Comment 2 for bug 517815

Hi Edward,

The bug is about the .deb package not building the POT file, which is a requirement for translations to be imported in Launchpad, exposed for translations, and exported in language packs. We do this for all applications in the main and restricted repositories.

Here's more info on how tis works:

 * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/TranslationLifecycle

And on how to create a template on build (if pitivi is using CDBS, it's just a matter of adding the langpack.mk rule):

 * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/Internationalisation/Packaging#Translation%20templates

We provide translation updates post-release through Launchpad and language packs. This allows easily completing or fixing translations throughout the distro's life cycle. Although this does not apply to all Ubuntu translation teams, many Ubuntu translators are also translators in the upstream projects or work closely with the upstream teams already. In addition to that, if provide changes requiring additional or modified strings, those translations will only be doable in Launchpad, not upstream.

Regarding the workflow and duplication, it depends on each translation team. In the Catalan team for example, we translate every GNOME module upstream at l10n.gnome.org and use Launchpad Translations for post-release fixes (which we upstream as well), Ubuntu-specific strings in upstream packages, and Ubuntu-specific packages.

In the global Ubuntu Translations community we do make sure that Ubuntu translators know about upstream and encourage them to collaborate with the upstream projects. In this cycle we're creating policies to ensure all teams in the ubuntu-translators group are aware of upstreams and when possible collaborate with them (e.g. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/KnowledgeBase/StartingTeam).

The Launchpad Translations developers are also working on improving upstream integration by importing translations directly from bzr branches instead of packages, and thus providing more frequent syncs with upstreams. Once this work is completed, they'll focus on providing automated exports of translations back to upstream, which will be most useful in the cases of those Ubuntu teams only translating in Launchpad. Here's the roadmap for Launchpad in the next few months, featuring Translations: https://dev.launchpad.net/RoadMap

I hope this clears things up a bit. If you need more information, feel free to ask me any time or ping me on IRC at #ubuntu-translators.