A proof of concept extension has been presented to the TYPO3 Localization Team today by Sanjay Chauhan from Nitsan. The extension is working and the usability for the backend users is easy. The translation results can be edited/proofread and then be stored locally and optionally transfered to Crowdin, the official TYPO3 translation handling tool.
The tool will not only work with TYPO3 Core but any extension available in Crowdin or outside.
We have not yet been able to assess the quality of the translations. We assume that the quality will vary greatly from language to language, especially if the AI tools used in the language have few references to TYPO3.
The release process with proofreading in the Crowdin web interface is deliberately not covered by the extension. This still requires native speakers. They are responsible for the quality of the translations.
The extension supports TYPO3 versions 11 to 13, but it is unclear if and how it will be adapted to future TYPO3 versions.
Advantages:
- TYPO3 can be quickly and easily translated into different languages.
Disadvantages:
- Using AI tools costs money. These costs must be covered by the users of the extension.
- Crowdin could be flooded with many translation suggestions. It is not yet clear how Crowdin will deal with many different accounts submitting identical or very similar translations.
- Proofreaders could be tempted to accept translations without checking them, which could damage TYPO3’s reputation.
If the TYPO3 Association approves a budget for the project, the following specifications should be made
- The extension must be published in the TER
- The source code must be publicly available on GitHub or elsewhere.
- There must be no paid premium version of the extension
- Documentation of the extension must be published on docs.typo3.org