{"id":4180,"date":"2018-09-11T05:39:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T03:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opengis.ch\/?p=4180"},"modified":"2020-04-29T16:05:12","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T14:05:12","slug":"qgis-speaks-a-lot-of-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opengis.ch\/fr\/2018\/09\/11\/qgis-speaks-a-lot-of-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"QGIS speaks a lot of languages"},"content":{"rendered":"

QGIS is a real cosmopolitan. Born in Alaska sixteen years ago, it has spread all over the world since. Thanks to its open source mentality, it finds not only in economically strong countries big usergroups. No question, that beside all the developers, there is a bunch of brave translators giving everything to make and keep QGIS multilingual. It’s translated in over forty languages – even to Mandarin Chinese and Esperanto. Not only the application, but also its plugins.<\/strong><\/em>
\nAnd since the feature-loaded long term release 3.4.0 even the QGS-Projects themselves.  Thanks to the friendly support of QGIS Usergroup Switzerland<\/a> and the QGEP Project<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

How it comes<\/h1>\n

Plugins are often shipped with pre-configured project files. To provide them in the users individual language, you’ve been required to translate the project manually in the properties and store it separately. When you needed to change something, you have been coerced to update every single file. This is a big effort and fault-prone. So there appeared the idea to have translation files for each required language, and when the user opens the only one project, it will be translated to his specific language. And that’s, what this new functionality does.<\/p>\n

How it’s done<\/h1>\n

Like QGIS and the plugins, the projects are translated with the Qt translation process. Means, it makes the translation according to a Qt Compiled Translation Source File (.qm file). When the user opens a project, QGIS checks for a .qm file laying in the same folder like the .qgs file, having the same name like the .qgs file and having the language-code as postfix of the users language (the language configured in the QGIS settings).
\nSo when the user opens a project named \u00ab\u00a0citybees.qgs\u00a0\u00bb that is originally in English, but his QGIS language is German, it checks for a file named \u00ab\u00a0citybees_de.qm\u00a0\u00bb. The project’s layer names, field-aliases, container names and much more will be translated to German and the project will be automatically stored as \u00ab\u00a0citybees_de.qgs\u00a0\u00bb. So the user has his German project version and can use and edit it like he wishes. Super easy.<\/p>\n

Start from the beginning<\/h1>\n

Swiss people love honey and so they are diligent beekeepers. So, let’s assume you want to provide a project about beekeeping in cities to your Swiss customers. Because in Switzerland people talk four different languages, you need to have the project multilingual in German, French and Italian. We skip Romansh, not because it’s less important or in the Romansh speaking parts are no cities, but because QGIS does not support Romansh (if you’ll propose this one day, you will have my vote).
\nAnyway. Let’s see what you have to do, to deliver the projects with the .qm file for German, French or Italian.<\/p>\n

1. Create the project<\/h2>\n

You create your project about beekeeping and store it as \u00ab\u00a0citybees.qgs\u00a0\u00bb. You don’t have to care about languages at the moment. You name everything in your language. Assumed it’s English, you name the layers \u00ab\u00a0apiary\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0area\u00a0\u00bb and the fields \u00ab\u00a0fid\u00a0\u00bb, \u00ab\u00a0bee-species\u00a0\u00bb, \u00ab\u00a0beekeeper\u00a0\u00bb and so on.
\nOn changes you will edit always this project and no translated projects.<\/p>\n

2. Generate Ts File<\/h2>\n

In the project properties in the section General<\/strong><\/em> there is the part to generate a translation source file. First, you select the source language, to have this information in programs you’ll edit the file (like Qt Linguist or Transifex) afterwards. Per default the language of your QGIS is selected here.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nWhen pressing Generate TS File<\/strong><\/em> you will find in your projects folder the new file \u00ab\u00a0citybees.ts\u00a0\u00bb.
\nBut wait a minute, why are we generating a .ts file when we need a .qm file?<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe .ts file is the translation source file and it’s the uncompiled .qm file. The .qm file contains compact binary format code Qt can make the translation of programs with, but you and your brave translator cannot read it. So you create a .ts file looking like this:<\/p>\n

<!DOCTYPE TS>\n<TS sourcelanguage=\"en_US\">\n <context>\n  <name>project:layers:apiary__offline__1f89f4fd_49da_4eb9_90b3_1f7b5e82840c<\/name>\n  <message>\n   <source>apiary<\/source>\n   <translation type=\"unfinished\"\/>\n  <\/message>\n <\/context>\n <context>\n  <name>project:layers:apiary__offline__1f89f4fd_49da_4eb9_90b3_1f7b5e82840c:fieldaliases<\/name>\n  <message>\n   <source>fid<\/source>\n   <translation type=\"unfinished\"\/>\n  <\/message>\n <\/context>\n <context>\n  <name>project:layers:apiary__offline__1f89f4fd_49da_4eb9_90b3_1f7b5e82840c:fieldaliases<\/name>\n  <message>\n   <source>bee_species<\/source>\n   <translation type=\"unfinished\"\/>\n  <\/message>\n <\/context>\n <context>\n  <name>project:layers:apiary__offline__1f89f4fd_49da_4eb9_90b3_1f7b5e82840c:fieldaliases<\/name>\n  <message>\n   <source>beekeeper<\/source>\n   <translation type=\"unfinished\"\/>\n  <\/message>\n <\/context>\n[...]<\/pre>\n
You see it’s simple XML code that contains mainly untranslated text in the <source><\/code> element and empty space for the translated text in the <translation><\/code> element.
\nYou could enter your translations directly in this file using the text editor and then build the .qm file with the command lrelease<\/code>, but it’s preferable to use tools like Qt Linguist <\/strong><\/em>orweb-based services like Transifex <\/strong><\/em>or Weblate<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n
3. Translate your File in Qt Linguist<\/h2>\n
You open Qt Linguist<\/strong><\/em> an you select the target language of the .qm file you want to build in the end. Let’s choose German.
\nThe file opens and you see a list of entries described by the Context<\/strong><\/em>. The context is, where the strings are located in the QGIS project.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nThe string \u00ab\u00a0beekeeper\u00a0\u00bb stays in the context project:layers:apiary_1f7b5e82839c:fieldaliases<\/strong><\/em> and this means it’s a field or alias<\/strong><\/em> of the layer apiary_1f7b5e82839c<\/em><\/strong> in the project.
\nThe translation is done simply over the graphical interface. To confirm your translation you can set the check mark.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
4. Finally build your .qm file<\/h2>\n
You compile the translation – means build a .qm file – by simply select Release as…<\/strong><\/em> in the Qt Linguist and store it as \u00ab\u00a0citybees_de.qm\u00a0\u00bb.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nAnd now your customer will be able to open your project in German \ud83d\ude42<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n
What’s translated<\/h1>\n
Most of the needed parameters like layer names and fields are translated. There could be still some strings in your use case that are not like for example action titles or labels. But the solution is designed, that it’s extendable for more project parameters (see the next chapter). So don’t worry if you will find parameters that cannot be translated yet. They possibly will be in the future.<\/p>\n
Translatable strings:<\/h2>\n