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Localization

Etherpad provides a multi-language user interface, that's apart from your users' content, so users from different countries can collaborate on a single document, while still having the user interface displayed in their mother tongue.

Translating​

We rely on https://translatewiki.net to handle the translation process for us, so if you'd like to help...

  1. Sign up at https://translatewiki.net
  2. Visit our TWN project page
  3. Click on Translate Etherpad lite interface
  4. Choose a target language, you'd like to translate our interface to, and hit Fetch
  5. Start translating!

Translations will be send back to us regularly and will eventually appear in the next release.

Implementation​

Server-side​

/src/locales contains files for all supported languages which contain the translated strings. Translation files are simple *.json files and look like this:

{ "pad.modals.connected": "Connecté."
, "pad.modals.uderdup": "Ouvrir dans une nouvelle fenêtre."
, "pad.toolbar.unindent.title": "Dèsindenter"
, "pad.toolbar.undo.title": "Annuler (Ctrl-Z)"
, "timeslider.pageTitle": "{{appTitle}} Curseur temporel"
, ...
}

Each translation consists of a key (the id of the string that is to be translated) and the translated string. Terms in curly braces must not be touched but left as they are, since they represent a dynamically changing part of the string like a variable. Imagine a message welcoming a user: Welcome, {{userName}}! would be translated as Ahoy, {{userName}}! in pirate.

Client-side​

We use a language cookie to save your language settings if you change them. If you don't, we autodetect your locale using information from your browser. Then, the preferred language is fed into a library called html10n.js, which loads the appropriate translations and applies them to our templates. Its features include translation params, pluralization, include rules and a nice javascript API.

Localizing plugins​

1. Mark the strings to translate​

In the template files of your plugin, change all hardcoded messages/strings...

from:

<option value="0">Heading 1</option>

to:

<option data-l10n-id="ep_heading.h1" value="0"></option>

In the javascript files of your plugin, change all hardcoded messages/strings...

from:

alert ('Chat');

to:

alert(window._('pad.chat'));

2. Create translate files in the locales directory of your plugin​

  • The name of the file must be the language code of the language it contains translations for (see supported lang codes; e.g. en ? English, es ? Spanish...)
  • The extension of the file must be .json
  • The default language is English, so your plugin should always provide en.json
  • In order to avoid naming conflicts, your message keys should start with the name of your plugin followed by a dot (see below)

ep_your-plugin/locales/en.json

{ "ep_your-plugin.h1": "Heading 1"
}

ep_your-plugin/locales/es.json

{ "ep_your-plugin.h1": "Título 1"
}

Every time the http server is started, it will auto-detect your messages and merge them automatically with the core messages.

Overwrite core messages​

You can overwrite Etherpad's core messages in your plugin's locale files. For example, if you want to replace Chat with Notes, simply add...

ep_your-plugin/locales/en.json

{ "ep_your-plugin.h1": "Heading 1"
, "pad.chat": "Notes"
}

Customization for Administrators​

As an Etherpad administrator, it is possible to overwrite core messages as well as messages in plugins. These include error messages, labels, and user instructions. Whereas the localization in the source code is in separate files separated by locale, an administrator's custom localizations are in settings.json under the customLocaleStrings key, with each locale separated by a sub-key underneath.

For example, let's say you want to change the text on the "New Pad" button on Etherpad's home page. If you look in locales/en.json (or locales/en-gb.json) you'll see the key for this text is "index.newPad". You could add the following to settings.json:

  "customLocaleStrings": {
    "fr": {
      "index.newPad": "Créer un document"
    },
    "en-gb": {
      "index.newPad": "Create a document"
    },
    "en": {
      "index.newPad": "Create a document"
    }
  }