Wiki Translation

The system for providing JOSM users Help is based on this Wiki. It deals with the exact context under the mouse pointer. It can offer the appropriate topic when the user clicks or strokes F1. Our common goal is to help the user in his own language.

The JOSM pages follow the simple method to add the language code in front of page name. You can find (and add) the language codes at the page TracLanguages.

Each English base page has the macro [[TranslatedPages]] at its top. This macro creates a small menu containing links to all translated pages with the same page name.

This macro is also used on each translated page. Additionally it contains the revision of the base page as parameter. See the following example:

When the revision of the base page is newer than the translated revision (someone updated English page), then below the language links in menu a new menu point appears showing the translated revisions and newest one. When clicking on that link, the differences between these revisions are displayed. These can then be used to update the translation. During updating the revision in the translated page needs to be increased to the newest one and the additional links disappears.

Some notes:

• All links to wiki pages should use the wikitr: as realm. This realm delivers an URL to a translated page if available. If the target is not yet translated, then a URL to the English base page is delivered, combined with a marker.
  [wikitr:/Translations/Wiki Translated Wiki Translation] will always lead the reader to a valid page.
• Images from the English base page can easily be on translated pages. To address them, use the page name as realm and place a colon in front of the filename: [[Image(Translations/Wiki:diff.png)]]
  • It is nice if screenshots are offered in the native language although the English version is also accepted and less work.
• Pages should be consistent, so when adding new stuff on a translated page, please update the English base page also (except for language specific things).

See the macro description for more information about this macro.

Pages can be marked as incomplete or old with adding the outdated parameter to the translation macro. A message describing the incompleteness and what to do is the value of this parameter. The parameter name must be separated with a comma from other parameters. The parameter value is separated with an equal sign from the name. Commas inside the value must be escaped with a backslash.

Example: [[TranslatedPages(revision=12,outdated=Translation is incomplete\, last part missing.)]]

Outdated messages from the English base page can be copied in translation, but probably it is better to have them at base page only. This allows to separate translation related issues (translated pages) from content related issues (base page).

The list of outdated pages shows all outdated pages and the related comments. Its translated variants shows this information only for the target language and for the English base pages.

Language codes

Language codes in JOSM follow the method used by launchpad and many other open source translations. These are:

• Two letter codes from ​ISO 639-1 in lower case, i.e. de.
• Three letter codes from ​ISO 639-2 in lower case when there is no two letter code, i.e. ast.
• Above language code followed by an underscore and upper case country code according to ISO 3166-1, i.e. pt_BR.
• Above language code followed by an at sign and lower case dialect, i.e. ca@valencia.

The codes are slightly modified in different places:

• For use in Java manifest and XML file keys the "@" sign is replaced by a "-" i.e. ca-valencia.
• For use in Wiki page titles, the first letter (also after signs) is upper case, i.e. Pt_BR or Ca-Valencia.

The translation state of the whole wiki can be seen on the Statistics page.