Extract translation text and use AI to perform the translation #13411

fishjam · 2025-09-21T13:20:58Z

add translate python tools;
translate current zh_CN text.

Extract translation text and use AI to perform the translation.
Deails refer: #13410

Description

this is my local python run result

(base) E:\QGC_Push\qgroundcontrol\tools\translations>python qgc_translate.py
21:12:12.531|INFO|start translate
21:12:12.531|INFO|source_path=..\..\translations\qgc_json_zh_CN.ts, target_path=..\..\translations\qgc_json_zh_CN.ts
21:12:12.536|INFO|dict include 13 items
21:12:12.540|INFO|load qt file: ..\..\translations\qgc_json_zh_CN.ts
21:12:12.560|INFO|handle ..\..\translations\qgc_json_zh_CN.ts complete
21:12:12.560|INFO|  handle 799 messages
21:12:12.565|INFO|  translate 0 items
21:12:12.565|INFO|  found 0 missing, saved in ..\..\translations\qgc_json_zh_CN.ts_missing.txt
21:12:12.565|INFO|source_path=..\..\translations\qgc_source_zh_CN.ts, target_path=..\..\translations\qgc_source_zh_CN.ts
21:12:12.570|INFO|dict include 13 items
21:12:12.570|INFO|load qt file: ..\..\translations\qgc_source_zh_CN.ts
21:12:12.595|INFO|[1]: 'Password:' => '密码：'
21:12:12.600|INFO|[2]: 'Critical Level' => '严重级别'
21:12:12.605|INFO|[3]: 'Max Altitude' => '最大高度'
21:12:12.610|INFO|[4]: 'Device is not open' => '设备未打开'
21:12:12.610|INFO|[5]: 'Unsupported open mode' => '不支持的打开模式'
21:12:12.610|INFO|[6]: 'Timeout while waiting for ready read' => '等待就绪读取超时'
21:12:12.614|INFO|[7]: 'Failed to set RTS' => '设置RTS失败'
21:12:12.614|INFO|[8]: 'Custom baud rate direction is unsupported' => '不支持自定义波特率方向'
21:12:12.619|INFO|[9]: 'Password:' => '密码：'
21:12:12.619|INFO|[10]: 'Max Altitude' => '最大高度'
21:12:12.619|INFO|[11]: 'Date &amp; Time' => '日期与时间'
21:12:12.624|INFO|handle ..\..\translations\qgc_source_zh_CN.ts complete
21:12:12.694|INFO|  handle 3382 messages
21:12:12.694|INFO|  translate 11 items
21:12:12.699|INFO|  found 15 missing, saved in ..\..\translations\qgc_source_zh_CN.ts_missing.txt

Test Steps

Checklist:

Related Issue

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1. add translate python tools; 2. translate current zh_CN text.

DonLakeFlyer · 2025-09-25T17:35:26Z

As discussed in the Issue this provides no mechanism for review. I'll go with what @hamishwillee says about being paranoid about blindly accepting translations not being a good idea.

hamishwillee · 2025-09-25T23:02:25Z

As discussed in the Issue this provides no mechanism for review. I'll go with what @hamishwillee says about being paranoid about blindly accepting translations not being a good idea.

AI is anecdotally poor for technical docs. If it matters, you use humans. I think with flying robots it matters.

A possibility though is to autopopulate every single string with an AI translation unapproved. Then only publish strings that are approved. This might make the translation process easier. That said, I'd rather stick with what we have - possibly adding AI integration to suggest strings though - if there is budget for buying the keys.

DonLakeFlyer · 2025-09-26T16:54:05Z

A possibility though is to autopopulate every single string with an AI translation unapproved.

I don't see that ability in the .ts file format spec.

fishjam · 2025-09-27T03:29:43Z

As I said in the issue

The AI translation might also have issues, so it's best to have it double-checked manually.

there are 2 functions for the python:

extract the source text
fill the translated target text

it does not care how you translate the text, by Crowdin or AI, and before you commit and push , you need confirm by git diff.
BTW: I'm chinese, so I just commit the zh_ZN in this commit.

DonLakeFlyer · 2025-09-28T00:02:37Z

you need confirm by git diff

You are missing the point that git diff is not the process we use to verify translations. We use Crowdin for that. Anyone can do translations on Crowdin, only certified approvers can approve those translations and only then do they come down in a pull request. Crowdin has full ui to handle that whole process. We can subvert that whole process with something new.

