Localization for developers

This page (tries to) explain the technical aspects of the Apache OpenOffice localization workflow. Localization, often abreviated as l10n (there are ten letters between the leading L and the closing N), is a process that has several steps:

Content Creation

Write code or help files or any other content that needs localization.

Extraction

Once in a while (for every milestone) the localize_sl script is used to extract the strings that need to be localized.

Upload

The sdf file created by localize_sl is uploaded to the pootle server and transformed/converted into po files.

Translation

Translation takes place, either directly via the pootle server's html frontend or via an offline editor.

Download

The po files are eventually downloaded from the pootle server, converted into sdf files.

Integration

When the office is built with configure switch --with-lang="..." then the english strings are replaced by translated strings from the localize.sdf files. The result is a localized install-set ready to use or a language pack that can be applied to an already installed office.