Help:Extension:Translate/Glossary

Translation administrators

Sysadmins and developers

Syntax:

preferred form (alternative forms): description

Avoid alternative forms that are not just shortenings of the preferred form. Shortenings are not listed independently. Search the page (Ctrl+F or ⌘ Cmd+F) to find the definition of the term you're looking for.

aggregate message group (aggregate group): message group which is just a collection of other message groups; technically, the union of one or more primary message groups (sometimes via aggregation of other aggregate groups), a kind of secondary message group
code map: maps the MediaWiki language codes to their equivalents in the translation file names in other projects
discouraging: way of hiding translatable pages to discourage further translation
encouraging: the operation that undoes discouraging
FFS: short for file format support. These modules handle reading and writing of files in various formats
forced priority languages: the priority languages, when translations to other languages, are disabled by a translation administrator
fuzzy: translation that needs updating or fixing
fuzzying: the act of marking translations fuzzy
helper language: translations of the definition in helper languages are shown in the translation editor
insertable: piece of text in the translatable text, such as variable or plural syntax, that does not require changing in the translations; the pieces that the system recognizes varies per message group; in the translation interface a button to insert them quickly is shown
language code: the ISO 639 code of the language, like en for English
mark as reviewed (review): the act of marking a message (a translation) as good, in the translation review feature
mark for translation (re-mark for translation): the action of making a page available for translation (i.e. a translatable page) for the first time or to propagate updates after the translatable page source has been updated; happens after the tagging
message: the smallest translation unit; each translation of a message has its own page in the wiki
message collection: collection of messages of one message group in one language.
message documentation: translation tips and info about the context of the message for translators
message group: collection of messages that belong together; translators always work on a message group
message group description: long wikitext snippet shown in Special:Translate and other places
message group id: identifier of the message group; every message group must have one and it must be unique within the wiki; for translatable pages (groups and aggregate groups), it includes a prefix, e.g. agg-Help:Translate
message group label: short human readable name of the message group
message handle: in the code, the MessageHandle class wraps around title class with useful functions
message index: the mapping from translation unit identifiers to the message groups they belong to
message key (message identifier, message name): the unique name of the message, which corresponds to its page title in the wiki (for instance, "mainpage" for MediaWiki:Mainpage)
message namespace: the namespace the page of the message belongs to, which is the prefix of its page title and may depend on the project/product of the message and be named after it
optional message: a message which normally is not translated, but can be translated if the language needs it; it's normally ignored by the special pages (not counted as untranslated) and can be included/listed by selecting the appropriate options
outdated translation: translation which needs updating because its source text has changed
primary message group: technical name of the "normal" message groups. The primary message groups all together constitute a partition of the set of all messages: in other words, each message belongs to one and only one primary message group.
priority languages: the most wanted translations provided by the translation administrator
qqq: see message documentation
secondary message group: a message group which is just a collection of messages of other groups (can be an aggregate group or not); technically, any group which is not primary
segmentation: the act of splitting the text into translation units by the placement of translate tags and empty lines inside translate tags
source language: the language from which content is translated (only one in the Translate extension so far)
source page (original page): the page under which the translatable page source resides (the base page all the translation pages are subpages of)
stash (translation stash): A place of temporary storage of translations which will then be automatically discarded. Can be translated similar to "sandbox" or similar.
state: the current condition of the message group, as defined in the workflow
tagging: the act of placing translation tags in the translatable page source; part of the preparation for page translation
task: option in Special:Translate (whether in a dropdown, radio button or tab selection), like view all messages, or review translations
translatable page: a wiki page which has been prepared or marked for translation; meant as a message group, includes all the consequent translation pages and unit pages
translatable page source: the full text of the translatable page, including translation tags, from which the translation page template and all the translation units are extracted
translation administrator: person who has access to page translation features and knows how to prepare and mark pages for translation
translation aids: the collection of suggestions, message documentation, helper languages and other information besides the message definition
translation editor: the javascript based editor where translation happens
translation memory: the system which remembers previous translations of the same or similar words and provides suggestions
translation page (translated page, translation subpage): translated version of translatable page residing as subpage of the translatable page
translation page template (translation template, page template, translatable page template): the structure of a translatable page, that is the part which is not translated and is used in all translation pages
translation review: the feature provided for proofreading translations and marking them as checked; see quality assurance
translate tags: ‎<translate> tags, the most important translation tags
translation tags: the special markers used to give instructions to the Translate extension about translatable pages
translation unit: the smallest individually tracked component of translatable pages: the page is divided into paragraph-sized translation units and each unit is a message
translation unit identifier (unit identifier, translation unit page title): the name of the translation unit, from which the corresponding message identifier derives (since March 2013, can only be an incremental integer)
translation unit marker (unit marker): a marker associated to a translation unit in translatable page source, which contains the translation unit identifier
translation unit page (unit page): a page which contains the translation of a translation unit to a particular language; can be accessed using Translations:Page/Unit identifier/Language code e.g.: Translations:Main Page/1/de
translation unit source (unit source): the text of a translation unit in the source languages
translation variables tags: ‎<tvar> tags, used to hide text from translators in order to prevent them from translating it.; See: translation variables
workflow: the series of passages the translation work for a message group is subject to, implemented with message group states on Translate
workflow states (message group workflow states): the states a message group can be in, following the workflow (see)