|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: "DMP '25 Week-12 Report by Aman Chadha" |
| 3 | +excerpt: "Concluding my DMP '25 project: Migrating Music Blocks’ localization from webL10n.js to i18next and building an AI-assisted translation system with contextual support." |
| 4 | +category: "DEVELOPER NEWS" |
| 5 | +date: "2025-09-08" |
| 6 | +slug: "2025-09-08-dmp-25-aman-chadha-week12" |
| 7 | +author: "@/constants/MarkdownFiles/authors/aman-chadha.md" |
| 8 | +tags: "dmp25,sugarlabs,finalreport,aman-chadha" |
| 9 | +image: "assets/Images/c4gt_DMP.png" |
| 10 | +--- |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +<!-- markdownlint-disable --> |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +# Final Report by Aman Chadha |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +Project: [JS Internationalization with AI Translation Support](https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks/pull/4731) |
| 17 | +Mentors: [Walter Bender](https://github.com/walterbender), [Devin Ulibarri](https://github.com/devinulibarri) |
| 18 | +Duration: July – September 2025 |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +--- |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +## Project Overview |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +The aim of this project was to modernize the internationalization (i18n) system of Music Blocks by migrating from the legacy `webL10n.js` framework to i18next, and to introduce an AI-assisted translation workflow to reduce the burden on human translators. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Key goals included: |
| 27 | +- Making the i18n workflow cleaner, modular, and maintainable. |
| 28 | +- Automating missing translations with AI + context-awareness. |
| 29 | +- Supporting community-driven refinements of translations. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +--- |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +## Achievements |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +1. Migration from webL10n.js to i18next |
| 36 | + - Replaced outdated framework with i18next for modern i18n support. |
| 37 | + - Added flexible fallback strategies (cleaned text, lowercase, title case, hyphenated). |
| 38 | + - Enabled JSON-based translation files for better maintainability. |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +2. AI-Assisted Translation System |
| 41 | + - Designed a pipeline to parse `.po` files and extract `msgid`s. |
| 42 | + - Generated context automatically by analyzing where each string occurs in the codebase. |
| 43 | + - Built a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) model to store these contexts. |
| 44 | + - Integrated Google Translate API to auto-fill missing translations using this context. |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +3. Contributor-Friendly Workflow |
| 47 | + - Human translators can review AI-generated suggestions instead of starting from scratch. |
| 48 | + - New language files can be created or updated automatically. |
| 49 | + - Significantly lowers the barrier for contributors to help Music Blocks reach more learners. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +--- |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +## Challenges & Solutions |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +- Challenge: Extracting meaningful context for each translation key. |
| 56 | + Solution: Implemented a RAG approach that links `msgid`s to their source code usage. |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +- Challenge: Ensuring migration didn’t break existing functionality. |
| 59 | + Solution: Incremental testing with sample `.json` files and stepwise replacement of webL10n. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +--- |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +## Key Learnings |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | +- Infrastructure-level improvements (like i18n) may not be flashy, but they unlock global accessibility. |
| 66 | +- Context is essential for high-quality translations — raw machine translation alone isn’t enough. |
| 67 | +- Clean migration strategy + thorough testing makes adoption smoother for the community. |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +--- |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +## Future Work |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +- Add support for more AI translation providers (e.g., DeepL, OpenAI). |
| 74 | +- Build a simple web-based review UI for translators to accept/refine AI suggestions. |
| 75 | +- Automate detection of new/changed strings via GitHub Actions and update translation files dynamically. |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +--- |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | +## Closing Thoughts |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +This project was a unique opportunity to contribute infrastructure that strengthens Music Blocks for a global user base. By combining modern i18n practices with AI translation support, I hope this work helps learners worldwide access Music Blocks in their own languages with greater ease. |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +I’m deeply grateful to my mentors Walter and Devin, and to the Sugar Labs community, for their support and guidance throughout this journey. |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +--- |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +## Resources & References |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +- Music Blocks Repository: [github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks](https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks) |
| 90 | +- GitHub PR: [#4731](https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks/pull/4731) |
| 91 | +- i18next Documentation: [i18next.com](https://www.i18next.com/) |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +--- |
0 commit comments