How to add translations for a new locale

1. Create a subfolder of the nls folder whose name is the language or locale you want to create a translation for.
   • If you're creating a general translation for a language, just use its two-letter code (e.g. en, de).
   • If you're creating a locale-specific translation for a particular country, add a hyphen and the country code in lowercase (e.g. en-ca, en-gb).
2. Add an entry for your translation to the module.exports object in nls/strings.js.
3. Edit the root strings-app.js file and add a new LOCALE_* entry for your language, as seen in the Debug > Switch Language UI.
4. Copy the root strings.js file into your subfolder and start translating!
5. Use the UI walkthrough steps to see strings in context.
6. Add this comment /* Last translated for commit_SHA_of_root_strings.js */ at the end of your strings.js and replace commit_SHA_of_root_strings.js with the actual SHA. You can copy the actual SHA in this history page by hovering on the one you used for this translation and click on Copy SHA button.
7. Edit this file and update the list of languages below!

Strings not specified in a given locale will fall back to the general language (without hyphen) first, and then will fall back to the English string from nls/root/strings.js.

Localization is provided via the require.js i18n plugin.

Translating the Getting Started project

When first installed, Brackets will open a Getting Started project that serves as an introduction to Brackets features. This project can be translated by providing a urls.js file that points to a localized directory under the samples folder at the root of the Brackets repository. See the French localization (src/nls/fr/urls.js) for an example.

It is also recommended to add this comment <!-- Last translated for commit_SHA_of_root_index.html --> at the end of your index.html and replace commit_SHA_of_root_index.html with the actual SHA.

How to modify existing translations

Adobe-maintained translations

Adobe provides translations for the following languages:

• French (fr)
• Japanese (ja)

These translations cannot be modified through our normal pull request process. Please contribute changes one of these ways:

1. File an issue in our GitHub repository https://github.com/adobe/brackets/issues
2. Submit a proposal at the Adobe® Translation Center (ATC), under the Brackets product. At ATC, proposals can be voted on by peers and are eventually accepted by moderators.

Community-maintained translations

The following languages have been contributed by the Brackets community:

• Czech (cs)
• Danish (da)
• German (de)
• Greek (el)
• Spanish (es)
• Persian-Farsi (fa-ir)
• Finnish (fi)
• Galician (gl)
• Croatian (hr)
• Hungarian (hu)
• Indonesia (id)
• Italian (it)
• Korean (ko)
• Norwegian (nb)
• Dutch (nl)
• Polish (pl)
• Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br)
• Portuguese (pt-pt)
• Romanian (ro)
• Russian (ru)
• Slovak (sk)
• Serbian (sr)
• Swedish (sv)
• Turkish (tr)
• Ukrainian (uk)
• Simplified Chinese (zh-cn)
• Traditional Chinese (zh-tw)

These translations can be directly modified through our normal pull request process. Make sure that you also update the comment on the last line with the correct SHA of strings.js from root directory, which you used for your translation. If the SHA comment is missing, then add one with the correct SHA. See step 6 in How to add translations for a new locale section for adding a new one.

In the future, Adobe may begin maintaining some of these languages too, at which point the process will switch to the one above. But until then, please do not use http://translate.adobe.com for these languages.

Contributing Translations directly from github.com

You must be logged in to your github.com id (e.g. user1).

Adding a New Translation

To add a new translation, you need to start with a copy of the root strings.js file which is located at https://github.com/adobe/brackets/blob/master/src/nls/root/strings.js. New translations can be added by navigating to the nls folder on github and then clicking on the [+] button to add a new file. You will be taken to a New File page where you:

1. Specify the file name as language-id/strings.js
2. Paste in the contents of root/strings.js and edit strings for new language
3. Add this comment /* Last translated for commit_SHA_of_root_strings.js */ at the end of your strings.js and replace commit_SHA_of_root_strings.js with the actual SHA. You can copy the actual SHA in this history page by hovering on the one you used for this translation and click on Copy SHA button.
4. Add short and (optional) long description of new file
5. Click "Propose New File" button

Editing an Existing Translation

Existing files can be edited directly in brackets repo on github.

Navigate to the file to edit and click "Edit" button above file. You will be taken to an Edit File page where you:

1. Make desired edits to file
2. Make sure that you also update the comment on the last line with the correct SHA of strings.js from root directory, which you used for your translation. If the SHA comment is missing, then add one with the correct SHA. See step 6 in How to add translations for a new locale section for adding a new one.
3. Add short and (optional) long description of Commit changes
4. Click "Commit changes" button

Branch and Pull Request

For either case, if you have not yet forked the brackets repository in your github account (https://github.com/user1/brackets), it's done automatically. A new branch will be created in your Brackets fork with a unique name which is something like patch-1 that contains your changes.

You are then taken to the New Pull Request dialog which is filled in with all of the information from previous dialog. It also shows contents of new file or a "diff" of changes to existing file. You can make any changes if desired, then click "Send Pull Request" when done (or close page to Cancel). A pull request for your branch is created and submitted to the Brackets "repo".

Code Review

Someone on the Brackets team will review the pull request. If it's ok, it will be merged. If changes need to be made, the reviewer will post comments in the pull request which will send you an e-mail notification.

Updating Existing Branch and Pull Request

If you need to make changes to an existing branch, you should make updates in the patch-1 branch in your Github fork of Brackets so all of your changes for this update are in a single branch. Creating a new branch for every update makes it difficult for core team to see all changes at once, and can even create conflicts that are very difficult to resolve. For example:

1. After submitting your pull request, look at the top where it says something like:

   user1 wants to merge 1 commit into adobe:master from user1:patch-1

2. Go to your github fork of brackets page: github.com/user1/brackets

3. Click on the Branches Tab: github.com/user1/brackets/branches

4. Click on the link to the branch: github.com/user1/brackets/tree/patch-1

5. This is where you make changes to your patch-1 branch.

Saved edits show up as a new commit, so they automatically show up in the original pull request. After making an update, add a comment to the pull request such as "Changes made -- ready for another review" to notify reviewer that it's time to review the changes again.

Translation limitations

Some strings cannot be localized yet:

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Some native menus on Mac (hardcoded support only for English, French, Japanese)
• Windows installer UI (hardcoded support only for English, Japanese - with some limitations)
• Localized folder name of "Getting Started" has to be made of up basic English characters only, as described here.