We launched the alpha version of Ushahidi a week before we began deploying the platform into the DR Congo. We knew there were things that needed to be fixed, processes that had to be refined, etc. What we hadn't yet considered was the fact that few people read English in the Eastern Congo. We needed a French version ASAP.
The most important part of the site to have translated first is the front-end (the part that everyone sees), the admin area is also important, but not nearly as urgent. We couldn't just go in there and change the words out, what we needed was a programmatic way to do this so that any other future translations in any other language could be done fairly simply (and much faster).
The first step was to pull all the English text content from the site and put it in a flat file document to be translated into French. Kaushal and Ory worked particularly hard finding people to do that translation and then to create a process, using Google spreadsheet docs, so that the next time we have to do it the transition will go a lot smoother. Once those text fields were all finalized we simply funneled that back into the platform and made an option to access it by clicking on a French flag in the site's header.
Once clicked, that button takes you to the following page where you can select the language you would like to translate the report into, and begin translating each section:
The most important part of the site to have translated first is the front-end (the part that everyone sees), the admin area is also important, but not nearly as urgent. We couldn't just go in there and change the words out, what we needed was a programmatic way to do this so that any other future translations in any other language could be done fairly simply (and much faster).
The first step was to pull all the English text content from the site and put it in a flat file document to be translated into French. Kaushal and Ory worked particularly hard finding people to do that translation and then to create a process, using Google spreadsheet docs, so that the next time we have to do it the transition will go a lot smoother. Once those text fields were all finalized we simply funneled that back into the platform and made an option to access it by clicking on a French flag in the site's header.
For the administrators
It's important that the administrators are able to translate incoming English reports into French (or other languages in the future). When on the "reports" page of the administration side, you'll see this new button:
Once clicked, that button takes you to the following page where you can select the language you would like to translate the report into, and begin translating each section: