Planned for 11.32 [Case 44961] Spanish locale -improvement required

[JordiCS]

Hello,

I want to add my request for improving Spanish locales to those related to other languages that I have found on these forums. I know I can edit the provided locales, I so I did the first time cPanel provided a Spanish locale, some years ago. Unfortunately there have not been any improvements on it since then, and every time cPanel grows or changes it must be corrected and verified. Of course I have used a non-standard locale for avoiding my files were overwritten every time there is a cPanel update.

Sorry if I seem a bit too critical, but the provided Spanish locale is terrifying, and cPanel staff should be aware of it. An absolutely great product like this deserves something MUCH better. It is not only the bad grammar and syntax, the hundreds of lexical mistakes and unnecessary anglicisms, and the general poor style, but also, very often, a lack of understanding of cPanel functions (or even basic webhosting functions and concepts.) Only an example out of thousands: "You can download your raw access logs" is translated to "Puede descargar sus logos de acceso raw". "Logs" is converted to "logos" (a logo is a logotype both in English and in Spanish, not a log, that must be translated instead as "registro"), while "raw" remains the same, as a misterious term, when the right translation is "en bruto", "sin elaborar".

I know a good translation is a very hard task. After upgrading to 11.25 version I have inverted several days in verifying and re-translating, when needed, the 70% of the language strings I use for the features I offer to my customers (both in Spanish and Catalan). But, as I said, cPanel and our customers deserve this.

Also I'd like to notify cPanel tech people that there are still a certain number of html files that cannot be translated without directly editing them, because the original English strings remain intact, having not been changed yet to "cpanel langprint" tags.

Best regards,

[cPanelDavidG]

As you may already know, with version 11.25, we introduced our new locale system which replaces the old language/langprint system. This new system allows us to have fluent translations rather than trying to find a best substitute within the context of translating part of a sentence.

Since we can now support fluent translations, we are in the process of re-translating the cPanel interface from scratch, including the Spanish locale.

During this translation process, we are also working to detect any parts of the cPanel user interface that are not yet translatable and correcting those issues.

I have no ETA on when this project will be complete.

[albatroz]

Hey Jordi, estamos en las mismas

Did you manage to use the Locale XML Download/Upload features
to edit the translations? I received that tip but after trying it, it seems that
it didn't work or I am doing something bad?

[Kent Brockman]

Hola a todos / hi there guys

I can recall the Tweak Option "Do not send language file changes to cPanel", which I have unmarked. My question is, when are the language files sent to cPanel, and what do you do, staff guys, with it? How do you define which one is a good translation? I've spent a lot of hours translating some horrifying strings and noticed that the system still lacks of a good support for accentuated words and quotation marks on HTML strings.

[cPanelDavidG]

Hola a todos / hi there guys

I can recall the Tweak Option "Do not send language file changes to cPanel", which I have unmarked. My question is, when are the language files sent to cPanel, and what do you do, staff guys, with it? How do you define which one is a good translation? I've spent a lot of hours translating some horrifying strings and noticed that the system still lacks of a good support for accentuated words and quotation marks on HTML strings.

First, I assume you are using version 11.25.0 or later. If you are not using 11.25, please update to 11.25 as it has a new locale system designed to accommodate more than the old system could.

When you mention "the system still lacks of a good support for accentuated words and quotation marks on HTML strings" - are you referring to the localization system itself or the translation provided? If you are referring to the system itself (which seems to be the case since you mention making a custom translation), first make sure everything is in UTF-8 encoding. This seems to be the most common cause for such issues. If everything checks out, please send us a ticket and let me know the ticket ID so I can monitor your ticket.

At this time, we are in the process of completing a fluent translation of cPanel to Spanish. As a secondary effect of this fluent translation, many of the suggestions from previous discussions about our existing Spanish translation are incorporated into the new, more fluent, translation.

The setting mentioned is put in place for future use. This system will eventually help us identify problematic phrases that should be considered for re-translation or clarification.

Decisions about which verbiage should be used in a translation of cPanel is ultimately made by those familiar with the functionality of cPanel and the language cPanel is being translated into.

[Kent Brockman]

First, I assume you are using version 11.25.0 or later. If you are not using 11.25, please update to 11.25 as it has a new locale system designed to accommodate more than the old system could.

When you mention "the system still lacks of a good support for accentuated words and quotation marks on HTML strings" - are you referring to the localization system itself or the translation provided? If you are referring to the system itself (which seems to be the case since you mention making a custom translation), first make sure everything is in UTF-8 encoding. This seems to be the most common cause for such issues. If everything checks out, please send us a ticket and let me know the ticket ID so I can monitor your ticket.

Actually, I'm using 11.25, and the spanish translation cPanel provides, is not UTF8 encoded. I've noticed that the better solution is to use HTML entities like ó to replace the accentuated o letter, but it is a huge work and will try to do it modifying the xml file.

[cPanelDavidG]

Actually, I'm using 11.25, and the spanish translation cPanel provides, is not UTF8 encoded. I've noticed that the better solution is to use HTML entities like ó to replace the accentuated o letter, but it is a huge work and will try to do it modifying the xml file.

