Project Details & Presentation
In this presentation, I aim for 6 main things:
- To be as clear as possible to ease the work of the moderator.
- To provide proper information about the current project.
- To propose the logs of my personal work and interactions with this project.
- To educate the readers about
and the open-source culture.
- To show a model of transparency and accountability toward our community.
- To reach a bigger/larger audience of devoted Netizens.
Project Dissection:
PrestaShop is what we call in the world of the open-source development, a freemium solution. A gamer myself, I believe that most gamers out there know very well the meaning of freemium games/software. (1) But this is not the case here, because we are dealing with something totally different. I personally did not know that we can pair the concept of a freemium solution/product, with an open source e-commerce. First, to make things clear, let’s start first with the official definition of this platform directly from the company itself, and the information is as the following: (2)
“PrestaShop is an efficient and innovative e-commerce solution with all the features you need to create an online store and grow your business.”
And according to the website, this platform aims for one important thing which is “Our mission is to develop world-class eCommerce software through open source innovation. Together with our community, we provide software that enables everyone to have a successful eCommerce business”. (3)
Image by V.F - The website offers a very responsive demo version for anyone who wants to play with.
And this is exactly where things get interesting, PrestaShop does not have something really revolutionary compared to the other FOSS that I worked on. But by digging deeper, I discovered that this project has something that not all the projects I've worked on have. A big and dedicated, diversified and loyal community. The project on Crowdin has over 190k words; but still, people are competing me in finishing the translation of my own language, which I personally find very great and very encouraging.
Projects are always easier to tackle when there is a huge community around it. I am pretty sure that at the time of writing these words, strings are being pushed for my language. The sense of collectivism is really strong around this project, and I really wish all projects hade the same dedication from the PO. With approximatively 200-250k shops around the world, and used in more than 163 countries, with more than 60 languages available. (4)
This platform is really a big player in the field of the eCommerce industry. PrestaShop has also more than 300 built-in features for managing the product lists, payments, shipping, manufacturers and suppliers. In addition to this, it uses a web template system that allows users to customize their stores and add new features by adding the add-ons. (5)
One other interesting thing I stated above is that the platform proposes and I quote “A Powerful Freemium Open Source Solution with International Reach”. The company is really trying all the possible capabilities and services to enhance the experience of the users/customers, and at the same time, the profitability of the stores. To find our way in this maze, I will directly quote the point of view that the company stated about this model: (6)
"With its completely free solution that is available for download, PrestaShop offers endless opportunities to help merchants succeed! The company has teamed up with more than 80 industry-leading partners, such as PayPal and OVH, and offers 3,500 modules for payments, logistics, sales promotions, and more, all aimed at improving a store's features."
The Why:
The question of why will always be a question of the omnipotent nature of the virtue, genuineness, conviction, ethics, and value. Thus, I will allow myself to share the same convictions I hold most dear. Fare from the scourge, of the oblivion world!
The question of why I’m doing this project is quite hard to answer for many reasons when
launched a call for all the moderators to write a contribution to speak about their thoughts in relation with and the open-source community/culture. I started to write an article for my community, and one of the few questions that I tried to answer this question “How can we; as humans, conceive doing something just for the greater good?”. A hard question to answer.
Is doing something for free a key factor in defining a true dedication for a community or an idea? or it is more like a question of values and the amount of intellect and time invested to do good? I can argue that the architecture of the world of today can lead us to see idealism as some kind of illusion, a country for the weakest, for people who can’t face reality; yet, I have always wondered why it was so difficult to apply an idealistic model of working, it must be us! which lead me to my next point.
In my time working as a language manager, I came to a few conclusions that I already pointed out in my article. One of those conclusions is that the open-source culture is not really for everyone. Thanks to the few events that happened lately, we had an idea and a distilled conclusion at the same time. The neural system of
Theoretically, I am quite sure that any initiative based in an open-source environment, will always have the same issues that we are having here in
Well, why I’m here? I’m playing the role of the dragon's teeth (Drachenzähne) against those waves of realism! … This is just a granular contribution compared to the whole matrix of the open-source world.
Proof of Work | Brain
"In this section, you can see some kind of logs I used to print each time more information was needed to understand the functionality of some concepts/terms/words. This will also allow the reviewer and readers to clearly understand the nature of some choices that I made in some strings, and hopefully, to encourage any discussion about the betterment of the translation if needed. On top of this, I’m sure that everyone can benefit from some information printed here. I actually did learn many things, and I hope the people who are going to read this contribution will feel the same as I did … smarter! The information that I printed here must serve only as a guide to follow up my translation issues logs. If you want more information about these logs, I suggest you check the links at end of this contribution."
In this contribution, I tried to work on older translations done by many translators, translations that are approved, but clearly inconsistent with each other. The current state of the project from a translator perspective is highly confusing, and need critical interventions from the PO to find a solution if they really want to use the translations. A framework will need to be set to work according to specific norms to unify the whole project. Automatic translations are highly present and some of them are approved, which leads to a domino effect that has caused obvious damage to the entire project.
Even though the project is now 99% completed, and the translation that I provided is of a high quality, I really doubt (from a quality point of view) that the project can be presented like this for the end user. I am well aware that the translation is free, yet, I believe that some management needs to be established at some level, especially for the proofreaders since they are the ones responsible for accepting accurate translations. The project is really easy and fun to work on, but the lack of cohesiveness is making it a nightmare for any translator or proofreader. I already contacted the manager of the project about the list that I prepared. I also left her a note about the eventuality that the list will be updated in this final submission since I received more intel from the language moderator regarding many inconsistencies. The list will be of a great help for the PO and the Arabic proofreaders.
