# Translation Guide

## **JSON and Text Editors**

Friend Time stores language data in JSON files. [JSON](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON) is a format for storing data in an easy to read way. You may be familiar with similar data formats such as [YAML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML) (YML).

**Example JSON File**:

![](/files/mtHQ4LafMcgStQygkXGu)

If you are not familiar with JSON you can still provide a translation, however you must be aware of which parts of JSON are translatable, and which are not. In the above example the parts in **blue** are called "keys", and should be left alone. While the parts in **orange** are called "values", which can be translated.

It is also recommended to have a text editor that supports JSON, so that you can get pretty coloring like the example above, thus making it easier to read.

**Recommended Text Editors with JSON Support**:

* [Notepad++](https://notepad-plus-plus.org/)
* [Sublime Text](https://www.sublimetext.com/)
* [VSCode](https://code.visualstudio.com/)

## **Translation Guidelines**

### Leave As Is

The following should **NOT** be changed:

* **JSON Keys and Structure**
  * See the [above section](#json-and-text-editors) for more information.
* **Variables**
  * Look like this`{{MY_VARIABLE}}`
  * These will end up getting filled in by the bot.
* **References**
  * Look like this `{{REF:my.reference}}`
  * It's important to understand how these work for translations.
  * Anytime you see a REF, it will end up getting filled in with whatever text it points to in the `refs` section of the language file.
  * For example `{{REF:bot.name}}` will get filled in with whatever text is in `refs.bot.name` ("Friend Time").
* **Markdown Formatting**
  * These are special character that provide:
    * bold (\*\*)
    * italic (\*)
    * underline (\_\_)
    * code (\`)
    * link \[This is a link]\(<http://google.com/>)
  * See [here ](https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/210298617-Markdown-Text-101-Chat-Formatting-Bold-Italic-Underline-)for more information about markdown.
* **Colors**
  * Look like this: `#0099ff`
* **Emojis**
* **Links**
* **Bot Name**

In addition to the above, the following should be kept **as similar as possible** unless inappropriate for the language:

* **Capitalization**
* **Punctuation**
* **Spacing**
* **Order of Sentences**

### Translate

Translate **regular text**, **commands**, **settings**, etc. Anything that is not part of the above list of items to leave alone.

### Special Cases

There are a few fields which have special cases:

* `ref.meta.language`
  * Should be an ISO 639-1 language code.
  * [See here for a list of possible language codes](https://www.andiamo.co.uk/resources/iso-language-codes/).
* `ref.meta.locale`
  * Should be the same as `ref.meta.language`.
* `ref.meta.translators`
  * Provide your discord tag here and a link to a profile or social media of your choice.
* `regexes.meta.language`
  * Should include:
    * The language code from `ref.meta.language`
    * The language name from `ref.meta.languageDisplay`

### Translating Regexes

You may notice the `regexes` section of the translation file looks a little odd. Each value in the regex section should look something like this:

`/\b(find|f|lookup|search)\b/i`

You can essentially ignore everything except for this part:

`find|f|lookup|search`

Which is just **a list of words** the user can type in place of a certain command, separated by tall lines (|).

When translating the `regexes` section, just focus on translating these words and adding or removing words from the list as you see necessary.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://friend-time.arilyn.cc/misc/translation-guide.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.