This Guide is meant for translators who have already read Tips for the Discogs Community Translation Team.
Get to know the Transifex Web Editor:
The main view you’ll see when adding translations is called the “Web Editor”. You can read all about Translating with the Web Editor via the Transifex help docs, but here are the basics:
On the LEFT side of the Web Editor, you can quickly filter strings by:
- All
- Untranslated
- Unreviewed
As a translator, you’ll want to mainly focus on the Untranslated strings. As a Reviewer, you may spend more time viewing Unreviewed strings.
Notice you can also search and further filter strings. The search and filter options are very helpful if you are looking for a specific translation that needs to be updated. Or when you want to filter by “Occurrences” so you only see strings that are used within the same view.
Notice that you can also filter by Text, Status, Tag, Users, Date, Label, and many other helpful filter options under “More”.
The RIGHT side of the web editor, relates to just the string that you have selected from the list on the Left side. There is the section to view the Untranslated English string, and below that the area to add a translation. Be sure to read the “STRING INSTRUCTIONS” if any are displayed.
Context and Communication:
The web editor includes several tools to help communicate and provide better context for each string:
- CONTEXT
- This section isn’t super helpful except for the “Occurrences” information. That data can show you if the string is used in more than one location, and
generally the data will give you a hint as to where the string is used.
- This section isn’t super helpful except for the “Occurrences” information. That data can show you if the string is used in more than one location, and
- SUGGESTIONS
- The suggestions tab shows previously translated strings that resemble the current string. It can be a helpful tool to assist you with translation consistency.
- HISTORY
- The history tab lets you see all of the translators who previously translated the string.
- COMMENTS
- Use the ‘Comments’ box to post your questions and/or to discuss issues with fellow translators. Questions can be directed towards individual team members and/or Discogs staff by putting a ‘@’ in front of their username.
- Comments are seen by all translators in the project, so ideally comments should be written in English so everyone can benefit.
- Utilize the “Add as
issue ” option if you are adding a comment that you want Discogs Staff to see.
- GLOSSARY
- The glossary is a set of terms and their definitions along with the correct translations in various languages.
- The glossary helps to standardize the way terms in your project are translated, increasing the consistency and the quality of the translations
- There are certain cases when a different translation is needed, other than the Glossary term. In these cases, you’ll receive a warning that you didn’t use the Glossary term, but you should still be able to save the translation.
What if I notice an incorrect translation?
If the string hasn’t been reviewed, then you should be able make a correction and save the update.
If the string has already been reviewed, then you can use the “Add as
How do I translate a string that includes code?
You will notice that many strings include HTML placeholders. For example:
If the string includes HTML placeholders, be sure to preserve those placeholders using whatever method works best for you:
- You can copy the entire source string (click the double rectangle icon) and translate around the placeholders.
- Click on a placeholder in the source string area. This copies the placeholder to wherever your cursor is in the translation area.
- While typing a translation, use the Ctrl+Alt+number keyboard shortcut, where number is the number in the placeholder.
Transifex will give you a reminder if you ever forget to include those placeholders. Here are some other tips for working with HTML placeholders.
Should I use formal or informal language?
Most European languages, and many others, have a T-V distinction (from the Latin pronouns tu and vos). Languages such as modern English have no morphosyntactic T–V distinction. When translating from English to a T-V language, the translator must decide which second-person form the reader would deem the more appropriate in a given situation. When translating Discogs site content, it is recommended that you use the more formal form in most cases. If you are translating a string in which you think the more informal form of address would be more appropriate, please discuss the situation with other translators in the Discogs i18n Group.
What does it mean when a string has a “one” and “other” view?
You may notice that some strings have a “one” or “other” tab below the string. This is Transifex’s way of displaying pluralized variations of the same string.
For example, here is a singular string under the “one” tab:
And here is a plural string under the “other” tab:
A translator should supply a singular translation under the “one” tab, and a pluralized translation under the “other” tab.
If you are interested in viewing a list of these type of translations, you can search Transifex strings for “pluralized: yes”.
Why does the Discogs.com project have two different resource files?
You may notice that there are two resources in the Discogs.com Localization Project:
They are simply split up for the convenience of integrating them back into the site. When working on the Discogs.com Localization Project, if you navigate via Languages rather than Resources, you can select “All Resources”.
What is Transifex Live?
Most Discogs Transifex projects are file-based projects, but we also use “Transifex Live” for certain projects. The Transifex Live projects have a cloud icon, rather than a file-folder icon:
Transifex Live allows translators to actually see most strings within the original context of the website! There are actually two different ways you can add translations to a Transifex Live project.
Using Transifex Live within the context of the Discogs website:
Transifex Live lets you translate Discogs in context and get an immediate preview of how the translations will look on the site. Navigate to the project’s associated website and then add this text to the end of the url:
/?transifex
For example, for: https://cratediggers.com navigate to: https://cratediggers.com/?transifex
From here, you can see context, add translations, and immediately see how the page will look with your translations!
It may take some playing around with to get used to this new approach, but hopefully, it will make translating easier to have the full context visible. Here is the Transifex documentation about translating in context.
Using Transifex Live inside the Transifex Editor
Similar to providing translations for file-based projects, you can provide translations from within the standard Transifex Editor. Here is the Transifex documentation about using Transifex Live inside the Transifex Editor.
When will my translations be utilized?
Your translations will be reviewed and added to the site as soon as possible. It’s not immediate though, each string will need to be reviewed and then synched with the website code. Here are the basic steps for a string to go from Untranslated to Utilized:
- Untranslated: Each time we synchronize Discogs code with Transifex, we push new untranslated strings to Transifex that needs translation.
- Translation: content gets translated by Translators and Reviewers.
- Review: Reviewers and Discogs Staff check the translations and mark them as “Reviewed”.
- Utilized: We sync with Transifex again, and pull all reviewed translations. At this point, the website will display the new translations that you added. (When translating the Database Guidelines project, the translations are only used once 100% of the resource is translated).