Language Pack Validation Policy

Submission guidelines

Description

Contribution description in the Customisation Database should be translated into English in addition of your local language, as some administrators might want to download your translation without speak your language.

Screenshot

Contribution screenshot in the Customisation Database should only be the flag of the country whose the language is spoken. For example, the flag of France for the French language.

Package

  • The submitted <languagename>_<version>.zip must contain a <languagename>_<version> folder. The files from above should be placed in this folder.

  • Revision name in the Customisation Database should be left blank, contain the phpBB package version and/or package release name (e.g. 3.3.10 / ``Bertie’s translation` for 3.3.10) for more understanding.

Package Validation

  • Language packages must include all files that are included in the folders for the English language. This includes the following directories:

    • ext/phpbb/viglink/language/en/

    • language/en/

    • styles/prosilver/theme/en/

  • Language packages must contain 1 additional files:

    • language/{iso}/LICENSE

  • Language packages may contain 2 more additional files:

    • language/{iso}/CHANGELOG.md

    • language/{iso}/README.md

  • No other additional files are allowed!

  • All folders within the language-directories must contain an index.htm file (e.g. language/en/acp/index.htm, language/en/index.htm, styles/prosilver/theme/en/index.htm, see the Language Pack Submission Policy for a complete list.).

  • An exception from this rule are the the directories for the viglink-translation and the directories which belong the phpBB package (e.g. language/, styles/).

File Validation

  • All files must be stored using LF (LineFeed / UNIX) line endings.

  • All .php files must have a check for the IN_PHPBB constant:

    if (!defined('IN_PHPBB'))
{
    exit;
}

  • All files containing non-english language (.php, .txt, as well as all additional files from Package Validation) must be saved as UTF8 without BOM.

  • .php files must not produce any output. There should be no characters before <?php. .php files must not contain the closing tag ?>, but just end with a new line

language/{iso}/composer.json

It is the main configuration file of your translation and language packages.

The composer.json from the default language British English looks like this:

{
    "name": "phpbb/phpbb-language-en",
    "description": "phpBB Forum Software default language",
    "type": "phpbb-language",
    "version": "4.0.0-a1-dev",
    "homepage": "https://www.phpbb.com",
    "license": "GPL-2.0",
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "phpBB Limited",
            "email": "[email protected]",
            "homepage": "https://www.phpbb.com/go/authors"
        }
    ],
    "support": {
        "issues": "https://tracker.phpbb.com",
        "forum": "https://www.phpbb.com/community/",
        "wiki": "https://wiki.phpbb.com",
        "irc": "irc://irc.freenode.org/phpbb"
    },
    "extra": {
        "language-iso": "en",
        "english-name": "British English",
        "local-name": "British English",
        "phpbb-version": "4.0.0-a1-dev",
        "direction": "ltr",
        "user-lang": "en-gb",
        "plural-rule": 1,
        "recaptcha-lang": "en-GB"
    }
}

Main block

The main block of a language’s composer.json file requires these six fields of information:

  • "name": Must start with phpbb/phpbb-language- and be followed by the language iso code e.g.: phpbb/phpbb-language-de

  • "description": Must contain a short description for your translation e.g.: phpBB Forum Software language package Dutch (Casual Honorifics)

  • "type": Must be: "phpbb-language",. Do not change this!

  • "version": Should be the version number of the language package. This can be different than the phpBB-version it is made for.

  • "homepage": You may include a URL to your website, or leave this field empty using empty quotes ""

  • "license": Must be: "GPL-2.0",. Do not change this!

Authors

Use this section to credit the authors and maintainers of this translation. You can add repeating blocks like this for each additional author.

{
        "name": "Person A",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "homepage": "https://www.example.org"
}

Support

Use this section to provide links to your websites, email, chat channels, etc. where you provide support for this translation.

Extra

The Extra block contains information required for the translation to function correctly within a phpBB installation. Please do not omit any of these lines, and fill them out carefully.

  • "language-iso": This must be your ISO code. In British English it is en. This is also the same as the directory name e.g. language/en/.

