approving messages.pot upload

Modifying this a bit. It looks like the messages.pot file made it through the queue (no clue who reviewed it), but there aren't any translations in the Miro 3.0 series.

I thought that once I uploaded a .pot file which has similar strings to .pot files that I've uploaded for other series, that Launchpad would share the strings between the series. That doesn't seem to have happened and the Launchpad help isn't shedding any light on things.

How can I coerce Launchpad to share strings between series? Do I have to upload all the .po files as well? Last time I did that for the Miro 2.5 series (in August or thereabouts), I was told that was not what I should be doing.

They should share translations, yes, as long as:

 * The English messages are exactly the same as (not just "similar to") the ones in the existing series.

 * The new template is imported under the same name as the one in the existing series.

In your case, the new template got imported under the name "messages." That's strange because it's a generic name; we normally use the project name if there is no meaningful file or directory name in the upload.

What you can do is change the new template's name to "democracyplayer." That won't in itself make it share all its messages, but it will enable automatic sharing on messages you import to it in the future.

We also heartily recommend having Launchpad import your templates directly from the bzr branch (which in turn may be a mirror of a bzr/cvs/git/svn branch somewhere else if you like) so that things like paths and names are automatically kept consistent. It also significantly speeds up the approval process.

The last time I had problems (setting up the Miro 2.5 series) I was told to use the same name for the .pot file as the other series we had in translation. That way the paths are all the same and Launchpad would figure everything out correctly. So I did.

Now you're telling me that I should use a different name for the .pot file.

I find it frustrating that every time I set up a new series, I follow the directions I was given the last time I had problems, they don't work, I have to ask for help again, and I get a new set of directions.

At this point, I've wasted too many hours fiddling with this. It's likely we're not going to put out another Miro 3.0 series release after 3.0.2 anyhow, so it's not worth pursuing further.

Thanks for the help.

Note that I'm not suggesting you use a different name for the .pot file in one series than in the other series. I'm saying that the "template name" for this template somehow ended up being different than in the previous series, and that's why there's no sharing. The problem must have been caused while one of our team reviewed your upload; this is a tedious job and things sometimes go wrong. Setting up imports from a bzr branch would avoid human review, producing much faster and more consistent results.