Guidance for Linguists

Linguists are HabitRPG contributors who help translate the site into different languages. The following article offers a series of tips, tricks, and basic information that will help linguists bring HabitRPG to new users from nations around the globe.

Check if there is a plan for your language

 * Go to https://trello.com/c/SvTsLdRF/12-translations and tell people of your intention of translating
 * Go to https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/habitrpg/ and check whether your language is listed and whether the game is fully translated or not. (Look at the green bar)2014-02-15 01 07 41-Greenshot.png
 * 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 https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/habitrpg/.

This is where the translation is currently managed. Do not translate directly on GitHub anymore.

If you want to translate into Arabic, click on "Arabic" on the list.

You will see several files named *.json.

The names of these files and their number will vary over time. Currently there are 14 and they are named: challenge.json character.json contrib.json front.json generic.json groups.json limited.json npc.json pets.json quests.json rebirth.json settings.json subscriber.json tasks.json

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, navigate your way back to https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/habitrpg/

Click on your Language on the list and look for the option to join the translation team. Click this button and you will be automatically accepted.

Now 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.

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

You can move variables inside the string around as your language's grammar demands it, but don't delete them. "sellForGold" : "Sell <%= item %> for <%= gold %> Gold", 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.

You can translate your way through all 14 files depending on your enthusiasm. After you are done, proceed to the next step.

Don't forget to press "save" after each translation.

Glossary
This is a quite 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 HabitRPG awesome even in other languages.

You can access it at https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/habitrpg/glossary/l/en/ or in the main HabitRPG project page on Transifex: there's a View Glossary button on the up-right of the languages list.

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

Go to https://trello.com/c/SvTsLdRF/12-translations and sing of your great deed so you will be awarded your well deserved contributor tier reward.

Congratulations, you have succeeded in translating a piece of HabitRPG.

This tutorial is a work in progress, feel free to add to it or correct sentences that can be misunderstood.

Adding new translatable strings
Refer to the guidance for blacksmiths

Translating the Wiki (As of 11. February 2014)
The first thing you have to note is, that to receive contributor tiers for translating the Wikia, you need to head over to The Keep and look into the Embassy (currently closed). There you will see the tasks listed that you can do to receive contributor tiers. Other translations are not guaranteed to give you contributor tiers, but are nonetheless welcomed, of course. If there is no translation of the Wiki into your language and you want to request a translation or volunteer to create a new translation, then head over to the discussion Trello Card.

Please read all steps, before you start translating or start a new language Wiki, because the initial setup can get complicated. If you do not know how to handle templates and the .css sheets, I recommend you ask someone to do the initial setup for you.

Check if there is a plan for your language
First, check if there is already a Wiki for your language.

So far there is one for German and one for Russian

Is there a translation in progress?
If there is not yet a Wiki for the language you wish to translate to, you have to create it.

If there already is a Wiki for your language you can start by copying information from this Wikia to the corresponding page of the Wikia in your language and start translating (Step 3).

Creating a new language Wikia
To create a wiki you look to the top left of your page, next to the Wikia logo. You will find a "Start a wiki" button. Click it.

A dialogue will open that takes you through the 4 simple steps to create a Wiki.

The name of your Wiki should be "HabitRPG"

It is vital, that you choose the right language option from the dropdown menu otherwise there will be trouble with language linking later.

Once you created the new Wiki you will be looking at its front page.

Initial Setup
Your first job will be to make the front page look sort of like the original HabitRPG Wikia Frontpage, this means you have to adjust the Theme, Wordmark, FavIcon, Templates, Colour set, Top Menu, Wikia.css (and Common.css) and upload a few pictures that are used on the front page.

Language Linking
For this step you need to contact an admin of the original english Wiki. This is best done on the Wiki Translation Trello Board here.

From here on a request will be sent to the Wikia staff that links the new language Wikia to the English one.

Preparation + Copying
The first thing you have to do is navigate to the location where you want the translated page to appear.

To do this, you first go to the front page of the target language Wikia and look at the address bar, which will say:

xx.habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/HabitRPG_Wiki -- "xx" being the language code of the target language.

We will use the Pets page as an example. The source language (English) page is: habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/Pets The target language (here German) page is: de.habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/Haustiere You will notice that only the language code and the text after the "/wiki/" changed. The text after the "/wiki/" defines where the translated page will be created. This is the location that you have to navigate to.

Once there you will be staring at an empty page with a "create" button where you normally see an "edit" button.

Press the "create" button. You have now entered the Editor.

With the editor open, you now need the source language text (the English page).

To get the text, you have to open another browser/window/tab, navigating to the page you want to translate and click "edit". You have now opened the Editor for this page.

You should now have both editors open.

Copy the source code of the English page to the target language Wikia page and publish.

''NOTE: Sometimes copying in visual mode is preferable (if pictures within tables are involved, or a lot of templates, as it is the case with the Class pages). But generally you will copy the source.''

Example: Look at the /wiki/Pets editor. To the top right you will locate two tabs. One saying "Visual" one saying "Source". Click on the "Source" tab. The screen will be filled with the source code of the page which you will either understand or not - it does not matter. Copy everything. Once you have copied the source code, you can close this browser/window/tab, it is no longer needed. Change to the /wiki/Haustiere editor. If you are not already in source mode, go to it. Paste the source code, write a summary of your edit ("created" or something) and publish.

This might look terrible, but that is alright for now.

The next step is to move all required images and templates from the english Wikia to the target language Wikia. Templates can sometimes be skipped, if they contain no important information.

I can give little help for that, it is just a tedious work of downloading and uploading.

After this step the pages should look near identical.

Translation
The process of actually translating the pages is what you are here for.

- An important thing to note is what terms to translate or what terms to leave as they are. "Feature" is a word that is often present in other languages as well. "Daily" and "To-Do" might prove a challenge.

- Another equally important guideline is to stick to the existing vocabulary. If there is a name for something already - reuse that word. Do not invent new words for the same thing. Your translation might not sound as good in your head, but for usability it is necessary to refer to the same thing with the same word.

- If you really think you have a better solution, discuss it first.

The following pages are the first that should be translated and maintained on any translation Wikia: - Front page - Class_System -Warrior -Mage -Rogue -Healer - Pets - Mounts

You should add the following template to every page you translate: Translation

Step 3.3: Add language links
When your work is done, add a language link at the bottom of each translated page as well as its English counterpart.

To learn how this is done: http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Interlanguage_links

Example: [en:Guidance for Linguists] (would link to this page from another language)

Example: [de:Leitfaden für Übersetzer] (would link to the German page)