Translate the interface

The web interface and mail use Fluent catalogs embedded in the binary:

• crates/server/src/web/locales/en-US/main.ftl: English source and fallback.
• crates/server/src/web/locales/ru/main.ftl: Russian translation.

The staff administration console is currently English-only. The interface uses the member’s language setting, then the browser’s Accept-Language, then English. Mail uses the recipient’s saved setting, falling back to English.

Edit a translation

Find the message in the English catalog and edit the matching identifier in the translation. Preserve variable names such as $count, and use Fluent selectors for the language’s plural forms. Translate each message as a whole; keep links and interpolated values where the sentence needs them.

When adding a message, add the same identifier to both catalogs. Use a name that describes its purpose and group it with the related feature. Add a comment when translators need context about a variable or where text appears.

Check syntax and matching message identifiers with:

cargo test -p plamenu --lib web::i18n

Rebuild and restart the server to see catalog edits. Select the language in account settings and check the affected page, including plural forms and any layout affected by longer text.

Add a language

Create crates/server/src/web/locales/<tag>/main.ftl using the English catalog as the message inventory. Then register it in crates/server/src/web/i18n.rs:

1. Include the catalog and add a Language variant and Fluent bundle.
2. Add its code to Locale::AVAILABLE and handle it in language_from_tag, bundle, tag, and direction. The picker uses names from crates/server/src/languages.rs; its inventory must contain the code.
3. Extend the catalog tests to check its syntax, message identifiers, negotiation, and plural forms.

Regional browser tags currently select the base language: ru-RU selects Russian. A separate regional translation would also need negotiation changes.

Use messages in code

Use Locale::text or text_with inside Maud templates; Maud escapes the returned string. Locale::plain and plain_with remove Fluent’s directional isolation characters for mail and text passed to JavaScript through data-* attributes.

For a sentence containing links or styled text, pass rendered Maud Markup to Locale::markup. markup_with also accepts Fluent variables, such as a numeric plural selector. These helpers return trusted HTML: render user text through Maud before including it, and never pass it as a raw string variable.

Use the shared web::view helpers for dates. Pass numeric counts to Fluent so it can select plural forms. Resolve mail language with Locale::for_user; web routes should map typed errors or stable redirect codes to catalog messages.