12. Documentation Translation Process#

Important

Before you begin an edX documentation translation project, contact us at docs.edx.org to confirm the language or languages that you are translating into, and so that we can make sure the repository is ready for you to work with.

To work on translations of edX documentation, you should have a basic understanding of reStructuredText and formatting in .rst files. For more information, see Working with edX Documentation Source Files.

In addition, you or another person on the translation team should understand GitHub repositories and the GitHub pull request process. For more information about using GitHub, see https://help.github.com.

The basic process for translating edX documentation consists of these steps.

  1. Use GitHub to clone the edx-documentation repository to a location on your local file system.

  2. Locate the target language folder that we have set up for you. This is your working source directory. Language folders, including en_us, exist one level below edx-documentation. Each language folder mirrors the en_us folder.

    Note

    It is critical that you do not move or rename files within your target language folder as you work, otherwise you will break links and references.

  3. Create a working branch or branches off master to make translation changes. Follow best practices for GitHub use. For information, see https://help.github.com.

    • Before making new branches, check that your local version of edx- documentation/master is up to date.

    • On your branch(es), make edits to the source files using your preferred text editor.

      • Save changes in the source files without renaming or moving the files.

      • Commit changes back to GitHub.

      • Create pull requests in GitHub for review purposes.

  1. Build draft output and verify that everything renders as it should in both HTML and PDF formats. For information, see the “Verify Output” topic on this wiki page:

    https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/display/DOC/Instructions+for+Updating+Documentation

  2. Notify the edX Documentation team when you have changes ready for review and testing. The team can also help you generate draft output for review and testing.

  3. Make any revisions resulting from reviews and testing, then notify the edX Documentation team that the pull request is ready to merge into the repository.

  4. The edX Documentation team merges translation pull requests into the repository.

  5. The edX Documentation team updates and builds the readthedocs projects for the next release or a planned future release.

For information about working with edX Documentation source files, see Working with edX Documentation Source Files.

For documentation translation guidelines, see Guidelines for Translators.