The Qt GUI can be easily translated into other languages. Here's how we handle those translations.
This file takes care of generating .qm
files from .ts
files. It is mostly
automated.
This file must be updated whenever a new translation is added. Please note that
files must end with .qm
, not .ts
.
<qresource prefix="/translations">
<file alias="en">locale/bitcoin_en.qm</file>
...
</qresource>
This directory contains all translations. Filenames must adhere to this format:
bitcoin_xx_YY.ts or bitcoin_xx.ts
src/qt/locale/bitcoin_en.ts
is treated in a special way. It is used as the
source for all other translations. Whenever a string in the code is changed
this file must be updated to reflect those changes. A custom script is used
to extract strings from the non-Qt parts. This script makes use of gettext
,
so make sure that utility is installed (ie, apt-get install gettext
on
Ubuntu/Debian). Once this has been updated, lupdate (included in the Qt SDK)
is used to update bitcoin_en.ts. This process has been automated, from src/qt,
simply run:
make translate
When new plurals are added to the source file, it's important to do the following steps:
- Open bitcoin_en.ts in Qt Linguist (also included in the Qt SDK)
- Search for
%n
, which will take you to the parts in the translation that use plurals - Look for empty
English Translation (Singular)
andEnglish Translation (Plural)
fields - Add the appropriate strings for the singular and plural form of the base string
- Mark the item as done (via the green arrow symbol in the toolbar)
- Repeat from step 2. until all singular and plural forms are in the source file
- Save the source file
An updated source file should be merged to github and Transifex will pick it up from there (can take some hours). Afterwards the new strings show up as "Remaining" in Transifex and can be translated.
To create the pull-request you have to do:
git add src/qt/bitcoinstrings.cpp src/qt/locale/bitcoin_en.ts
git commit
We are using https://transifex.com as a frontend for translating the client.
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/resource/tx/
The "Transifex client" (see: http://support.transifex.com/customer/portal/topics/440187-transifex-client/articles) will help with fetching new translations from Transifex. Use the following config to be able to connect with the client:
[main]
host = https://www.transifex.com
[bitcoin.tx]
file_filter = src/qt/locale/bitcoin_<lang>.ts
source_file = src/qt/locale/bitcoin_en.ts
source_lang = en
[main]
host = https://www.transifex.com
[bitcoin.tx]
file_filter = src\qt\locale\bitcoin_<lang>.ts
source_file = src\qt\locale\bitcoin_en.ts
source_lang = en
It is also possible to directly download new translations one by one from the Transifex website.
tx pull -a
- update
src/qt/bitcoin.qrc
manually or vials src/qt/locale/*ts|xargs -n1 basename|sed 's/\(bitcoin_\(.*\)\).ts/<file alias="\2">locale\/\1.qm<\/file>/'
- update
src/qt/Makefile.am
manually or vials src/qt/locale/*ts|xargs -n1 basename|sed 's/\(bitcoin_\(.*\)\).ts/ locale\/\1.ts \\/'
git add
new translations fromsrc/qt/locale/