:TITLE:VNDB Interface Translation :INC:index :SUB:Introduction

Translation of the VNDB interface happens in roughly the following steps:

  1. You contact Yorhel that you're interested in maintaining a translation into some language.
  2. You will be granted access to the translation admin (see below) so you can translate stuff.
  3. When you're done (or, when you feel you've translated enough to have a useful translation), you can contact Yorhel again and he can move the translation to the main website.

Be warned that VNDB has quite a lot of text to translate, so doing a full translation might take some time. Also keep in mind that the translations will need to be kept up-to-date when changes to the site are made.

:SUB:Translation Admin

The translation admin interface is available on a separate installation of VNDB. It can be reached on the following URL:
http://vndbtl.blicky.net/tladmin
That VNDB installation is completely separated from the main VNDB, so you're free to modify things and screw around as much as you like. The changes to the database are not saved and may be reverted at any time.

Make sure to log in to the site if you wish to modify the translation. Changes to the translations are saved locally and are directly visible on the test site. The changes are not automatically moved on to the main VNDB. You can notify Yorhel to move the edited translation to the main website.

IMPORTANT: When editing translations, make sure to save often. It would really suck if you spend an hour translating everything on a page, and then forget to save it. Or if you accidentally leave the page and can't get back with your changes intact. Or if you wanted to save but the server is suddenly having some issues. Whatever happens, be sure to hit the "Save" button once every few minutes to limit any trouble!

:SUBSUB:Sections

All the interface text of VNDB is grouped into several sections. Selecting a section allows you to view/edit the individual translation lines.

If the translation of a line is the same as the English text, the text box of the translation can be left blank. Blank fields are automatically replaced with the English text on the site.

Always try to find each translated line used on the actual site and see if it looks good in context. Sometimes there are limits to the length of a line and the layout will look bad if the translation is too long. At other times you might notice that the translation is used in a very different context than you had thought.

Checkbox
There is a checkbox next to each translation line. This is used for administrative purposes and can be used to signal which lines still need to be (re)translated. When the English line is modified, or when a new line is added, this checkbox will be set. After updating the translation you can unset it to mark the line as finished. When, and whether, to unmark the checkbox is up to you as translator. The checkboxes are not used for any other purpose than to help you keep track of a to-do list. The numbers next to the section links at the top indicate how many lines are still checked in that section versus the total number of lines.

Formatting
Some lines have special formatting codes in them. In most cases you can just copy the codes from the original text into the translation and translate anything that looks like actual text. Here's a list of the currently used formatting codes:

[_#] ([_1], [_2], etc)
Placeholder for something that will be replaced in the code. You can usually guess from the context what it will be replaced with, otherwise it is often explained in the comments.
[age,_#]
Formats a date/time as an age, like "5 days ago".
[br]
Line break
[date,_#]
Formats a date
[date,_#,full]
Formats a date/time
[datestr,_#]
Formats a release date
[url,_#,title]
Formats a link. The title part needs to be translated, the rest should be the same as the original text.
[user,_#]
Formats a username
[index,_#,..]
This code will select one of its items to be displayed. For example, "[index,_1,Meta trait,Trait]" is a placeholder for either "Meta trait" or "Trait". Both texts should be translated and should make sense in the context of the line.
[quant,_#,..]
This one is important. It is used to handle words that need to be different depending on a certain number. For example, English has only singular and plural forms, so "[quant,_1,vote,votes]" is used to select the right word depending on whether it's about a single or multiple votes. Czech has three possible forms, so that becomes "[quant,_1,hlas,hlasy,hlasů]". This formatting code can be used in any scenario where there is a number, even if the English line is not it.
:SUBSUB:Doc pages

Doc pages are pages like the FAQ, guidelines and other stuff. These can be translated by editing the document on the right. Doc pages are written in HTML and have a few special codes like :TITLE:, :INC:, etc. You don't have to worry much about this, just make sure that if there's any codes on the original document on the left, the same codes are used in the translated document on the right. It helps to keep the line-breaks at the same point in the translated document as in the original document, so that it's easy to follow which lines correspond to each other.

Doc pages always start with a :TITLE: on the first line and a :INC:index on the second. In the translated document it's also possible to add a special :INC:incomplete line to indicate that the translation is not yet finished or not synchronized with the English version. This line is added whenever the English version of the doc page has been changed, and makes it easy to see which documents need to be updated. After ensuring that the translation has been synchronised, you can remove the :INC:incomplete line from the document.

For convenience, in the doc page selection there is a !! indicator next to the doc page to indicate that it has not been translated yet, or that it still has a :INC:incomplete line. Unfortunately, this indicator is not added when one of the incomplete, index or notfinished pages is modified. Be sure to regularly check the index page for any additions!

When updating an existing translation for a doc page that has recently been modified, it may be useful to see what has been changed exactly. The "Recent changes" link at the top-right of the box will bring you to the edit history of the English version of the doc page.

The following doc pages are not available for translation: