- I am new to GitHub. Where do I start?
- How do I tell the developers that I translated their app?
- Do I need this app to help the developers?
- How do I load my previous work?
- What does
%sor%1$d/%2$dmean? - Why do some locales have more strings than others?
- I am a dev, should I escape certain sequences?
- Are projects hosted outside GitHub supported?
- I will use this app to cause chaos!
If you're new to GitHub and still want to help the FOSS community, that's great! You've taken a great decision. The first step is to get your own GitHub account (it's free!). This step is required to later let the apps' developers know that you've translated their application.
Once this is done, get Stringlate, add the repository of your favourite application and start translating all the strings to your own locale.
You've finished? That was quick! From Stringlate, you're able to export
the result of your hard work by tapping Menu > Export….
You can export the translations to the SD card, share it to any service,
send it via email, create a GitHub Gist or simply copy its contents to the clipboard.
Once this is done, get the resulting file or URL from wherever you exported it
and head to the issues page
of the repository you chose. Click on the green New issue button (you need
to be logged in), and title your issue something like "Added XXX translation".
Provide some link or another way for the author to get your translation, and
you're done!
Please note that the author might have another way for people to translate their application, (for example, they might use a different online platform). However, don't give up if they close your issue telling you this. Every help is appreciated!
Absolutely not. This application was made to make it easier, but it's not
the only way. You can head to any repository, for example,
this repository, press the
T key (to search for a file) and type strings.xml. This will find
all the strings in that repository.
The res/values/strings.xml file is the original file containing all the
strings. The res/values-xx/strings.xml paths are other locales (for
example, en for English) that someone else already translated.
Click the original file, select Raw and save it on your computer.
Once this is done, rename the file as, for instance, strings-xx.xml.
Open it in a text editor of your choice and start translating all the
strings which do not contain translatable="false". If any tag contains
translatable="false", delete it from the file.
After you've finished, let the developers know that you have a new translation available as explained above.
The first time you add a repository, the strings.xml files contained in
it are downloaded to the internal storage of your device, in the directory
of the application (unless you're a root user, you won't notice this).
If you clear the application data, these files will be gone. Make sure you didn't have any translation left before doing this or uninstalling!
Every time you open a previously saved repository, these files are loaded automatically, without the need for you to take any further action.
When you edit the translation string, these changes are conserved on the phone RAM. For them to persist, make sure you click the Save button on screen. Next time you open the application, you will see these changes.
%s is used to "insert" another string on that position. For example,
imagine you had to greet your users with "Hello Username, welcome!".
Username would be a value that can change, so we would write
"Hello %s, welcome!" and the developer would insert the right value there.
The %1$d syntax, albeit being a bit more complex, simply indicates the
position to insert a decimal number. For example, when showing the progress
"42 out of 100", you would write "%1$d out of %2$d", because in some
languages the order might change, and thus the position is required.
Actually, all the locales have the same amount of strings. By default, those strings which have already been translated are not shown not to disturb (if they are translated already, usual thing is you want to translate the strings left!). However, if you still want to see all the strings, for example, to review them looking for typos, you can open the menu and enable "Show translated strings".
No, you should not escape the sequences. These are automatically handled when parsing and serializing the xml. If you do recognise a escaped sequence on the original string, please drop an issue so we can handle it too (and debate about how that one should be escaped).
Yes! You can either enter a GitHub or GitLab URL and it will be recognised.
If the project is hosted somewhere else, you need to provide the same URL
you would use when cloning it (probably ending with .git).
Please don't. Application developers are people like you, with good intentions and often busy lives. Don't make them waste their time (and users) on incorrect, incomplete, wrong, or even offensive, translations.
There is no way to prevent these things from happening from the application, or even if this application didn't exist. Developers trust on the good will of the people who help them. If you're troll, please don't waste your time on this. There are thousands of websites where you can go to have some fun instead.