
in flat directory

8. Reorganization of Properties file
Properties file
included in each module
set in each directory

9. Free of Charge Transifex for Sakai

10. Transifex is used in many OSSs
for localization

11. Benefits for Apereo community

12. Strategy
l Use Crowdin and Transifex
l Up to regional communities to use Crowdin or Transifex
because both platforms have almost same functions
• Interoperability by a Translation memory
• User interface
l Transifex will be maintained by JaSakai community.

13. Benefit
l Sustainable
• Not lock in one system (There are pros and cons)
l Economic
• Free of Charge
l Functional
• Functionally complement for one another

14. Context dependent translation by
gettext Portable Object

15. L10n problems in Sakai CLE (1)
❖ There are too many properties files for translation
Difficult to keep translation consistency between files
chat
chat-impl
chat.properties
chat-message.properties
chat-tool
chat.properties
permissions.properties
citations
citations-util
More than 200 files for
translation
Sakai 10.x

16. L10n problems in Sakai CLE (2)
❖ Sakai CLE uses Java properties file for i18n

17. Format of Java properties file
❖ Each line contains single translation associated with key
➢ “key” and “value” are separated by “=“ or “:”
❖ Key should be unique in a properties file
➢ But this may not be hold between properties files
java.acccess = Access:
java.theresource = The resource was not found.
java.youdonot = You do not have permissions to access this resource.
java.from = From:
java.subject = Subject:
java.attach = Attachments:
Example: access.properties of access module

18. L10n problems in Sakai CLE (2)
❖ Sakai CLE uses Java properties file for i18n
➢ A same key is reused between properties files
■ E.g. samigo reuses “assessment_title” for
different translation targets
1. assessment_title = Title
2. assessment_title = Assessment Title
Keys in properties files are not unique in Sakai CLE

19. Approach (1)
❖ Difficult to keep translation consistency between files
➢ Concatenate all Java properties files in each module
into a single file
■ Possible to improve consistency by comparing
similar English resources in a module
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
chat
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
polls
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
.properties
site

20. Approach (2)
❖ Keys in properties file are not unique in Sakai CLE
➢ Identify each English resource by a combination of
filename + key (translation context)
■ Possible to treat translation strings separately
even if it uses the same key
new.page.launch = Content opened
in a new window. Make sure pop up
windows are allowed in your
browser.
basiclti.properties (basiclti tool)
new.page.launch = Page opened in
new window.
iframe.properties (basiclti tool)

21. Solution:
Module translation via Transifex
❖ Generate Gettext Porable Object (PO) file containing all
translation strings existing in each module
➢ PO is utilized in many popular systems for
supporting i18n and l10n
❖ Sync each module (PO file) through Transifex API
➢ Newly added English strings appear in Transifex
1.
#. java.acccess
2.
#: access.properties:1
3.
msgctxt
"access.properties:java.acccess"
4.
msgid "Access:"
5.
msgstr "アクセス:"
Example of PO file

22. 1. Download latest sources from
2. Convert ‘.properties’ files of a module to PO file
3. Upload PO files to Transifex
4. Community Translation using Transifex
Translation workflow
chat.po
chat
chat-impl
chat.properties
chat-tool
chatz.properties

23. Web interface of Transifex
Check all translation strings
of each module in one view
Find similar translations
from Translation memory

24. 4. Community Translation using Transifex
5. Download translation from Transifex
6. Decompose PO file into ‘.properties’ files
7. Commit “.properties” files to
Translation workflow
chat.po
chat
chat-impl
chat.properties
chat-tool
chatz.properties

25. Benefit of module translation
using Transifex
❖ Possible to keep translation consistent in each module
➢ Translator can concentrate on translating a module
❖ Script program automatically synchronize translations
between GitHub and Transifex
➢ No need for setting up translation environment
❖ Everyone can join translation workflow from anywhere
➢ No need for special knowledge about translation
tools (Benten, OmegaT, etc.)

26. Remaining problems
❖ Context is important to choose appropriate translation
➢ Impossible to distinguish noun and verb only from
original English text (e.g. “grade”, “grade item”)
➢ Difficult to guess omitted words from short English
sentence (e.g. “From”, “of”, etc.)
➢ There are multiple translation candidates
■ “Submit” can be translated to “送信”, “提出”, etc.

27. Community translation strategy
in Sakai Spanish Users (S2U)

28. CROWDIN
PROS
- Easy UI
- Great functionality
CONS
- Problems with updates
- Problems exporting
- Special characters.
- Extensions.
- Translation by file, no by
tool.
2013-2014
manually editing
.property files
CONS
- hard to divide work
- hard to review
translations
- manual updates
start - 2013
TRANSIFEX
PROS
- Clear UI
- Automatized
- Daily update
- Same functionality
as Crowdin
2014-2015
Background S2U

29. - Sakai 10.3 was the first Sakai release to be fully
100% translated to Spanish
• Crowdin
• We started to use it to manage translations.
• Sakai 10, first release out with 100% Spanish translation.
• Also used for other official languages in Spain.
Open Apereo ‘14 - ReThink

30. - After Open Apereo 2014
- Started joint effort with JA-Sakai
- One member translate / Other member reviews
- Include translations reviews in our Weekly calls
- Transifex TAG: S2U-REVIEW
- Improve consistency by looking for ‘Concordance
Search’
- Plan Monthly exports from Transifex to Sakai
Master (Sakai’s base code).
New strategy
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/sakai-trunk/

31. Translations for 10.x and Master
- Started working with
10.x. Sakai 10.3 was the
very first Sakai release
to be 100% fully
translated to Spanish
- Now more focus on
translating Master
(Trunk)

32. New strategy
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/sakai-trunk/
S2U
translators

33. New strategy
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/sakai-trunk/
Review old translations

34. S2U
successfully
maintains 3
languages
using
Transifex:
- Spanish
- Catalan
- Basque

35. Automatized process by Jenkins

36. Deal with the dirty work
Translate from English to Spanish
Keep English updated
(Ja-Sakai)
Download spanish
translations and
submit PR (S2U)
Daily Monthly

37. - Japanese community shared their python scripts.
- We used them to import es locale to transifex.
- We use them to download all translations from tx.
- Jenkins help us to:
- Get a fresh clone from sakai master.
- Install python scripts.
- Run scripts to get all reviewed translations.
- Generate a patch for master.
- Optionally send the patch by email.
Deal with the dirty work

38. - Then manually we complete the cycle:
- Review the generated patch.
- File the jira to update “es” translations.
- Create the Pull Request to merge translations
into master.
- We do this cycle monthly.
- Master branch is almost 100% translated.
Deal with the dirty work