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Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

quicklang.app

11–20 of 36 posts

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#11
post #3

There's a much easier way to translate json cat english.json | sed 's/"\([^"]*\)"/«\1»/g' > french.json

Hey! Good approach, but I want to translate the strings on the JSON file from some source language (spanish for me) into any destination language. So the JSON may be: { "hello": "Hola" } If the destination language is "English" the result must be: { "hello": "Hello" }

It was a weak joke btw.

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#12
post #10

have you thought about automatically generating json language files from pure html? Say I have an app that does not yet use a language file but just code like Hello World And on-the-fly translation? Say I have a backend that returns english language but I need it to translate it to another language on the fly? It could check whether the translation is available and otherwise generate it and store it. The original tex…

"you have 3 items in your cart" would in that case create a translation for each time the amount changes, instead of having "you have {{count}} items in your cart. A backend proxy sounds like an interesting idea, but working with an i18n formatted string from the start seems like a more sustainable approach.

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#14
I've built a fairly sophisticated web-based translation tool for an agency's client who demanded it.

I built it to their spec, for their CMS. They didn't use it, because the scheme they wanted turned out to be too much bother, and they couldn't find translation agencies who would bother with it.

The reality is that if you want to make it easy to keep translations up-to-date, you actually have to support all the (confusing, frustrating) translation infrastructure built around .PO files. Because then you have the support of translation agencies, tooling, even Crowdin etc.

Trying to short-circuit this with clever minimal bespoke JSON and ChatGPT is probably a mistake: this is a job where you will ultimately want actual people with actual multilingual ability working for you, and if you don't use the normal tooling you'll find it difficult to attract contributors even with open source.

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#15

I've built a fairly sophisticated web-based translation tool for an agency's client who demanded it. I built it to their spec, for their CMS. They didn't use it, because the scheme they wanted turned out to be too much bother, and they couldn't find translation agencies who would bother with it. The reality is that if you want to make it easy to keep translations up-to-date, you actually have to support all the (conf…

> translation infrastructure built around .PO files

not only .po files :D XML, i18next json, localizable strings (iOS), ... the list goes on.

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#16
disclaimer: i'm the founder of https://inlang.com/

monetizing your solution will likely be a dead end.

the value prop of your solution doesn't match the app you built, and what buyers pay for. for example, machine translating translation files is easier for you to build and developers to use with a cli [0] instead of a web app. there is no value in rendering json in the web app. vscode does a better job at rendering json's.

you could monetize via a web app if you allow non-devs to edit translations. but that's a beast called CAT editor [1], where you need to support all sorts of different file formats. aka, the value of a CAT editor is the file support and ecosystem around it, not the editor itself.

[0] https://inlang.com/m/2qj2w8pu/app-inlang-cli#machine-transla...

[1] https://inlang.com/m/tdozzpar/app-inlang-finkLocalizationEdi...

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#17
>Perfect for manage project localization

>This credits will never expire.

>So if you sync new o modified content

There are obvious mistakes in the English version of your website, which is totally bizarre to me, since these errors are absent in the German version. My guess is that the AI actually fixed these errors when translating.

I have to say that the German translation is really bad though.

"Habe nach einem Online-JSON-Editor gesucht, aber nur Enterprise-Tools gefunden, die nicht das bieten, was ich brauchte, also...

Ich habe mein eigenes JSON-Übersetzungstool erstellt. "

Dropping the "Ich" at the beginning of the first sentence makes it sound like total slang. And the transition between the paragraphs does not work in German (due to the verb being at a different position compared to English). It sounds extremely clunky.

"Prost!"

This just is not an appropriate translation.

"Hier ist was sie über Quicklang."

This isn't a complete sentence. It misses an essential component.

"Holen Quicklang"

Nonsensical translation.

"lokalisieren Sie Ihre SaaS-, App-, KI-Produkt- oder Website, um Ihnen das weltweite Versenden zu erleichtern."

I don't get what that means. The AI translated shipping as sending. It should have been "um Ihnen den weltweiten Vertrieb zu erleichtern", or something like that.

I usually hate nitpicking on stuff like this and I wouldn't have mentioned it if the product was anything else. But surely you can present your product in a better way.

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#18
That could be great for a customer of mine. They have the documentation of their API on Postman and they want to translate it into other languages. Postman don't seem to have support for multiple languages so we would have to either manually manage multiple versions of the documentation (but managing the examples could be a nightmare) or export as JSON, identify and update the changes, import. This service could automate the middle part of that process.

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#19
I'd use this to do a quick and dirty localization, but quality localization is hard and expensive even for skilled humans. For example, see Super Mario RPG for SNES's localization which had a bunch of idioms and references to other games and anime go over the localizers' heads and become non-sensical phrases in English ("キイーッウキイーーッ! あの時の赤んぼう!?", a reference to Yoshi's Island became "That's...my child?" which makes no sense)

Re: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

#20

>Perfect for manage project localization >This credits will never expire. >So if you sync new o modified content There are obvious mistakes in the English version of your website, which is totally bizarre to me, since these errors are absent in the German version. My guess is that the AI actually fixed these errors when translating. I have to say that the German translation is really bad though. "Habe nach einem Onli…

I agree, the German translation is pretty bad (phrases like "Hier ist, was sie über Quicklang.", "Es ist ein Durcheinander. Sie wissen Bescheid.", and "Du kannst all meine Programmierprojekte auf X" are incomplete or awkward).

It also doesn't sound like this can handle dynamic phrases like "buy {{count}} items"?

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