It will probably be more productive and faster for us to take a look at your server to figure out why the files you have are not UTF-8 encoded. Feel welcome to submit a ticket about this. We are trying to have everything UTF-8 encoded so we can avoid the hassle introduced by varying character encodings (e.g. being forced to use HTML entities).

[Kent Brockman]

It will probably be more productive and faster for us to take a look at your server to figure out why the files you have are not UTF-8 encoded. Feel welcome to submit a ticket about this. We are trying to have everything UTF-8 encoded so we can avoid the hassle introduced by varying character encodings (e.g. being forced to use HTML entities).

Ops, my bad. I checked the strings displayed in the HTML source code of the WHM and they are all UTF-8 encoded. The issue came to focus because some of the default brand new strings in 11.25 were not properly UTF-8 encoded and that confused me. One of the more obvious examples were the string for the var "EmailAuth" which didn't showed ok because wasn't properly translated to UTF-8 by default.

No need to open a ticket, just check the factory strings for spanish locale and be sure that they are not accentuated chars like á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ and their capital equivalents.

[albatroz]

I am spanish native and I when I change the CPanel language option to spanish
(or recommend my customers to do so) have noticed that several texts are
very bad translated. In these days of telecommuting, is it too difficult to hire navite
spanish people for translation?

I could help with some spanish screens, but there would be an easy way to replace
texts and identify the screens for grupal/community work.

[cPanelDavidG]

This is a known issue that is being worked on. I will combine this thread with the pre-existing thread on this so you can be notified when this has become addressed in production builds.

[Kent Brockman]

Thank you for the interest Cpanel guys. Please remember that there are about 500M natively spanish talking people all around the world.

About the Tweak Option "Do not send language file changes to cPanel", remains and open question: when are those file changes being submitted to cPanel?

[cPanelDavidG]

We are targeting improved translations of all language files for a later release of 11.32. I will update this thread when high quality translations have been performed.

[Kent Brockman]

Oh great. I have a question: once cPanel adquire high quality translations, what will happen with our translations? I've spreaded several hours translating the X3 template and all that work will be lost at any given moment? I'm using 11.30.5.6. Which cPanel update would overwrite my work?

[nibb]

I think I made the same point in other topics in the last years and I said this as well. The current spanish translation is worst then using Google translator.

And the official translations in Spanish from cPanel, like their manuals are some Caribbean spanish which is the worst spanish spoken in the world. Im sorry but its true, using Mexican or Cuban spanish makes you laughable in computer software. And the ones that know this use neutral phrases and words.

Now, I don't say only to use Spanish from Spain because they tend to use their own words for some systems like calling "ordenador" to computers and this would mean all other countries speaking this would not understand what they mean but there are things you have to take into account. Click is not Click in Spanish its Clic for example.

You can always check a dictionary and look it up.

And the correct spanish to use like I posted in another thread is the a neutral one, similar to what Windows uses.

Neutral writing is not easy but it can be done. It's the correct and proffesional way. Not using personal country phrases like "Tu debes pulsar aquí" or "Vos debes pulsar aquí" or "Usted debe pulsar aquí".

All of them wrong !!!

Correct one is:
Debe pulsar aquí, not even "debes" because its personal.

And each country uses a different approach when referring to a person, which English doesn't. So in Spain they use a formal one, and in other countries an informal one. So it has to be neutral.

It's just disgusting when a website or software speaks to you like if you are his friend from the neighborhood.

I know the cPanel staff that speaks spanish does this translations, but common, cPanel can afford to pay some professional person. Lets be honest. The spanish speakers that live in the US are not exactly the ones that speak well. They are mostly from Latin America, and yes, some Latin America countries and people speak very well but it's usually the higher society in this countries that does this, not the ones going to the US looking for a better life. And the ones that live their all their life usually speak better english then spanish so they are not native speakers anymore.

And most Latins that are in the US are from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, and you can hardly understand them, this is why they are not in the Spanish News channel either. They look people who speak very neutral without accent, or that can simulate their accent. And believe it or not they write even far worst than they speak.

And if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, take it as it come because it's the plain truth.

So if cPanel actually takes feedback from people translating they will find 100 different versions for the same phrase depending on which country and even the educational level of the person that did it. And honestly some people don´t know how to translate computer related terms, and some of them don´t have to translate either or users will not understand them.

You should go with the approach I saw with other companies where the phrases are online and everyone can submit their translations. For translations that are done already you can vote from all different options to see which one is the correct one.

Some guidelines need to be taken, keep it short, short is always better and use neutral phrases. For computer terms use the popular ones.

[cPanelDavidG]

Oh great. I have a question: once cPanel adquire high quality translations, what will happen with our translations? I've spreaded several hours translating the X3 template and all that work will be lost at any given moment? I'm using 11.30.5.6. Which cPanel update would overwrite my work?

Custom translations are stored in different files from our supplied translations, so your customizations will remain preserved.