The Technical Side of Localization. Or How and Why We Are Building Own Product — GitLocalize

Alconost + GitLocalize — how it all got started, and where it is now. Continuous end-to-end localization for GitHub projects is now live.

We are now closing in the year mile-marker since we here at Alconost began developing GitLocalize — a free-to-use platform for continuous, end-to-end localization projects involving GitHub. And so, we’d like to share the experience of our collaboration on GitLocalize this past year — how it all got started, and where it is now.

The GitLocalize platform appeared in 2017 and became the first localization application in the GitHub Marketplace. In fact, the category localization has been created in the Marketplace just for GitLocalize.

We took over GitLocalize from a team of Japanese developers in early 2019, but kept the acquisition under wraps in order to focus on improving the product so that it could bring true “value” (value being a favorite word around here at Alconost).

How we at Alconost started own product development

Alconost has been providing professional localization services for over 14 years. During this time we’ve assembled an unrivaled team of linguists and perfected our processes so that they work like a well-oiled machine.

Even before GitLocalize, we had a successful product launch. It was our own professional online translation platform — Nitro.

Nitro offers users quick translations — this is an especially useful tool for developers who need to translate short bits of text: updates, push notifications, app store descriptions, correspondence, and the like. This is after all how the idea for Nitro came about — based on the needs of developers.

And still, we have never stopped looking for new life-hacks and ways to keep up with our most technologically savvy clients. So, we’ve always strived to be at the cutting edge of technology, so that the services we offer are not only industry-leading but also work at the speed of innovation and offer exceptional user experience.

If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind.

This is why we have been always working on further expanding the list of localization platforms where we can run our translation projects— this is where GitLocalize comes into play.

What’s GitLocalize and how does it work

As we have already said, GitLocalize is a free-to-use platform for continuous translation and localization of GitHub projects.

Screenshot of GitLocalize platform

In terms of processes, GitLocalize works with much the same logic as GitHub. In fact, in order to take advantage of GitLocalize, one needs, first of all, to have an open-source or a private repository on GitHub with all the documentation and source files stored there.

Screenshot of GitLocalize platform

Next, a project must be created in GitLocalize, connected to and synced with GitHub repositories.

Linguists or community working on the platform, translate the files and send them to linguistic moderators for review if any have been assigned for a project.

Screenshot of GitLocalize platform

After review, translations can be sent by community to the repository as pull requests, which can be further merged into the selected upstream branch on GitHub.

In this way, duplicates of source files are created in the repository in various languages (based on how the project workflows have been configured).

GitHub also keeps track of any changes in the source files on the platform, so that text can be translated as the source files are updated.

Where we’re heading now with GitLocalize

When we completed our acquisition of GitLocalize in January 2019, the project was still quite “immature,” and we needed a year to stabilize it.

Our first step was to make GitLocalize free of charge for both open and private repositories.

We believe that the opportunity to use the platform for free will help open-source projects requiring content translations to grow and reach more users. We are already seeing how this step has generated interest in the platform among developers.

Over this last year, 2019, we expanded basic features and functions.

We have added support for additional formats (e.g., .json, YAML, localizable strings) and optimized the under-the-hood mechanics.

With the growing demand we saw from the open-source community, we also began to develop the first Enterprise clients (where we offer pay-based, custom solutions and processes).

Screenshot of GitLocalize platform

What we are seeing now is that GitLocalize is a product that can help both small open-source teams and larger commercial projects alike. That’s what drives our further product development.

Of course, the work of a perfectionist is never done. And our product team at Alconost continues to improve and grow GitLocalize while they gather user feedback.

And we are happy to see that GitLocalize is adding some serious value!

About Alconost

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