Translation workflows#

Using Weblate is a process that brings your users closer to you, by bringing you closer to your translators. It is up to you to decide how many of its features you want to make use of.

The following is not a complete list of ways to configure Weblate. You can base other workflows on the most usual examples listed here.

Workflow customization#

In addition to configuration at Project configuration and Component configuration (as Enable reviews, Enable suggestions, Suggestion voting, and Autoaccept suggestions), the translation workflow can be customized per language.

Site-wide workflow customization can be done while Changing language definitions.

Per-project customization can be done on each language page of the project.

All workflow settings can be overridden, the only limitation is that Enable reviews needs to be turned on and can only be disabled in customization.

The first existing setting applies:

Project-language customization
Language customization
The project/component settings

Note

Please be careful when using site-wide override as that applies to all projects (unless they have own overrides for a given language).

Translation access#

The access control is not discussed in detail as a whole in the workflows, as most of its options can be applied to any workflow. Please consult the respective documentation on how to manage access to translations.

In the following chapters, any user means a user who has access to the translation. It can be any authenticated user if the project is public, or a user that has a Translate permission for the project.

Translation states#

Each translated string can be in one of the following states:

Untranslated

Translation is empty, it might or not be stored in the file, depending on the file format.

Needs editing

Translation needs editing, this is usually the result of a source string change, fuzzy matching or translator action. The translation is stored in the file, depending on the file format it might be marked as needing edit (for example as it gets a fuzzy flag in the Gettext file).

Waiting for review

Translation is made, but not reviewed. It is stored in the file as a valid translation.

Approved

Translation has been approved in the review. It can no longer be changed by translators, but only by reviewers. Translators can only add suggestions to it.

This state is only available when reviews are enabled.

Suggestions

Suggestions are stored in Weblate only and not in the translation file.

The states are represented in the translation files when possible.

Hint

If the file format you use does not support storing states, you might want to use Flag unchanged translations as “Needs editing” add-on to flag unchanged strings as needing editing.

Direct translation#

This is the most usual setup for smaller teams, anybody can directly translate. This is also the default setup in Weblate.

Any user can edit translations.
Suggestions are optional ways to suggest changes, when translators are not sure about the change.

Setting	Value	Note
Enable reviews	off	Configured at project level.
Enable suggestions	on	It is useful for users to be able to suggest when they are not sure.
Suggestion voting	off
Autoaccept suggestions	0
Translators group	Users	Or Translate with per-project access control.
Reviewers group	N/A	Not used.

Peer review#

With this workflow, anybody can add a suggestion, which needs approval from additional member(s) before it is accepted as a translation.

Any user can add suggestions.
Any user can vote for suggestions.
Suggestions become translations when given a predetermined number of votes.

Setting	Value	Note
Enable reviews	off	Configured at project level.
Enable suggestions	on
Suggestion voting	off
Autoaccept suggestions	1	You can set a higher value to require more peer reviews.
Translators group	Users	Or Translate with per-project access control.
Reviewers group	N/A	Not used, all translators review.

Dedicated reviewers#

With dedicated reviewers you have two groups of users, one able to submit translations, and one able to review them to ensure translations are consistent and that the quality is good.

Any user can edit unapproved translations.
Reviewer can approve / unapprove strings.
Reviewer can edit all translations (including approved ones).
Suggestions can also be used to suggest changes for approved strings.

Setting	Value	Note
Enable reviews	on	Configured at project level.
Enable suggestions	off	It is useful for users to be able to suggest when they are not sure.
Suggestion voting	off
Autoaccept suggestions	0
Translators group	Users	Or Translate with per-project access control.
Reviewers group	Reviewers	Or Review with per-project access control.

Turning on reviews#

Reviews can be turned on in the project configuration, from the Workflow subpage of project settings (to be found in the Manage → Settings menu):

Quality gateway for the source strings#

In many cases the original source language strings are coming from developers, because they write the code and provide initial strings. However developers are often not native speakers in the source language and do not provide desired quality of the source strings. The intermediate translation can help you address this - there is an additional quality gateway for the strings between developers and translators.

By setting Intermediate language file, this file will be used as source for the strings, but it will be edited to source language to polish it. Once the string is ready in the source language, it will be also available for translators to translate into additional languages.

Source strings reviews#

With Enable source reviews enabled, the review process can be applied on the source strings. Once enabled, users can report issues in the source strings. The actual process depends on whether you use bilingual or monolingual formats.

For monolingual formats, the source string review behaves similarly as with Dedicated reviewers - once issue is reported on the source string, it is marked as Needs editing.

The bilingual formats do not allow direct editing of the source strings (these are typically extracted directly from the source code). In this case Source needs review label is attached to strings reported by translators. You should review such strings and either edit them in the source or remove the label.