How to handle *.desktop files translation

[buhtz]

Hello,

does anyone has a good tool (chain) to handle translatable strings in *.desktop files?

My idea is to create a pot file of that strings, let translators create there language specific po files, and later integrate back the translations into the *.desktop file.

I checked the gettext tools and po4a. They don't fit.

I can only imagine a self written script (e.g. Python using polib or dealing with plain text files). But I want to prevent that and assuming there are others out their with the same problems and maybe solutions.

Thanks
Christian

Related to #17676, about polkit *.policy files.

[ismaildasci]

for .desktop files you can use intltool or itstool:

1. intltool (older but works):

intltool-extract --type=gettext/ini file.desktop.in

creates .desktop.in.h with translatable strings

then in your Makefile:

@INTLTOOL_DESKTOP_RULE@

2. itstool with custom ITS rules:
   create desktop.its:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="2.0">
  <its:translateRule selector="//*[starts-with(local-name(), Name)]" translate="yes"/>
  <its:translateRule selector="//*[starts-with(local-name(), Comment)]" translate="yes"/>
  <its:translateRule selector="//*[starts-with(local-name(), GenericName)]" translate="yes"/>
</its:rules>

3. msgfmt with --desktop flag (gettext 0.19+):

msgfmt --desktop -d po/ -o app.desktop app.desktop.in

this is probably cleanest approach

4. for weblate specifically:
   use Desktop file component with gettext PO files. weblate has built-in support:
   https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/formats.html#desktop-files

the msgfmt --desktop approach is what most modern projects use

[buhtz]

Thank you for the answer. Everything looks like a workaround. To much extra layers and dependencies. Seems like my own-script solution would be the preferable way.

Weblate is also not a solution because I don't want to separate the desktop file with its one or two strings into its own component.