Bitweaver has a unique translation interface, which allows you to translate strings on this server and then export them here and import them to your own database. Our internationlisation system has some very unique characteristics, which might need some introduction and explanation.

Translation Permissions

If you speak a language other than english and would like to help translate bitweaver, please contact us through this form thread, leave a comment at the end of the page or drop by IRC and we will give you the appropriate permissions.

Languages Menu

As soon as you have the correct permissions, you will see a languages menu which gives you 3 options:

Edit Languages

This takes you to a screen that gives you access to all available languages and their descriptions.

Import / Export

Here you can get access to the available languages and where you can Import and Export Languages.

Master Strings

A list of all the english master strings, used as a reference for the translations.

Translation Procedure

There are several methods to approaching this. I will outline the Translation procedure beginning with the creation of the language if it doesn't exist, then working on the strings that need translating and how to make modifications. Finally, I will outline how to export the language file from here and import it on your server.

Creating a new Language

Go to edit languages (under the "languages" submenu, third link from the right at the top of this page) where you can see all available languages already defined. If your language (or localisation) does not exist, click on the Create Language button and fill in the required information in the form and save the information.

Editing the Translations

Select the language you want to translate bitweaver into and hit the Edit Translations button, which will take you to a screen with the English Master strings and a text box under each one. If you understand the context and know how to translate the text, go ahead and translate it.

Translation Notes

If you come accross {curly brackets} with unreadable stuff within them please copy that into your translation string and try and work out where in the text it should go. Also, please maintain any HTML formatting which is present.

e.g.: A gallery named {displayname hash=$gTikiUser->mInfo nolink=1}'s Gallery will be created for you and images will be added to it.

The {} enclose the displayname of a given user. this means you can simply treat the {} as a regular name where the users name and Gallery are surrounded by tags, making this text appear bold in the output.

Where does the master come from?

Unfortunately there is no easy way to work out the context of where the master string has origniated from. It might be easiest if you go to your personal preferences page and set the site language to the language you want to translate to. This way it's easier to spot any untranslated strings or strings that don't match the context.

Translating a specific string

When you spot a string that needs modifying or updating, you can go to the same page as described above and then search for the string using the search box on the edit translations page.

Multiple strings with similar content

Due to the continuous developement of bitweaver it can't be avoided that certain strings have to be updated slightly or typos have to be fixed in the templates.

Since we record untranslated strings, it will cause the insertion of such strings in the database. This can potentially result in similar strings where only one is used.

For instance, say, this string has been updated:


to


If you have already translated the first string and the typo is adjusted in the template, the translation will not be visible anymore. To rectify this, go to the Master Strings page and search for this string. Once you have found the old string, click on it and insert the new string and save. After clearing the language cache, all the translations will strill work, even though the string has been changed!

Importing / Exporting

Once the translations have been completed, you can export the language file by visiting the Import / Export page. Pick a language to export and save the file to your server in the mentioned path.

Once it is in place, you can visit the Import / Export select the correct language in the import section and import it. This will update your site with all the translations available on bitweaver.


We really hope this short guide helps with any unclear issues regarding translations. Please feel free to update this page if you have any ideas on how to improve the tutorial.