  • "english-name": The English name of your language package e.g.: "German (Casual Honorifics)". (Formerly, this was the first line of language/{iso}/iso.txt.)

  • "local-name": The local name of your language package e.g.: "Deutsch (Du)". (Formerly, this was the second line of language/{iso}/iso.txt.)

  • "phpbb-version": This must represent an existing phpBB release version e.g.: 4.0.1. Individual naming is not allowed here!

  • "direction": Use "ltr"" for “left-to-right” languages (e.g.: Italian, Dutch, German) and "rtl" for right-to-left language (e.g.: Arabic).

  • "user-lang": Input the user language code, e.g.: “de”. (Formerly defined in the language/{iso}/common.php e.g.: 'USER_LANG'    => 'de',.)

  • "plural-rule": Input the plural rule number of your language. (Formerly defined in the language/{iso}/common.php e.g.: 'PLURAL_RULE'        => 1,.) Check the plurals section for more details.

  • "recaptcha-lang": Input the ReCaptcha-Language-Code here. (Formerly defined in the language/{iso}/captcha_recaptcha.php e.g.: 'RECAPTCHA_LANG' => 'de',.) Check Google ReCaptcha for further information which code to use.

The composer.json must be valid JSON code. You can validate it using composer.phar, see: composer.json validation.

*/index.htm

The index.htm files in all folders must be either completely empty or contain the default html body:

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">

</body>
</html>

language/{iso}/help/*.php

  • The file must must only contain 1 array named $lang. No other variables are allowed.

  • The array must only contain arrays with the following structure:

    [
    0 => 'TextA',
    1 => 'TextB',
],

    • If TextA is -- the entry is a headline.

    • If both, TextA and TextB, are -- the entry causes a column switch for the 2 column page layout. A help/*.php file must contain exactly one of these entries.

  • For TextA and TextB normal Key Validation applies.

language/{iso}/email/*.txt and language/{iso}/email/short/*.txt

  • Emails must only contain the subject-line, when the english email template also contains it:

    Subject: {Translated subject here}

  • Emails must only contain the {EMAIL_SIG}, when the english email template also contains it. Additional the {EMAIL_SIG} must always be on it’s own line, must be the last line of text and is followed by an empty new line.

  • Emails should use all variables that are provided in the english email template, in order to provide the same information to the user.

  • Emails may only contain {U_BOARD}, {EMAIL_SIG} and {SITENAME} as additional variables. No other variables are available.

  • Emails must not use HTML content.

  • There must be an empty new line at the end of the file.

language/{iso}/*.php and language/{iso}/acp/*.php

  • The file must must only contain 1 array named $lang. No other variables are allowed.

  • Language files must contain all keys, which are included in the english language file.

  • Language files must only contain keys, which are also included in the english language file.

  • For all entries the Key Validation applies.

Key Validation

Type

  • Entries must be of the same type as in the english language. If the entry is of type string, your translation must be of type string. If the english language is of type array (e.g. using plurals), your translation must be of type array aswell.

  • If the entry is an array, your translation must contain the same keys as the english array. Exceptions are plural forms.

String And Integer Replacements

  • If the english string contains replacements, such as %s, %1$s, %d and %1$d, your string should contain the same number of replacements. Exceptions are integer replacements in plural forms. This allows you to use:

    No posts

    rather then:

    0 posts

HTML

  • Strings should only contain HTML that is also included in the english strings.

  • Additional <a href="">, <strong>, <em>, <u> and <br /> are allowed.

  • <b> should not be used, use <strong> instead.

  • <i> should not be used, use <em> instead.

  • Strings should only close HTML which it has opened itself and should close all HTML it has opened. Exceptions here are:

    • language/{iso}/install.php

      • INSTALL_INTRO_BODY

      • SUPPORT_BODY

      • UPDATE_INSTALLATION_EXPLAIN

    • language/{iso}/ucp.php

      • TERMS_OF_USE_CONTENT

      • PRIVACY_POLICY

    which are always inside of a <p> tag and are allowed to close it, if they reopen it later on.

Arrays

  • Arrays must have the same structure and elements as the english version. Exceptions are plural forms, which may have more or less keys, depending on the plural rule.