Translation steps

pgAdmin3 is a localised application, which means it was designed to be easily translated into several languages, using Gettext technologies and Unicode (UTF-8). Also, as described in the translation guidelines, we made sure that all strings could be translated.

Anyone can translate pgAdmin3 into his/her mother tongue. You don't need to be a programmer. The required steps for translation are the followings:

1. Declare yourself as a translator by sending an email to pgAdmin3 pgadmin-hackers@postgresql.org mailing list. Anonymous post is not aloud, you may need to subscribe by sending an email to pgadmin-hackers-request@postgresql.org with subject "subscribe".
   
   In the case of widely spread European and Asian languages, we prefer native speakers translating to their mother tongue. In the case of less common languages, we have no special requirements.
   
   
2. Download and install a Gettext translation software. We recommend using poEdit as it can be installed under GNU/Linux or MS Windows and has a nice GUI interface, which makes translating easier.
   
   
3. Download the latest pgadmin3.pot language file from CVS. There are two ways of doing it:
   
   
   • The easy way
     Download pgadmin3.pot from our graphical CVS interface. It is very fast, but if you are planning to update your translations often, you may prefer to checkout from CVS.
     
     
   • The hard way
     Checkout pgAdmin3 source code using a CVS client. Under Windows, we recommend using WinCVS. Under GNU/Linux, there are several command lines and graphical clients available.
     
     Anonymous read access is available at the following CVSRoot (no password is required): <:pserver:anonymous@cvs.pgadmin.org:/disk1/cvsroot>. You need to checkout pgadmin3 repository.
     
     Under GNU/Linux, the checkout command line is:
     # cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.pgadmin.org:/disk1/cvsroot co pgadmin3
   
   Create an empty folder in pgadmin3/src/ui, using the "Languagecode_COUNTRYCODE" code, like for example de_DE (German spoken in Germany), fr_FR (French spoken in France), pt_BR (Portuguese spoken in Brazil), etc... The list of language codes can be found on Debian site. Copy the .pot file to the new folder and rename it pgadmin3.po.
   
   
   
4. Translate the pgadmin3.po file into your mother tongue. Because poEdit is sometimes instable, do not hesitate to save partial work every 10 minutes.



5. When the translation is finished, send the resulting pgadmin3.po and pgadmin3.pot files to pgadmin-hackers@postgresql.org after zipping of taring them.



6. Because pgAdmin3 is under heavy development, we recommend updating translations regularly. Under GNU/Linux, you can retrieve the latest pgadmin3.pot with:
   # cd path_to_pgadmin3_source_code
   # cvs update -P -C -d
   
   poEdit has a nice feature, at startup of software, which merges the updated pgadmin3.pot file into your pgadmin.po file.
   
   When you are finished with translations, create a patch:
   # cvs diff -u path_to_your_pgadmin3_po_file > language_patch.txt
   and send it to us.