Translation / localization issues

Some ideas on how translation of the software can be improved in the future. I started some discussion on this topic on the mailinglist (see: ​http://www.nabble.com/Localization-issues-tf4097440s18419.html ).

Our current structure of language files is the following one:

English:

<strings>
        <about>About</about>
        <abstract>Abstract</abstract>
        <accept>Accept</accept>
        <add>add</add>
        <addNewMetadata>Add new metadata</addNewMetadata>
</strings>

Arabic:

<strings>
        <about>عن البرنامج</about>
        <abstract>مقدمة</abstract>
        <accept>قبول</accept>
        <add>إضافة</add>
        <addNewMetadata>بيانات أساسية Metadata جديدة</addNewMetadata>
</strings>

A possible solution to improve this structure is:

English:

<strings>
        <string i18n_key="about">About</string>
        <string i18n_key="abstract">Abstract</string>
        <string i18n_key="accept">Accept</string>
        <string i18n_key="add">add</string>
        <string i18n_key="addNewMetadata">Add new metadata</string>
</strings>

Arabic:

<strings>
        <string i18n_key="about">عن البرنامج</string>
        <string i18n_key="abstract">مقدمة</string>
        <string i18n_key="accept">قبول</string>
        <string i18n_key="add">إضافة</string>
        <string i18n_key="addNewMetadata">بيانات أساسية Metadata جديدة</string>
</strings>

I think this can have the following advantages:

• This has minimal impact on our existing stylesheets that generate the localized output.
• It is pretty trivial to generate a list of i18n_keys in use in the software.
• The generated output can be used to highlight missing and obsolete keys in each language file.
• There is the potential to store all keys and language strings in a database that has a simple translation user interface accessible through the web. Such translation mechanism has already been implemented in GeoNetwork opensource for the non-static strings in the system. It could be setup on the developer website to work as the central translation facility. The static files required for a release can be generated as language packages automatically and be stored in SVN.