StarterKit Essential Tasks: Translate core interface messages
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	ngkountas
	Apr 7 2026, 12:26 PM

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	Apr 7 2026, 12:26 PM

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Aklapper

ngkountas

srishakatux

Description

Overview

As part of the Essential Tasks block in the Starter Kit Dashboard, we need to implement a card that provides guidance and support for translating core interface messages via Translatewiki.net. This helps ensure that the wiki interface is properly localized for the user’s language.

Interactive prototype: Link

Screenshot

User journey

Account check. The app asks whether the user has a Translatewiki.net account. If yes, they proceed. If not, the app guides them through registration and waits for confirmation before continuing.
Open. The app opens Translatewiki.net preloaded with the MediaWiki core message group, filtered by the user’s language and sorted by most-used messages.
Translate. The user translates messages in Translatewiki.net. The app tracks progress and unlocks completion after 10 messages. Translations are automatically synced to the wiki within 24 hours; no manual publishing is required.

Card implementation details

Category: Editing
Tool: Translatewiki.net
Difficulty: Beginner

Details

Related Changes in GitLab:

	Title	Reference	Author	Source Branch	Dest Branch
	Feat: add "Translate core interface messages" essential task	repos/lpl/starterkit-v1!62	ngkountas	feat/twn-essential-task	main

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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	srishakatux	T410699 Explore the concept of a semi-automated starter kit for new and small wikis
Open	srishakatux	T420073 Explore concepts and designs for starter kit dashboard
Open	srishakatux	T422214 Explore concepts and designs for essential tasks
Resolved	ngkountas	T422485 StarterKit Essential Tasks: Translate core interface messages

Event Timeline

ngkountas created this task.Apr 7 2026, 12:26 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptApr 7 2026, 12:26 PM

srishakatux added a parent task: T422214: Explore concepts and designs for essential tasks.Apr 8 2026, 3:33 AM

MaryMunyoki triaged this task as Medium priority.Apr 9 2026, 10:21 AM

MaryMunyoki added a project: Starter Kit.Apr 9 2026, 1:17 PM

MaryMunyoki moved this task from Backlog to Essential Tasks on the Starter Kit board.

MaryMunyoki raised the priority of this task from Medium to High.Apr 28 2026, 11:42 AM

Ideally, there should be a way to automatically detect how many messages the user has translated. If that were possible, we could simplify this into two steps and remove the need for the third step where users manually count their progress.

In the future, it would be worth thinking about how we handle tasks that involve repeated actions such as translating multiple articles, multiple messages, or creating multiple articles. We may need to consider whether to allow users to repeat the same action within a single task (e.g., translate multiple messages in one flow), or instead create separate task instances for each action.

The design may also need to be adjusted based on what is technically feasible, for example, whether it is possible to pull a list of untranslated messages from Translatewiki and also detect whether the suggested messages have been translated.

If it is possible to detect changes automatically, we can have a revised and simplified design. Link here. Based on what is technically feasible or not, we can improve the design further.

Based on the discussion on another task (gadget-related T422481), one additional thought for consistency is to keep the implementation simple and the user flow straightforward by removing auto-detection entirely.

Also, the list of messages we currently show isn’t very usable, since users can’t directly land on a specific message on Translatewiki from the starter kit tool anyway.

With that in mind, I’ve revised the prototype - you can find it here.

MaryMunyoki mentioned this in T425027: Starter Kit Dashboard Layout.Apr 30 2026, 6:28 PM

MaryMunyoki assigned this task to ngkountas.Apr 30 2026, 7:43 PM

ngkountas updated the task description. (Show Details)Mon, May 18, 7:57 PM

ngkountas updated the task description. (Show Details)Mon, May 18, 8:12 PM

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/62

Feat: add "Translate core interface messages" essential task

ngkountas moved this task from Incoming Requests to Needs Review on the LPL Onboarding and Development board.Wed, May 20, 10:57 PM

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/63

Feat: add "Translate core interface messages" essential task

ngkountas opened https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/repos/lpl/starterkit-v1/-/merge_requests/68

Feat: add "Translate core interface messages" essential task