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Re: OCA Translation Platform

by
OpenBig, Thorsten Vocks
- 16/02/2017 20:26:09
Hello Maxime,

thanks for your valuable answers.
      

You have very valid points here, but:

> re-integration into release planning (=no release publishing before finishing the translations).

The OCA has no control over it. If I remember well, Odoo SA notified the community couple weeks before the release that the terms have been frozen and invited translators to start the translation effort.

Yes it is indeed true, nevertheless our german group was far away from a certain critical degree of completed and reviewed translations. 

> funding of some main translators and reviewers (in a pre-defined period before the official release date), f.e. by defining a certain rate of Odoo SaaS / OE earnings from the country to finance the translation work for that country or to finance development of better tools. 

What the OCA has done so far (and should repeat) is to organize sprints where functional people translates Odoo and its modules. Do you want to organize a translation/code sprint in Germany? I heard Bloopark wanted to organize one couple months ago.

It is a good idea. Translators should be invited to sprint events and focus 
on translations.
 

> possibility to report translation issues in a end-user friendly way (issue reporting on website, helpdesk to report translation issues).

What about using Github issues here?

For me it would be acceptable. I can imagine most functional people (inclusive customers) would prefer to do that somewhere else in best case directly 
out of odoo. 
 

> introduction of a responsible maintenance team to fix translation issues.

The PSC members and the language coordinators.

... that could be a possibility.
 

> invitation to voluntary translators to collaborate by offering the possibility to translate directly in Odoo ("translator mode" to record all translations for a predefined language and to be able to export that list of changes to his own google spreadsheet, re-import of re-edited spreadsheet data would be fine for a iterative process and to share intermediate work between several translators). Finally another next and optional step of public collaboration would be to share the google spreadsheet with a community bot who is responsible to transform all new or modified translations from the google spreadsheets into automated proper pull requests for github. 

It involves Odoo SA herhat's also a e. Maybe a good feature to suggest for Odoo Studio. Can you create an issue in Odoo's repo?

If it would be included in Odoo studio, we would target "only" OE users. 
 

Ursa Information Systems Maxime Chambreuil
Project Manager / Consultant

Ursa Information Systems
1450 W Guadalupe Road, Suite 132
Gilbert, Arizona, 85233

Office:     1-855-URSA ERP x 710
                1-855-877 2377 x 710
Mobile:   1-602-427-5632


On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 6:08 AM, Thorsten Vocks <thorsten.vocks@big-consulting.net> wrote:
Hello,

i have just answered Frederik in german group about the topic "german translation".
I want to share my answer as this current context fits.

Historical context (from perspective of german language, before V9):

Before transifex times (since V9) only a few people was involved to finish most translation terms (+90%) in a time frame between 4-8 weeks before the official release. We could avoid different "flavours" of translations and it was easier to agree consistent terms.

The drawback was the high workload for only a few people.  By moving to transifex (since V9) it was required for Odoo SA to open the door to everyone, as translations was not any more a "natural" part of the process to release a completed new version. 

Situation since V9:
  • many new translators collaborate only few translation terms  more or less "on demand" (f.e. for presentations or for early project roll-outs).
  • translation work even for countries with obviously many Odoo customers like germany is not anymore part of the official release planning.
  • the translation process is flatered between many voluntary people
  • (as a result) reviewing is more difficult and more time intense due to different "flavours" and non-consistent terms. Example: some very engaged translators with a specific flavor from switzerland or austria
  • no updated glossary, no guideline about the "how to" exists. 
  • large team with many unexperienced translators are working to close translation gaps even 1 year after the official release date
  • overall translation workload is higher, due to introduction of very long terms (qweb reports, email templates, contextual help terms, configuration wizards ...
  • voluntary translators with significant workloads and responsibility didn't get funds or equivalent promotion neither from Odoo SA nor from successfull resellers or any other kind of "crowd" funds. Customers simply expect a completly translated version.
  • overall it seems that Odoo SA regards translations as not important enough and further more they think it is very easy and a task everyone can do (my personal opinion and maybe opinion of Odoo is different...)

Proposal to improve translations:
  • re-integration into release planning (=no release publishing before finishing the translations).
  • funding of some main translators and reviewers (in a pre-defined period before the official release date), f.e. by defining a certain rate of Odoo SaaS / OE earnings from the country to finance the translation work for that country or to finance development of better tools. 
  • possibility to report translation issues in a end-user friendly way (issue reporting on website, helpdesk to report translation issues).
  • introduction of a responsible maintenance team to fix translation issues.
  • invitation to voluntary translators to collaborate by offering the possibility to translate directly in Odoo ("translator mode" to record all translations for a predefined language and to be able to export that list of changes to his own google spreadsheet, re-import of re-edited spreadsheet data would be fine for a iterative process and to share intermediate work between several translators). Finally another next and optional step of public collaboration would be to share the google spreadsheet with a community bot who is responsible to transform all new or modified translations from the google spreadsheets into automated proper pull requests for github. 
By default the bot should create a pull request either against the OCA branches on github, or against Odoo community edition, if Odoo SA agrees to finance or develop the bot. In best case it should be possible for a collaborating translator to configure alternative targets. The targeted repo(s) should be selectable or configurable before starting the recording of translations. 

The collaborator should be notified by email after the bot finished his work. The bot should provide him a .po or whatever file he could reuse on other Odoo systems or database to immidiately update incomplete translations on his database. Currently Odoo is able to do that only by module, if i am right. Furthermore the email should include the link to the pull request or minimum to the targeted repos as a service from the bot. For sure a commercial bot offer, can refinance development and maintenance of bots where people want to target closed source repos or their own private repos as alternative method to ensure a proper financing.

The idea is probably suited for a ETL process. There are some mature Open Source tools to do that and some guys from Odoo community already use these tools.

 


Best regards


Thorsten Vocks

openBIG.org
Dipl. Kaufmann (FH)
Porscheweg 4-6
49661 Cloppenburg

Phone: +49 4471 8409000
Fax: +49 4471 84090009
Mail: thorsten.vocks@openbig.org


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