Translations on GitHub: Test Project on the New Process

With the new Utopian rules to be enforced later today, I am actively on the lookout for projects that we can work on. Specifically, I have taken interest on Microsoft Documents because of their vast library of documents and their big potential. So yesterday, I went on and made some testing to see if they will allow translations. This update will talk about the process and the latest news that I have received from the managers of the community and the developers.

Is Microsoft an Open-Source Company?

Source: Coastalit

Well, I wish they are but clearly they are not. However, Microsoft have a few open source projects as well. To name a few they have Team Explorer Everywhere, SQL Tools on Linux, and VS Code. But more importantly, there are a few good news for all of us.

All documentation on docs.microsoft.com is open sourced and designed to allow community contributions. Community contributions can be submitted for the original documentation in English as well as on localized topics up to 17 languages (Chinese-Simplified, Chinese-Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Portuguese-Portugal, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish).

International users have now the opportunity, through their contributions and feedback, to both improve the quality of the localized documentation and trigger content changes to the original technical documentation.

Source: MS Localization Wiki

Basically the docs.microsoft.com service was announced last July 2016, it will house all Microsoft related technical documentation, APIs, Tutorials, Quick Guides and a lot more for developers and for generic uses. This means, more documents that needs to be translated.

Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Documentation

Now that we have cleared that the documentation service for Microsoft is open-source and is run by the community, I will start testing and make contributions for the documentation for UWP. So what is UWP?

Source: Windows Blog

Windows 10 introduces the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which provides a common app platform on every device that runs Windows 10. The UWP provides a guaranteed core API across devices. This means you can create a single app package that can be installed onto a wide range of devices. And, with that single app package, the Microsoft Store provides a unified distribution channel to reach all the device types your app can run on. Apps that target the UWP can call not only the WinRT APIs that are common to all devices, but also APIs (including Win32 and .NET APIs) that are specific to the class of device that the app is running on.

Source: UWP Guide

Translation

For testing purposes, I will start working on this document. So I have forked a copy of the repository, in preparation of the translation work. This document have roughly around 2.8k words, which is very ideal as a test project for Utopian translation contributions.

From the document link above, 2 things will happen when you click the edit button. First, is that you will be able to fork the repository from microsoft that contains the documents. Second, you will be directed to the actual file in the repository as shown on the image below.

When you click the Edit button on Github, a editor will popup and will allow you to modify the contents via Github. You can also sync the repository on your laptop or PC so that you can use your favorite editor. Or a simplier way is to just copy and paste the contents to your editor.

Once you have completed translating the document. You are now ready to commit your updates. Just add a detailed description on the commit, so that the reviewers will be able to check your contributions easily. Once done, just click the "propose file change" button.

Once you are done. You can now create a Pull Request. From your forked repository, click the Pull Request tab, and then click the "New Pull Request" button. This will direct you to the main repository for possible merging of your updates.

When you've made some changes, you should be able to see your updates on the area that says "There isn't anything to compare." I don't have any changes yet when I made this post. Now, your contributions should be ready for review, and expect to hear from the reviewers any time soon, hopefully not too long.

Feedback

The BAD NEW is that Microsoft can no longer accept translations contributions as of this moment. Bummer. Check the screenshot below for more information regarding my Pull Request.

This is just one test project guys. Will continue to look for further projects that we can use. And of course, I will update you on the latest progress that I will make while trying to figure out this new process for the translation category at Utopian.

Series

I will be using this series to make some updates on how the work is done for the Translation Works at Utopian. I have initially made a guide on how to get started with this, but it's now outdated, so I made a new one.

• Walkthrough on the New Process for Utopian Translations
• Newbie's Guide to Translation Works (Now Outdated)

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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