Add a language
The app ships in seven languages. A new one is a catalog plus a handful of small tables, and a speaker of the language who reviews it. Machine translation is not accepted. How messages are written is in Translating OpenTodo.
On this page
Before you start#
Open an issue or a discussion naming the language and who will review it. Until it is listed, a catalog can sit in the repository unfinished: the check only prints how far it is ("pl: 412 of 3550").
The files#
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| The interface catalog | web/src/locales/<code>.json: every key of web/src/locales/messages.json, translated |
| The language list | { code, name } in SHIPPED, web/src/locales/index.ts, with the name in the language itself |
| Browser tags that pick it | web/src/lib/i18n/locale.ts, only when the language has script or region variants (as Chinese does) |
| Notification texts of the service worker | the table in web/public/push-sw.js |
| The browser extension | extension/_locales/<code>/messages.json |
| The Android app | mobile/android/app/src/main/res/values-<code>/strings.xml |
| Emails | internal/mail/templates/*.<code>.txt, and <code> in mail.Languages |
| Delivery channel messages | the rows in internal/channels/messages.go |
| The docs | the glossary column in Translating OpenTodo, and the list in Language |
Quick add understands dates and priorities in a language only with a vocabulary in web/src/lib/nlp/vocab/. That is a separate contribution; without it, quick add keeps English.
Check it#
node scripts/i18n/extract.mjs --write # after any change to English messages
make i18n-check # complete catalogs, placeholders, plurals, Settings paths
cd web && npm test -- i18n
go test ./internal/mail/... ./internal/channels/...Use the plural categories of your language (one/other, or only other for languages without plurals), keep every placeholder and tag, and use ’ rather than ' in translations.
In the pull request#
- Name the reviewer: a speaker of the language who reads every entry, now and for later catalog changes.
- Add the language to the changelog: a file
changelog.d/Added/<language>.mdwith its entry (changelog.d/README.md).