It is possible to translate templates by using Wikidata sitelinks as the common denominator for template names, they share an item from the different languages, and by using Citoid maps for the individual template parameters. The arguments must be translated sometimes, but just to remap the template structure would be a big help.
A potential problem is the very sporadic implementation of Citoid and its maps in the different projects, but it will probably increase over time.
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | None | T102107 Enable Content Translation in Catalan Wikipedia for all logged-in users | |||
| Open | None | T102964 [Epic] Better support for templates in Content Translation | |||
| Resolved | Pginer-WMF | T104765 Use Wikidata sitelinks and Citoid maps to translate templates |
In general, using Wikidata to translate templates is a wonderful idea, especially when the templates will be adapted to Wikidata across languages so well that the translators wouldn't have to touch them at all :)
This is definitely an area to which we'll want to give more attention in the future, though not immediately (summer 2015).
With the new version of Content translations, the suggested approaches are now supported: finding equivalent templates through Wikidata, using templateData and Citoid metadata. For some languages, even a machine learning approach has been supported to map parameters. So I think we can close the current ticket, but feel free to report other specific issues in this area.