Guidance for Linguists

Linguists are Habitica contributors who help translate the website and mobile apps into different languages. The following article offers basic information as well as a series of tips, tricks that will help Linguists bring Habitica to new users from nations around the globe.

All Linguists should be fluent in the language they are translating to. It is better to have no translation than a bad translation because poor quality translations result in complaints and damage Habitica's reputation. Please do not supply translations by using Google Translate or similar services.

This page is for translating Habitica, for information on translating the Habitica wiki see Guidance for Linguistic Scribes.

Check if there is a plan for your language

 * Go to the Translations Trello card and tell people of your intention of translating. Note the information there about available contributor tiers.Transifex_available_languages.png
 * Go to the HabitRPG Transifex project and check whether your language is listed and whether the game is fully translated or not. (Look at the green bar)
 * If your language is on the list, you can skip to the next step.
 * If your language is not on the list, go back to the Trello board and start a discussion regarding your language and have someone add it for you.

Preparation

 * Go to the HabitRPG Transifex project. This is where the translation is currently managed. Do not translate directly on GitHub.
 * If you want to translate into Arabic, click on "Arabic" on the list.
 * You will see several files named *.json (e.g., challenge.json, character.json, content.json). The names of these files and their number will vary over time.
 * These files contain variables and strings in the following form:

"_randomtitle" : "RANDOMTITLE", "variable" : "string", "variable" : "string", "variable" : "string", "variable" : "string"
 * You can click on the files to look at the current translations. Transifex displays the variables/string tables in columns (see below).
 * If you have reached the conclusion that your work will enrich the current translation then proceed to the next step.

Getting started

 * Log in or sign up for Transifex by clicking on "SIGN UP FREE" in the top right corner and follow the instructions on the page.
 * Once you are logged in, go back to the HabitRPG Transifex project.
 * Look through the list of Project languages - there are 70 of them as of June 2015 - to make sure your language is on the list. If not - follow the guidelines above to request a new language.
 * transifex_join_language_team.png To join the team of your language scroll up the HabitRPG Transifex project page and find the green button saying "Join team". Click it and find your language in the drop-down list. Then just click "Join". You will be automatically accepted. Please note: if your language is on the list of 70+ project languages, but you can't find it in the drop-down list when trying to join the team, it just means you are already a member of this team, and you simply can't rejoin it once again.
 * Now choose your language from the project languages to see the list of files available for you to translate


 * To start translating choose and click on a .json file. A dialogue will open that offers you to "Translate Now". Click it.
 * You will get directed to a new page consisting of 3 columns:
 * The first column contains the variables. These are not editable and not important for translating.
 * The second column is where the work takes place. You see the original English string on top and in the section below you can type your new translation.
 * The third column contains some useful things like suggestions for your translation (in case something similar was translated before). You may choose to look at it or not. Generally it is useful to look at the suggestions to stick to the same vocabulary, but not required to do so.

Translating
You can now start translating. You are very unlikely to break something while doing so, so experiment with the options you are given.

Note, that you can only translate strings that have not been reviewed (new strings) as reviewed strings are considered to be correct. If you have a better translation for a reviewed string you may discuss it, this kind of help is also appreciated.

Don't forget to press "Save" after each translation or hit "Save all" when the number on the latter button shows you there are some unsaved changes.

You can translate your way through all the files depending on your enthusiasm.

Review process and suggesting corrections
Once you have finished your translation work, someone will have to review it. That is usually done by a maintainer/reviewer and might take some time.

After a translated string has been reviewed, it cannot be changed except by reviewers. However you can help with improving translation.


 * If you think you have a better alternative for a reviewed string open the suggestion tab and add your variant. Alternatively you can vote for one of the variants which have been added before by other translators - if there are any.


 * Please note that reviewers/maintainers are not notified about new suggestions or votes. So if you come across a line with voting results different from the reviewed version, please leave a comment tagging reviewers of your language (with @nickname in comment text). They will receive a notification about your comment.


 * If you find an incorrectly translated string and it is locked as an already reviewed one, leave a comment mentioning the reviewers as described above. If no action is taken in reasonable time, please add another comment marking it as an issue.


 * Maintainers receive notification about a comment marked as issues, so they can review the original line, its translation, and the work of the reviewer - and your suggestion can then be discussed or implemented.

Glossary
The Glossary is an important feature that you should always use: it provides a list of translated words so everyone will follow them as guidelines, like a dictionary. Different people could translate the same word in different ways, so please take care of the glossary to prevent misconceptions and keep Habitica awesome even in other languages.

To access it, go to the main Habitica project page on Transifex and use the View Glossary button on the upper right of the languages list (direct link).

