Ushahidi uses Kohana's internationalization features.

• Language strings are stored in PHP arrays under the i18n directory.
  The application/i18n directory is included as a submodule from the Ushahidi-Localizations
• The strings are retrieved using Kohana::lang()
• See the Kohana docs for more info: http://docs.kohanaphp.com/general/i18n

Translations for the platform are managed in Transifex

• Transifex works with PO files, so the PHP arrays have to be converted before sending to Transifex.
• The conversion is done by a custom Kohana module: https://github.com/rjmackay/kohana-i18n-manager
• PO files are pushed to Transifex using the transifex commandline client: http://help.transifex.com/features/client/

Sources of Truth

• The authoritative source for source strings is the Ushahidi-Localization repository on github.
• The authoritative source for translations is the Transifex repository

To add new strings:

1. Create a new translation string
2. Add it to the i18n/en_US PHP arrays
3. Commit this change to the Ushahidi-Localizations repository

The new string will be automatically picked up by cron runs and pushed to Transifex

Translation Process

Automatic processing:

Cron runs tools/full-sync.sh on qa.ushahididev.com every 6 hours

1. Converts PHP arrays for en_US to POT files
2. Commits POT files to github
3. Uploads POT files to Transifex
4. Downloads translated strings from Transifex into PO files
5. Converts PO files to PHP arrays
6. Commits PO files and PHP files to github

Related links

• Kohana lang docs [http://docs.kohanaphp.com/core/kohana?s[]=lang#use_language_strings|http://docs.kohanaphp.com/core/kohana?s[]=lang#use_language_strings]
• Kohana internationalization http://docs.kohanaphp.com/general/i18n
• Kohana UTF8 library http://docs.kohanaphp.com/core/utf8
• Ushahidi-Localization repository https://github.com/ushahidi/Ushahidi-Localizations
• Kohana-i18n-module https://github.com/rjmackay/kohana-i18n-manager
• Transifex repository

TranslationProcess.xml for http://www.diagram.ly/