Localising the Lizard
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Tools
It became clear early in the project, especially among outside developers who were localising Mozilla or applications built on top of Mozilla, that the translation process was too time consuming. It involved hand-editing the files to extract the strings, translating them, and then inserting them back into the relevant files. As a result, some enterprising people built tools to automate the process, and in the meantime have made many friends in the community.
MozillaTranslator and MozExpTool are the two primary tools, and I will focus on the former: MozillaTranslator. This is a Java-based application that was written by Henrik Lynggaard in Denmark. For the latest download, head over to MozillaTranslator.org. This site has the complementary service of hosting language packs for various builds of Mozilla. I can see it evolving into a one-stop shop for the Mozilla translator.
Here is a quick tutorial to get you started:
- Select File-->Manage Installs.
- Press "Add" in the dialog to add a package.
- Give it a label (for your own use).
- Point to the path
chrome\en-USorchrome\en-US.jar(replace the path with your own for your Mozilla application locale) within the Mozilla build. - Exit the dialog.
- Select File-->Update Install.
- Select Edit-->Chrome View once the update has finished, and you should see the component structure and be able to choose fields for viewing
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Chrome view in MozillaTranslator (click for full-size view). |
At this point you can edit the text straight from the chrome view. There's also the option to bring up an edit window for a selected phrase, which will give you all the possible editable fields in one window. There's an advanced search feature, something that's very useful if you're looking for a piece of text in a heap of files. Another of the more advanced features includes the ability to read from and write to a JAR archive.
A JAR archive is a compressed version of a chrome component, the standard now being used in Mozilla. You can create a cross-platform install (XPI) file for your locale component using MozillaTranslator. These are essentially compressed files which contain the JAR archive and an install script that is a small JavaScript file. This enables easier distribution and shields the translator from the technical workings of Mozilla. That's really the basis of the program, to make the translating process as straightforward as possible for those new to Mozilla and for those only concerned with working on the text to be translated.
Double Dutch
So, while this is not a call to bring Mozilla to the world, it should give you a firm basis to start localising the software in your own language. You can find out more here about the projects currently underway to localise Mozilla.
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Acknowledgements: Robert Kaiser, the man responsible for the German localised version of Mozilla. Henrik Lynggaard, the author of MozillaTranslator. Frank Yung-Fong Tang of the Netscape i18n Team who provided some of the high level goals of the project. Yvonne Cleary whose paper I reference: An Examination of the Impact of Subjective Cultural Issues on the Usability of a Localised Web Site - The Louvre Museum Web Site Axel Hecht, for peer review and all-round encouragement. |
If you've already been playing around with localising the front-end of your Mozilla program and would like to do more, or perhaps you would like a version of Mozilla in your own language that is not already represented, here are some things to keep in mind.
First of all, get your translated version hosted either on MozillaTranslator.org or mozilla.org, or preferably both. Keep it up to date and make people aware of it, posting notification on the relevant newsgroups. Tools will become more advanced as time progresses, so be sure to monitor new releases of MozillaTranslator or perhaps the appearance of other tools.
Mozilla is raising the standards for internationalised software. This is in part due to the open source nature of the project and the demands of developers that come with that. Turn this on its head and the benefits become clear: A wider development community opens up the chance for more translators from more regions in the world. This international attitude accompanied by good design goals and implementation makes the Mozilla software truly sans barriers.
Brian King is an independent consultant who works with web and open source technologies.
Related:
Infinite Extensibility with XBL
Getting Your Work Into Mozilla
Tap the Power of Mozilla's User Style Sheets
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