[translations] Empty Strings

[Gabor Hojtsy]

IMHO you should never import contrib translations in "override" mode. 
The autoimport feature built into Drupal 6 also always imports in "keep" 
mode, but it still does delete stuff in your database if you "override" 
it with an empty string. I am not sure overriding with an empty string 
is a good idea, and with Drupal 6, it also means deletion of the 
database entry.

Gabor

Martin Stadler wrote:
> So empty strings in a .po file override already translated strings if  
> I import them...
> 
> I know the current system of contrib translation is far from good and  
> people are working on it (d6, SoC...). Anyways, here's my scenario:
> 
> I started translating some contrib modules I use (into German). Of  
> course I want my work to be commited to the drupal CVS. I read the  
> translations handbook and got used to some gettext tools, merging  
> etc. What I did was extracting a fresh .pot file, merging it with the  
> core de.po into the module's de.po and started translating the still  
> empty strings. Sometimes it's too much work and it seems to be enough  
> to only translate the strings that will be visible to the end-user  
> leaving the rest of the strings empty. After importing and testing I  
> filed issues in the respective projects attaching my de.po files.
> 
> Now I found out that empty translation strings will override already  
> translated strings in the override mode of the import feature of  
> drupal. As I merged the core .po file with my .pot this is only a  
> problem if the string doesn't exist in core but does in another  
> contrib module with an existing translation which is already  
> imported. I cannot merge all module's translations with the one I'm  
> about to create. So it may happen that I override an existing  
> translation of a contrib module with an empty string of another's  
> module's translation. To me it makes sense to keep empty string in my  
> translation file as I or someone else will propably continue to work  
> on that file. But as these empty strings are soon part of the  
> official stable modules they can override other's translations too.  
> Of course I could import them without overriding existing strings but  
> sometimes I want to update my translation...
> 
> Is there any solution to this problem? A tool to delete the empty  
> strings as a workaround? What kind of .po files should I commit in  
> the future?
> 
> Sorry for the long text and repetitions...
> 
> Cheers,
> Standart
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