15-Year-Long quest for perfect language packs
In the world of e-commerce platforms, localization is key to reaching a global audience. At Maho Commerce, we know that a great software solution needs excellent localization.
Today, we're excited to share our journey in solving a 15-year-old challenge: creating the perfect language pack for our platform.
M1 era: the decentralized approach
For years, the M1 platform lacked a centralized hub for translations. Language packs were maintained by a global community of contributors, without central oversight. While this approach fostered community involvement, it led to several challenges:
- Inconsistent maintenance
- Incomplete translations
- Language packs scattered across the internet
As time passed, many of these community-driven translations became outdated, incomplete and lost in the vast expanse of the web.
Maho's solution: Our approach to localization
Recognizing the critical importance of high-quality localization, our team at Maho Commerce has spent the past few weeks developing an innovative solution. We've created specialized software that generates Maho's language packs using a unique, multi-tiered approach:
- Magento 2 Compatibility: Our system first checks the Magento 2 translation system. If a translation exists there, it's automatically incorporated into Maho's language pack.
- Legacy M1 Support: If no Magento 2 translation is found, our software searches a comprehensive repository of all old M1 translations. This ensures we leverage the valuable work done by the community over the years.
- AI-Powered Translations: In cases where no human-managed translation is available, our system employs advanced AI to generate a translation. This ensures complete coverage for all strings, even for new features.
Testing and continuous improvement
Developing this system required extensive testing to find the right balance (AI model and prompts) to generate the best possible translations. While we acknowledge that AI-generated translations may not always be 100% perfect, we believe this approach represents a significant leap forward for our platform's localization capabilities.
Synchronization and collaboration, finally
Our new localization system is designed with collaboration and ease of use in mind:
- Automatic Synchronization: All translations are automatically synced between Maho's main repository and a specialized repo for the entire localization system, and individual repos for each translation. These individual repos are distributed via Packagist, making them easily accessible through Composer.
- Crowdin Integration: We've integrated with the Crowdin translation platform, enabling two-way synchronization. This makes it incredibly easy for users to contribute and improve translations directly.
Official documentation
We invite our users and the broader community to explore and test these new language packs, provide feedback, and contribute to making Maho's localization even better. Together, we can ensure that Maho speaks your language, wherever you are in the world.
Looking ahead
While we're excited about the progress we've made, we know that language is dynamic and ever-evolving. We see this new system as a solid foundation upon which we can build and improve. With the combined power of community contributions, existing high-quality translations, and cutting-edge AI, we're confident that Maho will offer one of the most comprehensive and accurate localization systems in the e-commerce platform space.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to work extremely hard on this beautiful platform! As always... Maho rocks! 🚀