Which is why I was looking at marking a translation as not yet approved in the .ts file. With that we could use the Crowdin approval process. But as far as I can tell it's not currently possible.

hamishwillee · 2025-10-01T01:45:58Z

A possibility though is to autopopulate every single string with an AI translation unapproved.

I don't see that ability in the .ts file format spec.

I don't know about .ts format, but our current setting for QGC translations is that we only export approved translations.

fishjam · 2025-10-07T07:18:14Z

I don't know about .ts format,

.ts is just simplest XML format . you can open and verify it by any txt editor( example: notepad ).
And if you translate any text by QT Linguist , and compare your change by git diff command, then you can found that my python scripts has completed the corresponding changes.

hamishwillee · 2025-10-08T04:52:26Z

I did a few tests, and it may be possible to import the files, forcing any changed values to be imported as unapproved (though we should only update those values in the file with AI values if they don't have translations).
If we did this we'd want to run the tool again and put back all the type="unfinished" on the translations - that tag tells crowdin they are unapproved.

The question is if we want to. If we're not publishing values unless approved this does slightly reduce the work for translators, but I only see it as useful if the guessed translation by AI is good. Who knows.

In any case up to you @DonLakeFlyer to decide if this approach is something you want to look more into. I don't have bandwidth to help for a while.

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds Python-based translation tools to automate the extraction and translation of text for internationalization (i18n). The main contribution is a workflow that extracts untranslated strings from Qt .ts files, facilitates AI-assisted translation, and applies the translations back to the files. The PR includes a substantial set of Chinese (zh_CN) translations for the QGroundControl interface.

Key changes:

Adds translation automation framework with dictionary-based text replacement
Provides Chinese translations for ~3000+ UI strings in qgc_json_zh_CN.ts
Includes comprehensive documentation for the translation workflow

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
`tools/translations/qgc_translate.py`	Main translation script that processes Qt `.ts` files and applies dictionary-based translations
`tools/translations/dict_base.py`	Abstract base class providing translation logic with HTML entity encoding/decoding
`tools/translations/dict_zh_CN.py`	Chinese dictionary implementation (currently minimal, used as template)
`tools/translations/Readme.md`	Documentation explaining the translation workflow and AI prompt templates
`translations/qgc_json_zh_CN.ts`	Updated Chinese translation file with thousands of translated strings

Copilot · 2025-11-15T02:25:02Z

tools/translations/qgc_translate.py

+    ]
+    try:
+        logger.info("start translate")
+        translater = QgcTranslater()


The variable name translater contains a spelling error. It should be translator (with 'o', not 'a').

Copilot · 2025-11-15T02:25:02Z

tools/translations/qgc_translate.py

+
+            logger.info(f"source_path={source_path}, target_path={target_path}")
+            if os.path.exists(source_path):
+                translater.process_qt_file(source_path, target_path)


The variable name translater contains a spelling error. It should be translator (with 'o', not 'a').

Copilot · 2025-11-15T02:25:02Z

tools/translations/qgc_translate.py

+console_handler.setFormatter(console_formatter)
+logger.addHandler(console_handler)
+
+class QgcTranslater:


The class name QgcTranslater contains a spelling error. It should be QgcTranslator (with 'o', not 'a'). The word "translator" is the correct spelling in English.

https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol/issues/13410

3bfb7b4

1. add translate python tools; 2. translate current zh_CN text.

fishjam changed the title ~~https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol/issues/13410~~ Extract translation text and use AI to perform the translation Sep 21, 2025

HTRamsey added the RN: IMPROVEMENT label Oct 10, 2025

github-actions bot added the stale label Nov 10, 2025

HTRamsey requested a review from Copilot November 15, 2025 02:23

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of HTRamsey November 15, 2025 02:23 View session

Copilot finished reviewing on behalf of HTRamsey November 15, 2025 02:24

Copilot AI reviewed Nov 15, 2025

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Extract translation text and use AI to perform the translation #13411

Extract translation text and use AI to perform the translation #13411

fishjam commented Sep 21, 2025

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fishjam commented Sep 27, 2025 •

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fishjam commented Sep 21, 2025

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fishjam commented Sep 27, 2025 •

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