Contao news

With the upcoming Contao 3 release, there will also be a major change in how core translations are managed.

Transifex

Instead of maintaining our own online translator, we have decided to switch to Transifex, a modern localization platform with a large feature set and the option to work either online or offline with your preferred XLIFF client (translations are stored as XLIFF files internally).

To get started, all you need to do is to register at transifex.com and make a translation request. You can then join existing translation teams or become the coordinator of a new translation team.

Using localizations

Instead of having to download a language pack or to maintain a third-party extension, completed translations (95% and more) will be shipped with the Contao core. This process is managed entirely by us, so you as a translator can focus on what you are best at: translating.

Kickstart

If you are the administrator of an actively maintained core translation, you certainly do not want to start from scratch with all the resources you have translated already. Therefore, please drop us a short note after you have registered at transifex.com and we will upload the latest version 2.11 translation to get you started.

We were able to complete the French translation to 90% this way!

How to use Transifex

Transifex has a great documentation section to help you learn the ropes. There are basically two ways of translating: using the online interface or using an offline XLIFF editor.

Using the online interface is pretty much self-explanatory and quite comfortable actually. Each translation is divided into different resources, representing the Contao .php language files (e.g. core-tl_module relates to system/modules/core/languages/<lang>/tl_module.php).

Simply click the resource you want to translate and hit the "Translate now" button.

Using an offline editor is a bit more complicated, because you have to install the Transifex client, a command-line tool to pull from and push to the online repository. The client should download the XLIFF files into the .tx/source/<lang> folder of your Contao installation. You can edit the files with your preferred XLIFF editor and then push them back to transifex.com.