Adding a new short-term project on Pontoon

Short-term projects are things like newsletters, marketing campaigns, surveys… They do not have a repository, and data is instead stored only in Pontoon’s database.

The process to create a short-term project is very similar to that of a regular one.

Create the project in Pontoon STAGE instance

First you want to test that everything works using Pontoon staging server.

Access Pontoon’s admin console on the stage server and click ADD NEW PROJECT.

  • Name: name of the project (it will be displayed in Pontoon’s project selector).
  • Slug: used in URLs, will be generated automatically based on the repository’s name.
  • Locales:
    • Select at least one locale. To make things faster it’s possible to copy supported locales from an existing project.
    • You can uncheck the Locales can opt-in checkbox to prevent localizers from requesting this specific project.
  • Data Source: select Database in the list of options. This will hide the Repositories section and show a Strings section instead.
  • Strings: you can enter the initial set of strings here. Strings must be separated by new lines. If you leave this empty, you’ll be able to enter strings as a batch again after creating the project. Strings must be in en-US, and they will become the entities on that project. A resource named database will automatically be created.
  • For every other option, please refer to the new project documentation.

Click SAVE PROJECT at the bottom of the page, and you’re done!

Create the project in Pontoon PROD instance

At this point you need to repeat the same steps on the production server.

Access Pontoon’s admin console, add the same information you used on the staging server and make sure to select all supported locales for this project.

The new project will immediately appear in the public list of Projects.

Managing strings

After you have created your project, you will be able to manage its source strings. On the admin project page (that you can find from the admin console), under the Strings section, you will find two links. The one called MANAGE STRINGS will lead you to a page where all strings are listed. There you can edit the string content, edit the string comment, add new strings (use the NEW STRING button) or remove existing strings (use the trashbin icon under the comment input). Once you’re done editing, click the SAVE STRINGS button to save your changes.

Downloading translations

On the project’s admin page and on the Manage Strings page, you’ll find a DOWNLOAD STRINGS link. Clicking it will download a CSV file that contains all the translations in all enabled locales. The file format looks as follow:

Source, fr, de
Hello, Salut, Hallo
World, Monde, Welt