L10n:Official Localized Releases
Official Localization
A localized official build means that:
- Mozilla creates minor updates from CVS together with the en-US minor releases. More...
- Major upgrades, i.e., the shift from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3, is done through contributions of the localization teams. More...
- The local team strengthens and enlarges the community. More...
Let's detail on these a bit.
Minor Updates
1- Mozilla Corporation resources handle minor updates, etc and collaborates with you to complete a release. More specifically,
- An approval for change requests is led by Axel
- Code/string/catch ups are also approved by Axel
- Branding changes (e.g., search, RSS, content handlers) are approved by Mic
- Changes to in product web pages are approved by Pascal
Major Upgrades
3- Major updates are done by you. Our next major update is Firefox 3
- Here are some tools that are likely going to be useful for you in this stage.
- There are occasions when localizers don't meet the ship deadlines, we try to do everything we can to support you to meet the release dates. Mozilla (we) does 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've considered these as our suggested options:
- next release as acceptable
- special cases we may create a delay on being official build status
4-Mozilla supports the Firefox:2.0_QA_Activities:L10n_Test_Plan quality assurance testing of your build
- We've instituted a new testing platform and protocols to better support this for Firefox 3
- We've also created a 2-week code freeze before Beta 2 to ensure you have sufficient time to implement new changes
- And, we've created new tools [Axel help here] to provide nightly builds for which you can test your work against and have more dynamic results
Community Building
2- Your team should aspire to a "full-skills team". Meaning 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.
To get to this stage involves Mozilla QA team and Axel reviewing your builds and making a decision. We're still working on writing down what's involved more specifically, so more to come...Back to L10n:Home_Page