NextCloud & Transifex

NextCloud is an industry-leading, open-source on-premises content collaboration platform. It offers a suite of client-server software solutions for creating and using file hosting services. It combines the convenience and ease of use of consumer-grade solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive with the security, privacy, and control that businesses need. Because NextCloud is free to use, anyone can install and operate it on their own private server devices. This also means that anyone can become a part of the community, develop new plugins, fix bugs, and translate content.

As an open-source solution, there is always a strong demand for localization of NextCloud in different countries, where users want to use the platform in their language. Volunteers are responsible for the translation process and for creating the content in other languages. 

The NextCloud team was keen to target new audiences in more countries. They needed a solution that would support the scaling up of the business to reach more markets faster. However, this would require more contributors, improved collaboration between translators, and effective delegation between core volunteers and translators. 

Achieving successful delegation would require a process to allow control of the platform by volunteers responsible for managing the translation process. GitHub integration was also a critical part of the solution that the Nexcloud team was looking for.  

Thanks to the Transifex integration with GitHub, the collaboration between translators and developers dramatically improved. It has also allowed the team to continue using localized JSON-based strings for problem-solving and raising queries. This ensures that problems can be resolved quickly and effectively. 

Translation memory ensures that work becomes less repetitive. It also improves consistency for each translation when several different volunteers work on the same content. 

“Global search,” the option to search strings across projects and languages, is also an essential part of our localization process.

In addition, the Tx command line is vital for supporting automated daily updates and for major updates released at regular intervals across the year.

Transifex has had a positive impact on Nextcloud’s operations, delivering much faster and more accurate translations. This has enabled the platform to become localized more quickly in more languages. While it is hard to measure the return on investment (because of Nextcloud’s open-source nature), there is no doubt that it has allowed the team to automate collaboration affordably for a large number of contributors.