[releaseme] [Bug 465897] New: Potential problem in passing AppData translations to appstream-data

[Tyson Tan]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=465897

            Bug ID: 465897
           Summary: Potential problem in passing AppData translations to
                    appstream-data
    Classification: Developer tools
           Product: releaseme
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
          Assignee: unassigned-bugs at kde.org
          Reporter: tysontan at tysontan.com
                CC: sitter at kde.org
  Target Milestone: ---

First of all, this isn't an issue where AppData files haven't been translated.
They have been translated for years, but never seemed to have made it into
places like Discover and Gnome Software.

#########

I've tested with: 
1) Latest versions of ArchLinux and Ubuntu;
2) Simplified Chinese locale;
3) Discover and Gnome Software;

For example, in this environment, applications like Krita, digiKam, Kdenlive do
not show up in Discover with Chinese descriptions. But they have been 100%
translated by me since 2018, and their AppData translations are properly
displayed on https://apps.kde.org/

https://apps.kde.org/zh-cn/krita/
https://apps.kde.org/zh-cn/digikam/
https://apps.kde.org/zh-cn/kdenlive/

I don't think this is likely to be a bug in Discover, or mis-packaging of
appstream-data, because some KDE applications do have Chinese AppData
translations, but they are very old. Most of their data came from a time before
2018. Other less active languages like Japanese also seem to have the same
problem. Both ArchLinux and Ubuntu have the same problem.

It seems as if the AppData translations have stopped being passed to places
like appstream-data, sometime before 2018. 

#########

I must admit that I do not really know how things works for appstream, but in
this article:
https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2022/06/10/how-to-get-your-application-to-show-up-in-gnome-software/

There is a paragraph:
"An optional gettext or QT translation domain which allows the AppStream
generator to collect statistics on shipped application translations."

I wonder, is it possible for this thing to be mis-configured?

This issue has been plaguing us for years now, affecting the discoverability of
apps in non-English languages. I have exhausted any lead at this point. Help
would be greatly appreciated.

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