Add-on localization proposal

Offering a number of languages in an add-on is very important and largely increases the satisfaction and the number of users.

For the past 10 years, Video DownloadHelper has used Babelzilla to maintain more or less 30 locales. But Babelzilla is no longer maintained and anyway, they did not take the jump to WebExtensions.

Video DownloadHelper 7.0.0 released yesterday introduces a feature that could be generalized to almost any add-on around.

Basically, it’s a layer between the i18n API and the add-on that may overwrite the translated strings. It comes with its user interface to allow any user to modify any locale string. It has an export function for the modified strings, so a motivated user can make the changes, like adding a new language or modifying an existing translation and send the file to the add-on developer to be integrated in the next update.

If you want to give it a try, install Video DownloadHelper 7.0.0, open the add-on settings, click More then Translation. The implementation of this can be found in Weh.

I am sure having an equivalent feature available by default in Firefox would greatly benefit many users and developers around.

1 Like

Hi mig,

your proposal is great! I’m translator for Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian and German. In a German Firefox forum, another user and I translate extensions into German where a German locale doesn’t exist or the German translation is incomplete. In legacy add-ons, we were able to hack even when translated strings were hardcoded. But now, it is difficult with Webextensions because some add-on developers didn’t include the possibilty to localize their add-on. It is difficult to hack WE code for us. So much the more we are very glad about your proposal. I tested it for Upper Sorbian and it really worked vey well although there isn’t a Sorbian locale in the _locales folder of VDH.

Thank you very much and kind regards,

Michael

Thanks Michael

When you are done with your Upper Sorbian translation, please create a topic at the Video DownloadHelper Internationalization forum and attach your exported JSON file.

What is the locale code for Upper Sorbian ?

/mig

This is really nice, Mig. I hope to use it with FoxyProxy.

Hey Eric

Here is the thing: this feature is in Video DownloadHelper and can be easily used in other add-ons but only if they are using the Weh addon dev system.

Since that kind of feature would be useful to almost all extension developers and their users, it would make more sense to have it integrated into Firefox, without the requirement for a specific framework. Some time ago, i created a bugzilla entry with this proposal. This might be the place where to do some lobbying :slight_smile:

Hi Michel, thank you for the information and your willingness to accept Upper Sorbian as new locale. The locale code of Upper Sorbian is hsb. But, later on I’d like to add Lower Sorbian (dsb) as well, if possible.

Regards,

Michael/milupo

Many thanks. Is Firefox available in hsb an dsb ? Otherwise the i18n mechanic won’t work as expected.

Hi mig,

yes, there are Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian builds for a long time. See here:

http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/57.0/win64/

and

https://pontoon.mozilla.org/hsb/
https://pontoon.mozilla.org/dsb/

Regards,
Michael

Perfect, so the corresponding VDH locales will be used automatically. Thanks.

Hi mig,

I’ve just sent the file to the forum.

But, I have still a question: Unlike the translation editor for German, the translation editor for Upper Sorbian does not show the select box with the entries “All Strings” resp. “Missing strings”. Does it appear only when the Upper Sorbian locale will be included in VDH? Besides the VDH cannot readout the correct Windows version (shows win ??) and the correct browser name (= Firefox, shows Mozilla ??) under Platform.

Regards,
Michael

Yes, the fact hsb was not an existing locale explains the fact there is no “All strings”/“Missing strings” selector.
The extraction of the platform/browser versions is one of the problems that are to be corrected in the latest version of VDH.
Many thanks for your contribution !