[WG: I18N & L10N] Sakai Dynamic Translation Server Now Available!

[Beth Kirschner]

Hi all,

   Thanks to the gracious contributions of John Bush at rSmart, and Rob Stonham at University of Hull, I'd like to announce the availability of a Dynamic Translation Server (beta version) to the Sakai international community. The translation server (https://qa13-uk.sakaiproject.org/portal) provides a new Localization Admin tool available in the Administration Workspace (current admin userid/password is "admin").

   The Admin Tool is still in beta, and lacks a complete process to port translations back into Sakai source code -- but more on that later (at the end of this email). The process for dynamic translation relies on a user to first display any and all user interface text with the target language selected. This causes the translation server to save all user interface text into a database table where it can by dynamically retrieved, translated, and exported. 

   Following are the detailed instructions and I've also attached screenshots to walk you through the process.

	1) Create a user and select the target language you'd like to translate in the My Workspace Preferences. If the language isn't yet listed there, it can be added upon request (but bear in mind this server is not yet ready to be the primary translation tool). See user-preferences.png attachment.

	2) Join the "I18N Testing" worksite and attempt to visit all the pages of any particular tool. Repeat for other tools you'd like to translate.

	3) Wait awhile. The database will cache all user text in the background, and unfortunately there's not yet an indication of when it completes. 

	4) Log in as the admin user and visit the "Localization Admin" tool (see localization-admin-1.png). Select "Edit" on the any property and correct or add the appropriate translation (see localization-admin-2.png). Save and continue on.

	5) The translations will now be available for you to view in the original tools.

   Please let me know your comments, and if you'd like to contribute to it's development in any way. What we especially need is someone to write a script that can convert the exported Excel spreadsheet data back into the properties files that Sakai uses in it's release. Until this is done, it we don't have a way to migrate translations back into the Sakai build.

Thanks!
- Beth


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: user-preferences.png
Type: image/png
Size: 224281 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/i18n/attachments/20101109/bc99e1e8/attachment-0003.png 
-------------- next part --------------

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: localization-admin-1.png
Type: image/png
Size: 287448 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/i18n/attachments/20101109/bc99e1e8/attachment-0004.png 
-------------- next part --------------


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: localization-admin-2.png
Type: image/png
Size: 194010 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/i18n/attachments/20101109/bc99e1e8/attachment-0005.png