Contributing Translations

Poweradmin uses the GNU gettext system for internationalization. Translation files are stored as .po (Portable Object) files in the locale/ directory.

Supported Languages

File Structure

locale/
├── i18n-template-php.pot          # Master template (source of truth)
├── en_EN/
│   └── LC_MESSAGES/
│       ├── messages.po            # Translation source file
│       └── messages.mo            # Compiled binary (auto-generated)
├── de_DE/
│   └── LC_MESSAGES/
│       ├── messages.po
│       └── messages.mo
└── ...

• .pot (PO Template) — Master template extracted from source code containing all translatable strings.
• .po (Portable Object) — Human-editable translation file for each locale.
• .mo (Machine Object) — Compiled binary used at runtime, generated from .po files.

How to Contribute

Prerequisites

• A PO file editor such as Poedit, Lokalize, or any text editor
• GNU gettext tools (msgfmt) for compiling
• Git for cloning and submitting changes

Steps

1. Fork and clone the repository:

   bash git clone https://github.com/poweradmin/poweradmin.git cd poweradmin

2. Open the PO file for your language, for example German:

   locale/de_DE/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po

3. Translate the strings. Each entry looks like this:

   ```po

   : lib/Application/Controller/ZoneController.php:45

   msgid "Zone has been added successfully." msgstr "Zone wurde erfolgreich hinzugefügt." ```

   • #: shows the source file and line where the string is used
   • msgid is the original English string (do not modify)
   • msgstr is your translation

4. Handle format strings carefully. Strings with %s, %d, or %1$s placeholders must keep those placeholders intact:

   ```po

   , php-format

   msgid "There are %d zones in the database." msgstr "Es gibt %d Zonen in der Datenbank." ```

5. Handle plural forms. Some strings have plural variants:

   po msgid "One zone" msgid_plural "%d zones" msgstr[0] "Eine Zone" msgstr[1] "%d Zonen"

   The number of msgstr[] entries depends on the language's plural rules defined in the PO file header.

6. Compile your changes:

   bash msgfmt locale/de_DE/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po \ -o locale/de_DE/LC_MESSAGES/messages.mo

7. Submit a pull request with both the .po and .mo files.

Tips

• Preserve HTML tags (<a>, <strong>, etc.) in translations
• Keep placeholder variables (%s, %d) in the same order unless using positional syntax (%1$s)
• Untranslated strings fall back to English automatically
• Test your translations by switching the language on the login page
• Focus on commonly seen strings first (menu items, buttons, form labels)
• Entries marked #, fuzzy need review and are not used at runtime — remove the fuzzy flag after verifying

Checking Translation Progress

To see how complete a translation is:

msgfmt --statistics locale/de_DE/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po

Output example:

2650 translated messages, 45 fuzzy translations, 25 untranslated messages.

Tools

Poedit

Poedit is a cross-platform PO file editor with syntax highlighting, validation, and translation memory. It compiles .mo files automatically on save.

Command-line

# Compile PO to MO
msgfmt messages.po -o messages.mo

# Check PO file for errors
msgfmt --check messages.po

# Show translation statistics
msgfmt --statistics messages.po