History: WikiSuite Translation

Let's translate WikiSuite with Africa's developer communities

WikiSuite is the most comprehensive and integrated Open Source enterprise solution. It includes Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware, Cypht Webmail, Signature PDF, Dolibarr ERP/CRM, Manticore Search and MeshCentral (remote device management).

In early June 2026, the WikiSuite team was invited among the panelists of an Open Source meetup in Kigali. The team presented these tools, and the interest of the participants and developers from different East African countries, motivated and ready to contribute, made a real impression on us. We didn't want to let that momentum fade.

The strength of Open Source software is its community, and one of the best ways to really take ownership of a tool is to make it speak your language. An ERP in Kinyarwanda, a webmail in Swahili: that's the difference between software you tolerate and software you actually want to use.

Translating is one of the simplest ways to get into an Open Source project. No need to be an expert: you discover the project from the inside, you leave a public trace of your work, and that's often how you gain experience in the Open Source world.

Four projects are waiting for your contributions:

Dolibarr (ERP / CRM)

Free ERP/CRM used by more than a million people, translated into more than 70 languages. Bringing it into our languages makes it accessible to thousands of businesses in our region.

Everything goes through Transifex :

1. Create an account (an email address is enough).
2. Join the Dolibarr project and request your language.
3. Translate in your browser.

Your translations are reviewed, validated and synced to the official project. No need for GitHub, everything happens in Transifex.

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware

The CMS at the heart of WikiSuite, around for more than 23 years and available in more than 50 languages. It's actually what runs the page you're reading. And you're not starting from scratch: about thirty contributors from East Africa are already taking part in the project.
Translating it means letting our own websites, intranets and knowledge bases run in our languages.

Everything happens on i18n.tiki.org, right in your browser:

1. Create an account on i18n.tiki.org.
2. Choose your language.
3. Translate the strings in context. The ones still to translate show up in red.

Your translations flow back into Tiki's code through GitLab. Translators connect in two chat rooms:Telegram and Matrix.

If you're a developer and prefer to work in the code, you can also submit a merge request on the Tiki project on GitLab. As a developer, if this is your first contribution to Tiki, this guide shows you how to get started.

Cypht (Webmail)

The webmail built into WikiSuite, lightweight and modern, integrated in Tiki since version 20. Translating it means offering a mailbox in our languages to schools and organizations in the region.

With Cypht, you translate directly in the code, on GitHub. This path is for people comfortable with Git :

1. Fork the cypht-org/cypht repository.
2. Duplicate the language/en.php file and rename it with your language code (sw, rw, ln).
3. Adjust interface_lang and interface_direction, then replace each false with your translation.
4. Declare your language in the interface_langs() function and open a pull request.

The detailed steps, including the test you'll need to update, are in the developer documentation.

MeshCentral (Remote device management)

WikiSuite's tool to manage and access computers remotely. Translating it means bringing IT management and support into our languages, for the region's IT teams and organizations.

MeshCentral ships with its own translation tool, in the browser. You need to be an administrator of a running MeshCentral server:

1. Log in to a MeshCentral server as an administrator and open the translation tool from the "My Account" menu, then "Localization Settings".
2. Click "Help translate MeshCentral".
3. In the new tab that opens, choose your language and check "show no translations only" to display only what's left to translate.
4. Click a string to translate: it appears at the bottom, with a field to enter your translation. Click "Set (F1)" to save it.
5. Once your translations are done, you have two options:
   1. "Save to File (F4)" at the top downloads the complete translation file, your additions included.
   2. "Translate Server" at the top right saves your translations to your server, in meshcentral-data/translate.json.
6. Export this file and submit it through a pull request on Ylianst/MeshCentral or an email to the maintainer.

No server on hand? You can also edit the translate.json file directly on GitHub and propose your changes through a pull request.

Pick a project, pick a language, and get started. Every translated string brings these tools closer to our communities, and your contributions stay visible.