Translation system

The translation system is a shambling fetid horror of the deep. We're sorry. Very sorry. You may be interested in translation_die_die_die. However, in most cases you'll actually be submitting patches: for an explanation of how to approach this, see Explanations#Why you can't just change text in a translation string in a patch. Once again: we're very, very sorry.

• Go to a page you're working with - for example, http://www.dreamwidth.org/update.bml
• Add ?uselang=debug to the end of the URL
• Go to http://www.dreamwidth.org/translate/edit.bml?lang=en_DW
• You will see three frames on the page; the top left contains a search function, the bottom left will contain results from your search and the main frame is your work area.
• The three search boxes let you search on different things, but for now you'll mostly be wanting to use the bottom one that will let you search on whether a string has been updated or proof read. Just clicking the bottom search button without making any changes will give you a list of all strings.
• You will notice that the bottom left frame will load a list of all the strings to be edited; first, those specific to a page and then general strings. They are listed alphabetically with ten to each page.
• Look for the page containing the strings for the part of the site you want to edit and select it. You'll be able to find the strings by matching them up to what you see on the page with ?uselang=debug appended to the URL.
• Check the "Edit text" box for each string you want to update, and edit the text in the text field.
• Any text in [[brackets]] is referencing a variable generated in the backend. Don't change these.
• Check the box labelled "updated" for each string you edit if you've rewritten it or checked that it doesn't need rewriting, or "proofed" if you've proof-read it. This is so that the rest of the Site Copy Team can find strings that haven't yet been updated, and proof readers can find the strings that need proofing.
• When you're done, click save at the bottom of the work area.
• When everything has been both updated and proof-read, we're done!

When you are submitting a patch:

• Increment the name of the string as in the explanation.
• Go to a page you're working with - for example, http://www.dreamwidth.org/update.bml
• Add ?uselang=debug to the end of the URL
• Go to the /translate/edit.bml?lang=en_DW page on your Dreamhack
• Look for the page containing the strings for the part of the site you want to edit and select it. You'll be able to find the strings by matching them up to what you see on the page with ?uselang=debug appended to the URL.
• From this page you will be able to figure out the proper format of thing to put in deadphrases.dat
• The location of deadphrases.dat is: dw-free/bin/upgrading/deadphrases.dat