L10n:Official Localized Releases

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Official Localization

A localized official release means that:

1. Mozilla automatically creates minor updates from files in hg.mozilla.org together with the en-US minor releases. ↓ Details below
2. Major upgrades, i.e., the shift from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3, is done through contributions of the localization teams. ↓ Details below
3. The local team strengthens and enlarges the community. ↓ Details below

Following is more detail...

Minor Updates

Mozilla Corporation resources handle minor updates, etc and collaborates with you to complete a release. Minor updates are generated from a stable branch, this means, changes to that branch require approval and are tightly controlled on testing. This helps us to make sure that there are no regressions in minor updates. You have to follow the landing rules for the branch you're landing on. They can be found at L10n:Branches#Tree_rules and announced in the mozilla.dev.l10n newsgroup.

Major Upgrades

Major updates are done by you.

• There will be communication in mozilla.dev.l10n in advance of the release to inform you about the schedule and estimated amount of work needed to bring your localization up-to-date with the new major release.
• Use the dashboard to see how many strings is your localization missing.
• On the occasions when you don't meet the ship deadlines, we try to do everything we can to support you to meet the release dates. We do this by communicating well in advance of deadlines and being clear about module owners and the like. In the case where a deadline is going to be missed, we can still include your locale in the next minor release is acceptable.

Mozilla supports the quality assurance testing of your build

• We're improving our automated testing capabilities and our procedures for human testing
• For major upgrades (like Firefox 3), we create a string freeze long enough before the code freeze of the last Beta to ensure you have sufficient time to implement new changes
• And, we've created new testing tools to provide nightly builds for which you can test your work against and have more dynamic results

Community Building

Your team should aspire to have all the Building Blocks for supporting your localization. Mozilla is working to develop more ways to support you to develop your building blocks. Check out Seth's blog to hear more about our ideas. We've recently invested more resources to better support your community development efforts. If you feel your team is need of this type of support please email us. We are also working to determine how to assess the "health" of a localization team and how we could better support them to develop their team or their skills.

Back to the Localization Process