translation documentation

git-svn-id: https://semanticscuttle.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/semanticscuttle/trunk@522 b3834d28-1941-0410-a4f8-b48e95affb8f

doc/developers/translation

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+Translating SemanticScuttle
+===========================
+
+SemanticScuttle uses gnu gettext for translation. It does not
+rely on the php extension but ships with a pure php implementation,
+php-gettext[1].
+
+Using gettext from within the code is really easy:
+Enclose the string you want to translate in a "T_" function call.
+
+For example, to translate
+> echo "Vote for";
+just write
+> echo T_("Vote for");
+
+
+Translation basics
+------------------
+
+We keep one base translation file, data/locales/messages.po.
+This file is auto-generated via xgettext from all our php source files.
+In case you added a new string to the code that needs translation,
+update the base translation file by running
+> php scripts/update-translation-base.php.
+
+After that has been done, the changes to the base messages.po file
+need to be merged into the single language translation files,
+for example data/locales/de_DE/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po.
+
+Updating them from the master file is as easy as running
+> php scripts/update-translation.php de_DE
+
+When the translation is ready, the .po file needs to be compiled
+in a machine-readable .mo file. Use
+> php scripts/compile-translation.php de_DE
+to achieve that.
+
+
+
+[1] https://launchpad.net/php-gettext/