Variables
Many strings have variables inside them. You can move variables inside the string as your language grammar demands it, but don't delete them or translate the name of the variable. "sellForGold" : "Sell <%= item %> for <%= gold %> Gold",

Links to Wiki pages
In the strings for translation you may come across links to the Wiki pages containing additional information on some topic, e.g You may change the link to the Wikia page to the corresponding page in your language, e.g (Fr) However before you change the link please make sure that (1) the page you are referring to exists and (2) it gives information on the questions mentioned in this line.

Please note: when you try to save a line where a link from the original string is changed Transifex will give two warning messages: Warning: The tag a has not been applied correctly in the translation. Warning: The following url is either missing from the translation or has been translated You may ignore these warnings in this particular case. However please always pay attention to the text of the warning messages and consult with reviewers if needed!

And a final note: please refer to the Guidance for Linguistic Scribes if you are ready to help with translating the Wiki - your help will be much appreciated in here!

Proper nouns and capitalization
Please keep the names "Habitica" and "HabitRPG" untranslated and with the same spelling (as is). If multiple spellings of the name were allowed, it would increase the cost of trademark protection. Feel free to get creative with Habitican, Habiteer, Habitant, inHabitant, etc. as those are all constructions that work in English, but may not work for whatever language you're translating to. Quests' names, bosses... can be translated. Capitalization may be a bit tricky when translating in-game terms. Please try to respect and follow the general rules found in the Guidance for Scribes.

Options in Case of Difficulties
If you are not sure about the way how to translate a line you can try to use one of the following options.

First of all, join the Aspiring Linguists guild: Commonwealth of i18n. Other translators would be glad to help you!

At the same time there's something you can try to do and try on your own.


 * 1) Instructions - can be found in the field between the original line and the text area for translation input. They are given by the maintainers. Only the most confusing lines usually get special instructions.
 * 2) Tabs to the left of the translation field:
 * 3) *Suggestions and History - may help you if the line has just been updated and had been translated before.
 * 4) *Glossary tab - It's assumed, that you have already looked through the glossary as it may help you if the reviewers of other translators have already added a term you are not sure about.
 * 5) *Comments - translators usually try to discuss things in English, no matter of the translation language, this discussion may give you a hint.
 * 6) General discussion - some general questions have been discussed at transifex.com/organization/habitrpg/team/6973/discussions/ but specific questions are usually discussed in native languages in corresponding threads.
 * 7) Other languages - it may be sometimes useful to look through the variants of translators belonging to the teams of other languages. You can alter translation only of the team you are assigned to. However instead of joining a team you can just view results of their work. In order to do so select one of the project languages and then choose the file you are interested in. Then instead of hitting Translate choose to view strings online. Moreover, when translating it's possible to set source strings to any language you like, however it should not be recommended for the sake of consistency.
 * 8) Concordance search - it may help you to search for specific terms through all of the lines in all of the files - within Transifex Translation Memory of your language team.
 * 9) Transifex_advanced_filters.png Filters - can be used to show all lines which fall under the given criteria and prove to be way more powerful than concordance search. You can filter lines both in a single file and within all files of the project. To begin searching through all the resources click the name of the file at the top of the list of the lines for translation, then hit "all resources".
 * 10) GitHub - search GitHub for the key of the line you have doubts about (use the search form at the top of the page).
 * 11) Using special Habitica account for testing - you can emulate the situation in which you think the line is used.
 * 12) Submitting a comment - write your question in the comment for the line. The discussion may be more fruitful if you put other translators you know and the reviewers in @'s.
 * 13) Addressing maintainers - if nothing of the above helps post another comment this time addressing the maintainers with @'s and ask for clarification of the line.
 * 14) Marking a line as issue - if even after receiving all the suggestions you consider the line is impossible to translate to your language, leave another comment marking it as issue. screenshot

Translating the Mobile Apps
The official Android and iOS apps can also be translated on Transifex. Transifex has dashboards for Android and iOS.

Rewards for Contributors
Congratulations, you have succeeded in translating a piece of Habitica! To request a contributor tier, go to trello.com/c/SvTsLdRF/12-translations and follow the instructions in the Contributor badges section. Tiers are called badges on that Trello card.

Tiers for help with translation are awarded to the members of the teams of languages going live:
 * after first personal contribution
 * after 1, 3, 6 month(s) of constant contributing
 * for reviewing the translation

Tier requests are usually processed in batches once every few weeks.

Please note that tiers might not be awarded for poor quality translations.

Adding new translatable strings
Refer to Guidance for Blacksmiths → Translatable strings

Translating the Wiki
For information about translating the wiki, visit Guidance for Linguistic Scribes.