
Ask HN: How do you translate a dynamic website into different languages? - vanilla-almond
What are some approaches for translating a dynamic website or web app into different languages?<p>For example, do you place all the copy and error messages into separate files which are then loaded by the app depending on the language chosen?<p>How do you keep translations in sync when copy in one language is updated?<p>And finally, if you have an open source project that relies on volunteer translators, how do you verify the quality of the translations?
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mkempe
Same as any other localized software -- pass every translatable string through
a dynamic call to a localization function (e.g. `tr` in Qt [1]) and load
localization files for the translated strings.

[1] [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/i18n-source-
translation.html](http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/i18n-source-translation.html)

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zer00eyz
As for quality checks, this gets MUCH harder. You basically need more than one
translator and some of them do translation review.

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mkempe
Yes, that part is a major problem. I don't think there is a simple path for
quality localization -- you definitely want multiple people fluent in the
target languages to review the UI, with expert knowledge of the domain.

Watch out for adjectives becoming verbs, positives becoming negatives, phrases
going from half a line to three lines, etc.

\--

I've unfortunately worked with US-based UX companies whose employees had zero
understanding of the non-American world: 24h-clocks, ISO 8601 dates, no
italics in Asian scripts, ...

There was even one who wanted the verb to be colored blue or red depending on
positive/negative connotation, as if that "system" could reliably or easily be
"translated" and coded.

