Translating plugins

For the moment, there is no way to translate plugin.

Hi alkayata,

The short answer is: it's not possible for the moment, but it will be in the future.

The long answer: There are several things which needs to be done before translatable plugins become possible. Here comes a list.

1. There will have to be a centralized code repository where plugins can be placed. Either they can be pulled from a public place where the plugin developer has made his plugin available, either we use a central code repository for all plugins. The latter is by far the easiest solution, the former is seriously daunting and perhaps not possible to implement for a small team like ours. So my advised first step would be to setup an plugin SVN repository and give plugin developers possibility to commit plugins.
2. From each one of the plugins, a plugin language file will need to be extracted. This is similar to the MuseScore core project, which ends up with a mscore_xx.ts file for translation.
3. Each plugin will get it's proper project on http://translate.musescore.org This means one will be able to see the translation status for each one of the plugins and contribute a translation for any of the enabled languages.
4. Finally, plugins need to be packaged with not only the code files, but also all the translation files. The resulting language file will be something like plugin_name_xx.qm and will be placed into the plugin directory.
5. Last but not least, MuseScore software needs to be improved to handle these plugin packages. This means in one sentence the ability to install, update, view info and remove packages.

This job would probably take one month full time for someone who has some experience.

Now, if you read through all this, well good for you because there is a way for you to get a translation for plugins regardless from the ultimate solution mentioned above. The solution is mentioned in the chapter Translating the Application on this example plugin page. What needs to be done:

• lupdate plugin_name.js -ts plugin_name_xx.ts
• Open the plugin_name_xx.ts file in QT Linguist and translate it
• File -> Release as : plugin_name_xx.qm
• Place the qm file next to the plugin in the MuseScore plugin directory
• Start MuseScore

Regarding the ultimate solution, I would really like to see this implemented during a Google Summer of Code project which means that it will be in place after the summer. Just to let you know what the timeframe could be.