git8n

Migrate from Crowdin ​

This page moves the translations of a GitHub repository from Crowdin to git8n. It follows the migration of a real product, and keeps the steps that it needed.

Crowdin keeps the texts in a Crowdin project and syncs them with the repository. git8n keeps them in the repository only. So the migration moves no text: it makes sure that the repository holds every translation, then removes the sync.

1. Get every translation into the repository ​

Crowdin sends the translations as pull requests from a service branch (l10n_… by default). An open pull request of Crowdin can hold translations that exist nowhere else. Before you remove anything:

  • list the open pull requests of the Crowdin branch;
  • read each diff. Merge the ones that bring translations, or copy their texts into the editor later. Close only the ones that bring nothing new.

A diff that replaces a text of main with "" or with an older wording brings nothing: close it.

2. Check the layout of the files ​

git8n reads one folder per language, with the same file names in each: <localesPath>/<language>/<file>.json. A file holds nested objects of strings. A repository and its files gives the rules.

If a language is only partly translated, or a file has no version in a language, write a manifest rather than leave empty files. Then run the check on a clone:

sh
npx @git8n/cli check

check reads the files with no server, and tells what the editor would refuse.

3. Connect the repository ​

Install the GitHub App on the repository, then connect it in the editor and give the rights to your translators: Getting started. A translator with no GitHub account signs in with a link by email.

4. Remove the sync ​

Remove the files that drive Crowdin:

  • the workflow that calls the Crowdin CLI or action, for example .github/workflows/crowdin.yml, or the Crowdin GitHub integration on the Crowdin side;
  • crowdin.yml, wherever it is in the repository.

Look at .gitignore too. A line that ignores these files hides them from a search that respects .gitignore, such as grep -r in some setups, but leaves them in the repository. Search with git ls-files | grep -i crowdin.

5. Revoke the credentials ​

A workflow of Crowdin reads a project ID and a personal token, often as CROWDIN_PROJECT_ID and CROWDIN_PERSONAL_TOKEN. Delete both from the settings of the repository.

Check where the token is. A token saved as a repository variable, and not as a secret, is plain text that every person with read access to the settings can see. Deleting the variable does not make it safe: revoke the token on Crowdin.

6. Decide what to do with the Crowdin project ​

The project lives outside the repository, with its translators, its translation memory and its glossary. git8n has no translation memory or glossary, so they do not move. Closing the project is a decision for its owner, not a step of the clean-up: keep it, or keep an export of what you need, until you are sure.

7. Check every pull request ​

Add git8n check to CI, so that a file that does not parse, or a translation that loses a placeholder, fails the pull request: In CI.