Helps board administrators translate extensions: shows what is missing or changed in English, lets you edit translations in the ACP, and keeps them safe through extension upgrades.
- ACP → Extensions → Translation Helper → Translate extensions lists every extension on the board with, for the chosen language: missing files, missing strings, strings whose English changed since they were translated, strings not checked yet, and strings the English no longer uses.
- The board's main language is chosen first; any other installed language can be picked.
- An editor per language file: the English text next to a box for the translation, filtered to what needs work. For a changed string it shows the English before and now. Plural strings get one box per form.
- Saving writes a normal phpBB language file into the extension's
language/<iso>/folder. Text is always written as a quoted string, so nothing typed can become PHP code, and the file is read back before it is used. - Your translation survives upgrades. A copy of every saved translation is kept in the board's
store/phpbbmodders_translationhelper/folder, which phpBB never touches when an extension's folder is deleted or replaced. When a language file goes missing (for example after uploading a new version), it is put back by itself, by a cron task or when the page is opened, and the ACP shows a notice. - Older English versions. A copy of each extension's English texts is kept for every version the board has had. For a translation made before Translation Helper was installed, the English files of the version it was made for can be downloaded from the extension's GitHub release tag, or uploaded (the old release ZIP, or just its
language/en/*.phpfiles). Language files from downloads and uploads are read as text and never run. - Download as ZIP for boards whose
ext/folder the web server can't write: the files are laid out asext/<vendor>/<name>/language/<iso>/, ready to upload. - Strings not translated yet can be filled with the English text in the written file (on by default), so members never see raw language keys.
- One administrator permission, given to the Full Admin role; every save is in the admin log.
The design, and what is planned next, are in docs/design.md.
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Click an image for the full size. All screenshots, with captions: docs/images/screenshots.
- phpBB 3.3.19 or later, including phpBB 4.0
- PHP 8.1 or later
- PHP's zip extension to read ZIP files (without it, upload the English
.phpfiles instead) - A writable
store/folder, as phpBB itself needs; a writableext/<vendor>/<name>/language/folder to write translations straight to the board
- Copy the extension to
/ext/phpbbmodders/translationhelper - In the Administration Control Panel, go to Customise → Manage extensions
- Enable the Translation Helper extension
- Install the language pack you translate into, if the board doesn't have it yet
- Open Extensions → Translation Helper → Translate extensions
Ideas not yet built, practical and speculative alike: docs/TODO.md.
Contributions are welcome!
- Bug reports: Open an issue.
- Everything else (questions, feature requests, ideas, general discussion): Use Discussions, or the community forum.
- Pull requests are welcome for bug fixes or discussed features.
- Idea from Holger's Translators little helper request on phpBB.com.
- Code, tests and documentation written with Claude.
This extension is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0.
See license.txt for more information.