After this contribution, I am planning to post a report that contains all my conclusions. Hoping that it will help more people and POs to deal with this kind of situations.
My last contribution highlighted many issues that were before this time unknown to me. Thanks to the moderator notes, I was able to find out that the translation memory, even set for an accuracy of 100%, can provide suggestions that are completely unrelated to the strings being translated. One of these situations can be found in this string. Even if the translation of the string seems correct, many alternatives that are drawn from partially similar strings can be suggested and shown, which is really problematic with a 100% option for the TM. The similar strings can be found here and here. People need to be very careful since this can lead them to use unfounded translations in their aim to achieve cohesion.
I also used the other languages as a reference to translate many strings such as this string, and added many words that needed more clarification, because it seems that the words are used randomly, this is why sometimes you will find the word (Upgrade) that printed as (ترقية), and the words (update) that I printed as (تحديث). In addition to this, I printed (المستودع) for (Warehouse), (الممون) for (Supplier), (رفع) for (Upload), (المؤلف) for (Author), (صيغة الملف) for (File Format) … I was also very confused when I tried to find a clear word for “reviews” there just too many choices (تعليق/آراء/ ملاحظات/مراجعات), same thing for 'Hook' you can find it as (الخطاف/تعليق/سنانير/روابط/هوك) ...and a lot of them are already approved. I also suggested many words that I think are the right despite the fact that they are already approved as advised by the project manager. I personally really hope that all our wordlist will not go to the wast and can really help the project in the future since it really took us a lot of time to think about everything. I am also ready to work in any future version of the project (software) as long as all proofreaders start working according to a unique framework, because otherwise, we will be making the same mistakes again, and again.
[The table below is only unique to the PrestaShop project]
| SOURCE | TARGET | SOURCE | TARGET |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISO 'CODE' | رمز | Back-Office | المكتب الخلفي |
| Front-Office | المكتب الأمامي | Document | المستند |
| Shopping 'cart' | سلة | Server | سيرفر |
| Supply | تموين | Telemetry | العربية |
| Prestashop 'theme' | قالب | Template | نموذج |
| Customer | عميل | Brand names | الإنجليزية |
| Addon | إضافة | country | دولة |
| Default | مبدئي | Carrier | شركة النقل |
| logs | سجل الأحداث | First name | الإسم |
| Middle name | إسم الأب | Last Name | الشهرة |
| Delivery | التوصيل | SEO | حسب السياق |
| Notification | إشعار | Migrate | ترحيل |
| Module | الوحدة | Logs | سجل الأحداث |
| Root directory | الدليل الجذر | Tip | نصيحة |
| Manufacturer | المُصنع | Recommends | يوصي |
| Child theme | القالب الإبن | Category | الفئة |
| Website | الموقع الإلكتروني | Version | الإصدار |
| Product combination | تركيبة المنتج | Settings | الإعدادات |
| Options | الخيارات | Instructions | التوجيهات |
| Parameters | بارامترات | Tag | وسم |
| Select | تحديد | Etc. | إلى آخره |
| Password | كلمة المرور | Client(Human) | زبون |
| Filter | تصفية | Voucher | قسيمة |
| Delete | حذف | Remove | إزالة |
| MB - Megabyte | ميجابايت - ميجا | Product(s) | المنتج - المنتجات |
| Warehouse(s) | المستودع - المستودعات | Supplier | الممون |
| Upload | رفع | Document | مستند |
| Upgrade | ترقية | Update | تحديث |
| Go to | إذهب إلى | File Format | صيغة الملف |
| Author | المؤلف | Range | نطاق |
- More words/concepts/terms will be added if necessary in the future contribution, I aim to make the above table a reference for everyone who wants to work on this project.
Trivia
- I believe that a difference between a low-quality contribution and a good quality contribution is equal to the time a translator is willing to invest genuinely on a project/contribution.
- The thumbnail image contains the logo of the project, the logo of utopian, and a DaVinci logo is available to use under CC0 on seeklogo.com. the whole/final design was done by me.
- I understand more now why the job of a proofreader exists, it's truly amazing how you can read a string 3 or more time to check for a simple mistake but you don't find a thing. Yet another eye will easily find an error. We are all prone to error. This experience also showed me how much the brain can be weakened, to the point where even the obvious will become hidden.
- I decided to put the glossary here to collect all the needed information for the LM in just one single place, this way, every contribution will be like a workshop on its own, providing information for all kinds of people.
- The final list will be sent again to the manager after the moderator's review.
References
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium
(2) https://www.prestashop.com/en
(3) https://www.prestashop.com/en/about-us
(4) press-releases/2014/10/01/internationalization-and-open-source-drive-growth-for-prestashop
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PrestaShop#cite_note-1
(6) https://danlargo.com/2012/03/29/the-freemium-business-model/
[F.W.count: Final Word Count] | [T.W.C.T: Total Word Count Translated]
| W.C | Untranslatables | F.W.C | T.W.C.T | P.% | C.T.F | Cont.Num |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
~2430 | ~870 | ~1560 | 12880 | 99 | 12-10/12-14 | 8 |