Kartouche now available via CVS

Thanks to BerliOS for providing a wonderful CVS package to host the Kartouche files. This can be accessed here (use the module name kartouche), with the project summary page here.

What is Kartouche?

Kartouche is a web-based translation tool - it allows translations to be submitted via a browser-based interface. The Internet has given a crucial impetus to the development of free and open-source software - now it can be used to help the translation process. Kartouche's sister application, Omnivore, stores the completed translations in a searchable store to which comments and corrections can be added.

The key benefits are:

• access to the project is independent of platform or location, provided the translator's PC has a browser
• translators are not tied to one PC - they can translate whenever and wherever they like, provided they have Net access
• synchronising translations from a number of individuals is very easy
• the interface is simple and easy to navigate - just point and click!
• there is no need to learn any other software, such as a text-editor or po-file editor - people who see themselves as less IT-literate may be more ready to join the pool of translators
• ad hoc translation can be accommodated and even encouraged - there is no need to invest significant amounts of time and effort
• potential helpers can be given one web-address and left to do as much or as little as they want - this simplifies publicity and marketing
• everyone can get a simple up-to-date overview of progress made
• the Kartouche interface can be switched between two languages (eg English and Welsh) with just a single click.

With the addition of Omnivore, into which the translations can be loaded after completion and checking, the entire translation corpus is available for review via one central point. This speeds the translation effort in the future (translators can quickly check what has previously been used for a particular term, and also helps in the standardisation process.

The main drawback of the Kartouche approach is that translators must have access to the translation site, via a LAN or the Internet. It may not therefore be practical in cases where such access is not easily available, or where it is relatively expensive.

How do I use Kartouche?

In order for a translation team to use Kartouche, they must have access to a webserver running PHP and MySQL. The translation co-ordinator does the following:

1. install a local copy of Kartouche
2. download the current CVS files of the project to be translated to the PC running Kartouche
3. import those files into the Kartouche database
4. install a Web copy of Kartouche
5. select which database tables will be presented for translation on the website, and upload those
6. review email notifications as helpers add suggested translations, and decide whether to accept or reject them
7. export a completed table to a po-file, download it, and make final checks
8. upload the translated file to the target project's CVS

A detailed manual is available here.

How do I use Omnivore?

The Kartouche manual covers Omnivore as well, since the current download includes both of them. However, in the latest work, the two applications have been separated, and a separate page for Omnivore will be put up at some point.

Has Kartouche been used in the real world?

Kartouche and Omnivore were developed to assist the translation of KDE to Welsh. Kartouche has been running in a "production" environment since March 2003, and nearly 31,000 strings have been translated via the live site, Kyfieithu. Versions of Omnivore have been in use since the summer of 2003, and the current iteration, Korrect, holds almost 110,000 strings from various Welsh translation projects.

Licensing

Both Kartouche and Omnivore are licensed under the GPL.

Downloads

The current version of Kartouche (v0.2) is available here.

Changelog

Version 0.2 (31 October 2003)

• One-pass acceptance or deletion of submitted suggestions is now possible (based on code from Frikkie Thirion), instead of having to accept suggestions first, and then delete unwanted ones.
• Most Kartouche error messages now come up in the interface language.
• Translation progress bars are now generated on the fly, and don't create static images; they have also been added to the relevant admin page.
• The user table selection page now has a switch to show untranslated records only.
• The admin table selection page now has switches to show translated records only, untranslated records only, and suggestions only.
• Po-files can now be exported directly from the user pages for editing on the local PC - this is based on an idea by Dafydd Harries. (Note that the exports will not include translation suggestions - only comments, msgids and msgstrs.) At present this functionality exists alongside the earlier export to a file, but that may be discontinued in later versions, since the new export to screen is easier to use.
• "Hall of Fame" functionality allows contributors to each file to be logged, and then provides a detailed breakdown of contributions by file and individual, down to the actual string translated.
• An alternative user interface for entering suggestions is provided, based on an idea from a French group. It may be preferable when long strings are to be translated, but because it is harder to read where short strings are concerned, it is not made the default.
• Omnivore allows all msgid/msgstr entries to any files that have passed through Kartouche to be maintained in a translations dictionary. Translated po-files from other sources can also be fed in by loading them temporarily into Kartouche.
• Searches in Omnivore can be done in either language, in either direction.
• The initial Omnivore page now lists the number of translations from each source file.
• The Omnivore tables are now held in a separate database from the Kartouche tables, for ease of backup and deployment elsewhere.
• The Omnivore data (currently only in msgid->msgstr direction) can now be made available via a sidebar entry in Mozilla - thanks to Dewi Jones for the suggestion.
• The manual is revised and extended (although more material still has to be added to it), and is now available only in HTML format.

Version 0.1 (27 February 2003)

Initial version.