Translate Live: Updates to the Translation Playground

Over the last weeks, we have shipped a number of improvements to the Translation Playground:

(Here is an example link to the Friends plugin’s playground which is shown in the screenshots below. You can modify the language via the dropdown at the bottom.)

Renamed the link to “Translate Live”

The original name Playground comes from the fact that it uses the WordPress Playground under the hood but we felt this was not so easy to understand, thus we renamed the link on the translation page to “Translate Live”:

Glossaries Are Now Available

As you can see in the screenshot, glossary items will now be highlighted in the English texts. When loading up the playground the project glossary (if it exists) and LocaleLocale Locale = language version, often a combination of a language code and a region code, for instance es_MX denotes Spanish as it’s used in Mexico. A list of all locales supported by WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ Glossary is/are ex/imported as CSV from translate.wordpress.orgtranslate.wordpress.org The platform for contributing to the translation of WordPress core, themes and plugins..

Placeholder Checks

If the original text contains placeholders, there is now a helper below the textarea that helps you verify that the placeholders have been added to the text. You can also click them to insert them:

ChatGPT Experiment also Available

If you have specified a OpenAI key in the Translating WordPress settings, ChatGPT will be available inside the playground, like it is on Translating WordPress today. It will use your custom prompt from the settings and relay the glossary terms to ChatGPT so that (hopefully, sometimes it ignores part of the instructions) it will adhere to them (so please do double check!).

Translation Submission Revamped

We encountered some problems with Chrome’s security features that prevented the previous way of directly submitting to Translating WordPress, so now the translations to be submitted are displayed at the bottom of the page:

Intended Purpose

In the discussion around the Translation Playground so far, we heard concerns about making it almost too easy to contribute translations. I’d like to emphasize the opportunities we see:

• Make it easier for people to translate the most important stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. first, i.e. the ones that are most visible. In regular GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org. priorities could serve the purpose but are typically not used.
• Make it easier for Translation EditorsTranslation Editor Translation editors can approve translations for projects. The GTE (General Translation Editor) and LM (Locale Manager) roles can add new users with the "Project Translation Editor" role that can approve translations for specific projects. There are two different Translation Editor roles: General Translation Editor and Project Translation Editor to review, improve and fix translations in context. Thus it is a tool that can lead to higher quality translations with less effort.
• Make it easier for developers (or users) to see the translation state of (their) plugins and themes in a certain language without having to install anything.

Also important to note:

• It does not allow anonymous submission of translations.
• Translations are submitted as waiting, even for GTEs and PTEs (for now).

Technical Background

As mentioned above, Translation Playground uses the WordPress Playground to

1. Spin up a WordPress in a sandbox in your browser,
2. Install the language files for WordPress and the requested pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or theme,
3. Install the requested plugin or theme itself,
4. Install the GlotPress plugin,
5. Export/import the Project and Local Glossary from translate.wordpress.org,
6. and finally load WordPress with Inline Translation enabled.

Since this runs in the browser, check out the HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. source to see how this is reflected in our use of playground’s new blueprints.

Thank you @amieiro and @spiraltee for reviewing this post.

Looking forward to your feedback!