Create a localization strategy.

[johnnymatthews]

Note: This issue was opened as a result of the November 2019 close-reading audit captured in ipfs-inactive/docs#326.

Having the docs site in several languages is great for globalization, and improves SEO. However, localization is hard and comes with significant overhead. Every change we make to a document means that the page needs to be translated again. We could cut down this overhead by using a dynamic service like Localize.js, or we can leave users to chose their own translation service.

We should decide:

1. Is localization something we want to tackle this year.
   a. If yes: which solution?
   b. If no: why not?
2. How to support IPFS users regardless of the decision.

[alexandrtovmach]

Hello guys,
I'd like to recommend crowdin.com, we're using it for Node.js translation. It's free to use for open-source projects.

[alexandrtovmach]

I'm just a random developer, that discovered IPFS just today, but I'm ready to contribute and help with translation process. Let me know if it's something that I can help.

[RubenKelevra]

Feel free to assign me for the German translation :)

It would be nice if we can use a platform that can detect changes on the git repo and issue a notification to the corresponding translators, to confirm the diff/retranslate it.

The project is moving on pretty quickly, so every solution which cannot handle changes based on git commits will lead to quickly outdated translations which are no help for anybody.

[RubenKelevra]

1. a. If yes: which solution?

I did some googling, weblate.org is IMHO the best-documented open source solution (for translators) for continuous translations. For free projects, they support hosting free of charge.

https://hosted.weblate.org/

[johnnymatthews]

Thanks for looking into this @alexandrtovmach and @RubenKelevra. Localization is not a focus for Q2 2020 (you can take a look at the objects for Q2 2020 here, currently a work in progress).

With that in mind, if either of you are interested in tackling this issue, then feel free to make a fork of this repo and create a proof-of-concept using the services you both suggested. I can't promise that your work will get merged in this quarter, but having a solid foundation to launch IPFS localization would really help the project when we do come around to solving this issue.

[terichadbourne]

Just want to flag for everyone that the other IPFS sites are using Transifex. If anyone of you would like to explore its compatibility with this docs site or start contributing translations to other IPFS websites, you can learn more here. I assume we'd have a more ready pool of volunteers if it were possible to include the docs site among the others for which they're already processing translation requests.

[Andrulko]

Andriy from Crowdin team is here. Our solution has WYSIWYG editor for Markdown / HTML / Word files, should be working great for docs translation (Crowdin supports over 50+ formats and direct GitHub sync is available). I'll fork repository and share POC in the thread

[RubenKelevra]

Just want to flag for everyone that the other IPFS sites are using Transifex. If anyone of you would like to explore its compatibility with this docs site or start contributing translations to other IPFS websites, you can learn more here. I assume we'd have a more ready pool of volunteers if it were possible to include the docs site among the others for which they're already processing translation requests.

Well, I never found this repo before linked or mentioned... so I guess there are probably some other folks out there with the same information issue :)

@Andrulko great!

I wasn't planning on doing this with the service I discovered. So I appreciate the work :)

[olizilla]

As @terichadbourne mentioned, we've already invested in Transifex as our translation system, as documented here https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/i18n#adding-i18n-to-your-project

Adding i18n support to vuepress is documented here https://vuepress.vuejs.org/guide/i18n.html

The trick is getting the config right for transifex so it can provide the translated files in the form we need (mostly markdown)

• https://docs.transifex.com/client/config
• https://docs.transifex.com/formats/markdown

The basic flow is

• import the existing base local files into transifex
• create translation languages in transifex
• get translating!
• pull down translations periodically as a given translation for locale reaches a minimum threshold of completion

I'm happy to help guide anyone who wants to work on this!

[jessicaschilling]

I'd +1 everything @olizilla says. And FWIW - our translation community is pretty remarkably active!

[johnnymatthews]

Speaking to users, the vast majority of non-English speakers use their own browser tools to manage translations. Without committing significant, this will do for now.