Looking for ideas on the subject: If and when backward compatibility is lost for language files we will have to make a decision regarding how long we support language packs
The actual situation:
1- language packs are backward compatible so you can install the language pack created for 7.10 into your old SuiteCRM version.
2- In the future this could be changed if the code on the actual language files get some strings or some sort of format change that do not allow are not backward compatible.
3- Community translations are done via Crowdin system https://crowdin.com/project/suitecrmtranslations
4- Language packs are created directly from crowdin using its own feature to auto-pack files in an installable ZIP format.
5- Crowdin can have more then one branch - for versions - but we can only have the auto-pack feature from Crowdin if we have only one branch!
I’m actually the person running Crowdin project for SuiteCRM translations. I’m a plain community user.
My option is:
A repository for language packs created for old SuiteCRM versions. They will be published as ZIP files ready to be installed in old systems. There will be no updates after this been released.
Crowdin will have only the language files for new version.
Maybe we don’t have to store (all languages X all versions), which would be quite a lot… maybe we can simplify and have packages made only when the backward compatibility is actually broken.
So if 7.10 breaks compatibility, we could have a directory for 7.7-to-7.9, and then one for 7.10-to-8.2, for example. Inside that directory, we’d put all the languages.