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TRANSLATING_MOD.md

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Translating MOD

This guide demonstrates how to translate a mod through an example. Suppose you have made a mod adding a book item to the game, and you have put your mod in "./mods/demo" folder:

[
  {
    "type": "MOD_INFO",
    "id": "demo",
    "name": "Demo MOD",
    "authors": [ "..." ],
    "description": "This mod adds a book.",
    "category": "content",
    "dependencies": [ "cdda" ]
  },
  {
    "type": "BOOK",
    "id": "demo_item",
    "name": { "str": "Guide to Translate a MOD", "str_pl": "copies of Guide to Translate a MOD" },
    "description": "A thin book teaching how to translate a mod."
  }
]

The first step is to generate the translation template for your mod.

# In Cataclysm DDA root directory
mkdir -p ./mods/demo/lang/po
python3 ./lang/extract_json_strings.py -i ./mods/demo -o ./mods/demo/lang/po/demo.pot

This extracts all translatable text from your mod and stores this information to ./mods/demo/lang/po/demo.pot. This file in .pot format is called translation template. It contains all text in the original language that is to be translated:

msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: None\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 1970-01-01 00:00+0000\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 1970-01-01 00:00+0000\n"
"Last-Translator: None\n"
"Language-Team: None\n"
"Language: en\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n > 1);\n"

#. ~ MOD name
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "Demo MOD"
msgstr ""

#. ~ Description of MOD "Demo MOD"
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "This mod adds a book."
msgstr ""

#. ~ Item name
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "Guide to Translate a MOD"
msgid_plural "copies of Guide to Translate a MOD"
msgstr[0] ""
msgstr[1] ""

#. ~ Description of "Guide to Translate a MOD"
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "A thin book teaching how to translate a mod."
msgstr ""

Next, you can upload this translation template to an online translation platform for translators to translate; alternatively, you can also create translation files for a target language from this translation template locally on your computer, for example, Russian:

msginit -o mods/demo/lang/po/ru.po -i mods/demo/lang/po/translation.pot -l ru

Now you get ./mods/demo/lang/po/ru.po. Translations files in .po format are human readable text files that contain mappings between text in the original language and in the target language. Translators work on .po files and fill in translations:

msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: None\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 1970-01-01 00:00+0000\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 1970-01-01 00:00+00000\n"
"Last-Translator: None\n"
"Language-Team: Russian <[email protected]>\n"
"Language: ru\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=(n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n%10>=2 && n"
"%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2);\n"

#. ~ MOD name
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "Demo MOD"
msgstr "<fill in translations here>"

#. ~ Description of MOD "Demo MOD"
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "This mod adds a book."
msgstr "<fill in translations here>"

#. ~ Item name
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "Guide to Translate a MOD"
msgid_plural "copies of Guide to Translate a MOD"
msgstr[0] "<fill in translations here for the first plural form>"
msgstr[1] "<fill in translations here for the second plural form>"
msgstr[2] "<fill in translations here for the third plural form>"

#. ~ Description of "Guide to Translate a MOD"
#: mods/demo/modinfo.json
msgid "A thin book teaching how to translate a mod."
msgstr "<fill in translations here>"

At this stage, the directory structure of your mod looks like this:

demo
├── items.json
├── lang
│   └── po
│       ├── es_AR.po <- Spanish (Argentina) translation
│       ├── es_ES.po <- Spanish (Spain) translation
│       ├── ja.po <- Japanese translation
│       ├── ru.po <- Russian translation
│       └── translation.pot <- translation template in English
├── modinfo.json
└── your_mod_content.json

After the translations are completed, compile translation files from human-readable .po format to game-usable .mo format:

mkdir -p mods/demo/lang/mo/ru/LC_MESSAGES/
msgfmt -o mods/demo/lang/mo/ru/LC_MESSAGES/demo.mo mods/demo/lang/po/ru.po

The translation template in .pot format and translations files in .po format are only used by yourself and translators. You only need to include translation data in .mo format in your mod release:

demo
├── lang
│   └── mo
│       ├── es_AR
│       │   └── LC_MESSAGES
│       │       └── demo.mo
│       ├── es_ES
│       │   └── LC_MESSAGES
│       │       └── demo.mo
│       ├── ja
│       │   └── LC_MESSAGES
│       │       └── demo.mo
│       └── ru
│           └── LC_MESSAGES
│               └── demo.mo
├── modinfo.json
└── your_mod_content.json

When the player plays the Russian version of Cataclysm DDA, the Russian translation of your mod in lang/mo/ru/LC_MESSAGES/demo.mo is automatically loaded, and the player will see translated text in Russian in the game.