In Perl code, all literal strings to be translated are automatically marked for translation: $LanguageObject->Translate('My string %s', $Data) will mark 'My string %s' for translation. If you need to mark strings, but NOT translate them in the code yet, you can use the NOOP method Kernel::Langauge::Translatable().

package MyPackage;

use strict;
use warnings;

use Kernel::Language (qw(Translatable));

...

my $UntranslatedString = Translatable('My string %s');
                

In Template files, all literal strings enclosed in the Translate()-Tag are automatically marked for extraction: [% Translate('My string %s', Data.Data )%].

In SysConfig and Database XML files you can mark strings for extraction with the Translatable="1" attribute.

# Database XML
<Insert Table="groups">
    <Data Key="id" Type="AutoIncrement">1</Data>
    ...
    <Data Key="comments" Type="Quote" Translatable="1">Group for default access.</Data>
    ...
</Insert>

# SysConfig XML
<Setting>
    <Option SelectedID="0">
        <Item Key="0" Translatable="1">No</Item>
        <Item Key="1" Translatable="1">Yes</Item>
    </Option>
</Setting>
                

The console command otrs.Console.pl Dev::Tools::TranslationsUpdate is used to extract all translatable strings from the source files. These will be collected and written into the translation files.

For the OTRS framework and all extension modules that also use Transifex for managing the translations, .pot and .po files are written. These files are used to push the translatable strings to Transifex and pull the translations from there.

But OTRS requires the translations to be in Perl files for speed reasons. These files will also be generated by otrs.Console.pl Dev::Tools::TranslationsUpdate. There are two different translation cache file types which are used in the following order. If a word/sentence is redefined in a translation file, the last definition will be used.

package Kernel::Language::de;

use strict;
use warnings;

use vars qw(@ISA $VERSION);

sub Data {
    my $Self = shift;

    # $$START$$

    # possible charsets
    $Self->{Charset} = ['iso-8859-1', 'iso-8859-15', ];
    # date formats (%A=WeekDay;%B=LongMonth;%T=Time;%D=Day;%M=Month;%Y=Jear;)
    $Self->{DateFormat} = '%D.%M.%Y %T';
    $Self->{DateFormatLong} = '%A %D %B %T %Y';
    $Self->{DateFormatShort} = '%D.%M.%Y';
    $Self->{DateInputFormat} = '%D.%M.%Y';
    $Self->{DateInputFormatLong} = '%D.%M.%Y - %T';

    $Self->{Translation} = {
    # Template: AAABase
    'Yes' => 'Ja',
    'No' => 'Nein',
    'yes' => 'ja',
    'no' => 'kein',
    'Off' => 'Aus',
    'off' => 'aus',
    };
    # $$STOP$$
    return 1;
}

1;
                

package Kernel::Language::xx_Custom;

use strict;
use warnings;

use vars qw(@ISA $VERSION);

sub Data {
    my $Self = shift;

    # $$START$$

    # own translations
    $Self->{Translation}->{'Lock'} = 'Lala';
    $Self->{Translation}->{'Unlock'} = 'Lulu';

    # $$STOP$$
    return 1;
}

1;
                

OTRS uses Transifex to manage the translation process. Please see this section for details.

You can use the method $LanguageObject->Translate() to translate strings at runtime from Perl code, and the Translate()-Tag in templates.