Native Language (NL) Websites

Apache OpenOffice supports users around the world via our many OpenOffice localizations, via native language mailing lists and support forums, and by translations of our website. This page describes the steps to create and maintain an NL website. Following these steps you can create a website translation like our Spanish, Turkish or Dutch websites.

Making updates to the Apache OpenOffice project's websites is simple. It's even easy for non-committers (new contributors - like you) to create a patch to request that pages are updated by the project community.

The XX Website

The easiest way to get started is with the XX website.This website is a extract of the most-commonly visited pages from the English website, including:

Altogether, there are around 30 pages in the XX website. These are the ones that you will want to translate.

Creating the Test Directory

In many cases there will already be an NL website for your language, but perhaps one that is badly out-of-date or is non-standard. However, until your new translation is ready to go it is probably best not to wipe out the existing NL page. So initially you will probably want to do your work in a test directory.

Let's take a concrete example:
Suppose your target language is Italian (it). You will want to do the following. If you are not a committer and are not familiar with Subversion then you will want to get help with these steps by asking on the mailing list.

  1. Make a copy (git clone) of the ooo-site/main/content/xx directory as ooo-site/main/content/my_test. In the copy replace all instances of "/xx" in paths, files and also within files with "/my_test". Then replace occurrences of "xx" with your language code (not "my_test") and rename the "msg_prop_l10n_xx.js" file to "msg_prop_l10n_<lang_code>.js"
  2. Also make a clone of the ooo-site/main/assets/xx directory and call the copy ooo-site/main/assets/my_test.
  3. Commit these changes and publish via Jenkins
  4. If you are a committer then you can translate the contents of the files in /my_test locally. If you are not a committer then ask someone to send a ZIP file of the contents.

Important:
In any case, the complete "/xx" directory and its files are used as a template. Please always copy it to a different location first before you start any editing!

Translating the Website

The files will be in two main formats:

  1. HTML files.

  2. Markdown text files. Need to know more about Markdown Text?

    In your translation, do not change the file or directory names. Be careful to preserve the markup of the HTML and the indentation levels of the MDText files.

The Template

You will notice that there is more on the openoffice.org website than what you see in the /test-it content files. The content files give the central part of each page, but the header, footer as well as navigation menus are generated by the template. There are special MDText files that you will need to translate for the template. They are:

For example, the /xx/topnav.mdtext has lines like this:

[Product][m0]
[Download][m1]
[Support][m2]

Here you should translate the words "Product", "Download" and "Support". Also, at the bottom of the file you will see hyperlinks, which should not be changed, and text hints for the hyperlinks which should be translated.

A special word about brand.mdtext. This contains several values that control the overall branding on the website. The name and logo must not be changed, since these are our trademarks, but the "tagline" can be translated. Note also the announcement and announcement url fields. These control the blue announcement that is the top of every website page. That should be translated and the URL changed if needed. For example, in a new release you would want to point to a translated version of the release notes, if they exist.

Other Hints

A few other things to watch out for.

  1. Some files contain an Apache License header at the top of the page. You should not translate that.
  2. Some files contain comments. These don't need to be translated, but no harm is done if they are.
  3. The /download/index.html requires special care since the language strings are stored in a the separate Javascript file "msg_prop_l10n_xx.js". The file "index.html" contains only the variables. Look for the further section if you need more help on this.
  4. It is easy to miss the social networking messages in /download/index.html. These are in the HTML header block and in function shareTwitter(). The string is something like "Join the OpenOffice revolution, the free office productivity suite with over 275 million trusted downloads." You should translate these, but adapt if needed to keep the string within the 280 limit for Twitter.

How to find the right text for the file at the right place?

All texts, mouse over titles and link URLs that can be localized are collected in the "msg_prop_l10n_xx.js" files. The variables are named and sorted via the sections they are displayed in and have also comments to keep the overview.

Example:
// Extensions: Strings in the blue box (top) (used in "index.html").
Here the text for the headline in the blue box for the extensions is stored:
l10n.dl_ext_blue_box_headline_text = "Get Apache OpenOffice Extensions and Dictionaries";

Please note that not all text is always displayed. Some are only shown in case of errors to handle a special behavior.

Example:
// Download: Strings for error text in the sub-red box (used in "download.js").
Here the text for the left download button is shown when the selected options do not lead to a correct download:
l10n.dl_full_link_error_text = "No full installation available";

You can see the variables and text but cannot find the respective file(s)?

The "msg_prop_l10n_xx.js" files contains already a lot of strings. But it is maybe not wished to localize everything that is existing. So, we can keep the "/xx" example section small.

For example, the following variables point to files that are not existing yet. You have to create them first:

l10n.dl_analyze_headline_text = "How to report a broken download link?";
--> "analyze.html"

l10n.dl_help_link = "https://www.openoffice.org/download/full_vs_lp.html";
--> "full_vs_lp.html"

Also many links in the navigation bar refers to global webpages.

NL-Specific Content

It may be desired to add language-specific custom content to the website. For example:

New content pages can be added to your NL directory and links page from a navigator or from a news article on the home page as appropriate.

After Translation

Once your translation is done, you can check it in (if you are a committer) or ask someone to help you check it in and publish it to the website. Review the published pages to verify that the translation is as you want it, and that all links work. Once it is ready you can rename your "test" directory and make it the new NL website for your language!

Please Note:
If there is an existing NL website it is recommended that you do the switch over like this:

  1. First delete the existing NL page, e.g., svn del /it. Commit and publish that change.
  2. Then rename the content/test-it directory, e.g., svn move content/test-it content/it.
  3. Also rename the templates/test-it to /templates/it
  4. Commit these changes and commit them via the CMS

This order is recommended, with the commit and publish after the deletion of the old directory due to a CMS build issue we've run into if all these steps are done together in a single commit.

Maintaining NL Websites

Do try to check your NL website every few weeks to see if any changes are needed. Try to keep it in sync with the English website. Is there a new announcement header? A new release? A new blog post?

You got stuck and need help?

You can always refer to the global webpages at "https://www.openoffice.org/". The directory and file structure is the same.

You need a helping hand?

You can get in contact with us via the L10N mailing list. See the general explanation for what a mailing list is.