We use the pootle translation server for several reasons.
- It supports user who don't know what lupdate is, what brings more translators to contribute.
- Multiple translators can work on the same language.
- The translators need only their browser, no extra software is necessary (git, Qt Linguist).
And may be a few other reasons.
You're right, that the ts files on the server are not always up to date. This is because the only place where we run lupdate is the translation server.
Updating the translations needs a couple of steps and we use a script for this on the server.
When ts files are modified in the master repo outside the pootle server, the git pull, which is part of the script, fails because of merge conflicts. The only way to avoid merge conflicts is leaving ts files untouched outside the pootle server.
We do the updates from time to time, but you can request an update anytime by posting your request here in the translation sub forum.
Armin
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