source: trunk/third/xml-i18n-tools/NEWS @ 15545

INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
____________________

Hi,

I created the xml-i18n-tools module on CVS based on code by me, Darin
and Kenneth Christiansen. This module contains some utility scripts
and assorted auto* magic for internationalizing various kinds of XML
files. This supersedes the earlier scripts that Kenny distributed to
be checked into each module. In addition, it has an additional merging
feature, currently only for oaf files.

* Here's what this package does:

** Automatically extracts translatable strings from oaf, glade, bonobo
  ui, nautilus theme and other XML files into the po files.

** Automatically merges translations from po files back into .oaf files
  (encoding to be 7-bit clean). I can also extend this merging
  mechanism to support other types of XML files.

Having the translations directly in the XML file is critical for some
file formats, and very helpful for others. When one package installs a
file and a program from another package might at some time read it,
you need to have the translations directly in the file, since the app
reading the data file will not know which message catalog to use.

The beauty of this extract and merge system is that it works through
the existing po mechanism, so translators will be able to work in
their normal way, and be notified of strings that change, or new
strings that are added, with existing tools.

I plan to enhance the system to support .desktop files, mime database
files, and other files that normally embed translations. I would also
be glad to add translation merging support for more XML file types if

xml-i18n-tools has a script xml-i18n-toolize which copies the various
scripts and does the other magic to your module, so users building
from tarballs don't need xml-i18n-tools, only folks building from cvs.


* xml-i18n-tools simple to use. To use it for your module you just do
the following:

** Add these lines to autogen.sh, after the call to gettextize:

echo "Running xml-i18n-toolize... Ignore non-fatal messages."
xml-i18n-toolize --copy --force --automake

** Add this line to configure.in near the top

AM_PROG_XML_I18N_TOOLS

** Add the .xml and .glade files you want translated to POTFILES.in

At this point, strings marked translatable will be automatically
extracted to the .po files.

* To get oaf translation extraction and merging requires a few more
steps:

** Rename your .oafinfo file to .oaf.in and put an underscore before
   every value property for string attributes

** Add the .oaf.in files to POTFILES.in

** Put lines like these in every Makefile.am that installs oafinfo
   files:

--- start ----

oafdir = $(datadir)/oaf

oaf_in_files = My_OAF_info_file.oaf.in
oaf_DATA = $(oaf_in_files:.oaf.in=.oaf)

@XML_I18N_MERGE_OAF_RULE@

EXTRA_DIST=$(oaf_in_files) $(oafinfo_DATA)

--- end ----

At this point, your oaf translations will be extracted and
merged. Also, so long as you are renaming the .oafinfo files to
.oaf.in, you should take the opportunity to rename them to the new base
naming convention, with namespacing, for example:

nautilus.oafinfo --> Nautilus_shell.oaf.in

nautilus-rpm-view.oafinfo --> Nautilus_View_rpm.oaf.in


I'm going to do all these steps for OAF, Ammonite and Nautilus
shortly. I'd also plan to submit patches to do it for bonobo,
gnumeric, evolution, at least, and I can help out with any other
modules people want help with.

Also, if the Glade, Bonobo, etc maintainers are interested in doing
translation merging like OAF, I'd love to discuss a design for it.

Regards,

Maciej