Add documentation on public sandboxes

docs/en_us/developers/source/i18n_translators_guide.rst

@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ For information on the Transifex process, see the following sections:
 * `Getting Started with Transifex`_
 * `Guidelines for Translators`_
 
+See also documentation on
+`public translation sandboxes <public_sandboxes.rst#language-sandboxes>`_.
+
 Getting Started with Transifex
 ******************************
 

docs/en_us/developers/source/index.rst

@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ Internationalization
     i18n.rst
     i18n_translators_guide.rst
     pavelib.rst
+    public_sandboxes.rst
     xblocks.rst
 
 Indices and tables

docs/en_us/developers/source/public_sandboxes.rst

+####################
+edX Public Sandboxes
+####################
+
+EdX maintains a set of publicly-available sandboxes, to allow contributors
+to interact with the software without having to set it up themselves.
+
+* `edx.org Sandbox`_ for those looking to try out the software powering edx.org
+
+* `Language Sandboxes`_ for contributors helping to translate OpenEdX into
+  various languages, who have a need to see translations "in context" - that is,
+  in use on an actual website.
+
+
+edx.org Sandbox
+***************
+This sandbox is intended for those looking to try out the software powering
+`edx.org <www.edx.org>`_.
+
+The sandbox allows users staff- and student-level access to a copy of the current
+version of the edx.org website. This sandbox does not allow access to Studio, the
+course-authoring system.
+
+Login by visiting the following url:
+
+* `https://www.sandbox.edx.org/ <https://www.sandbox.edx.org/>`_
+
+You can log in to a staff account using the following credentials:
+
+* username: staff@example.com
+* password: edx
+
+You can log in to a student account using one the following credentials.
+Each user is enrolled in the demo course with an audit, honor code, or
+verified certificate, respectively:
+
+*  username: audit@example.com / honor@example.com / verified@example.com
+*  password: edx
+
+Language Sandboxes
+******************
+
+These sandboxes are intended for translators who have a need to see
+translations "in context" - that is, in use on an actual website.
+
+On edx.org, we only pull down reviewed translations from Transifex. See the
+`translation guidelines <https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/blob/master/docs/en_us/developers/source/i18n_translators_guide.rst#joining-a-review-team>`_
+for more details.
+ 
+However, these sandboxes present *all* translations, not just reviewed
+translations. This means that you may encounter broken pages as you navigate
+the website. If this happens, it is probably because your language contains
+broken translations (missing HTML tags, altered {placeholders}, etc). Go
+through your translations and see if you can figure out what's broken. Use
+`this guide <https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/blob/master/docs/en_us/developers/source/i18n_translators_guide.rst#guidelines-for-translators>`_
+to review how to produce non-broken translations.
+
+Accessing The Sandboxes
+=======================
+There are two language sandboxes, one for right-to-left, aka "RTL", languages
+(Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Urdu) and a second one for left-to-right, aka "LTR",
+languages.
+
+You can visit the LMS, or learning management system, at:
+
+* LTR Sandbox `http://translation-ltr.m.sandbox.edx.org/ <http://translation-ltr.m.sandbox.edx.org/>`_
+
+* RTL Sandbox `http://translation-rtl.m.sandbox.edx.org/  <http://translation-rtl.m.sandbox.edx.org/>`_
+
+You can also visit Studio (the course authoring platform) at:
+
+* LTR Sandbox `http://studio.translation-ltr.m.sandbox.edx.org/ <http://studio.translation-ltr.m.sandbox.edx.org/>`_
+
+* RTL Sandbox `http://studio.translation-rtl.m.sandbox.edx.org/ <http://studio.translation-rtl.m.sandbox.edx.org/>`_
+
+To access the sandboxes you'll be prompted for a username and password, use these:
+
+* username: edx
+* password: translation
+
+Logging In
+==========
+Language-specific Staff users have been created, which will enable you to access
+Studio as well as see instructor-specific pages within the LMS. You'll be able
+to log into the sandbox using the following convention:
+
+* username: LANGUAGE_CODE@example.com
+* password: edx
+
+So if you are working on Chinese (China), you'll log in with these credentials:
+
+* username: zh_CN@example.com
+* password: edx
+
+You can also make new student-level user accounts, which is useful for verifying
+translations within the registration flow.
+
+Feel free to mess around in these sandboxes, you can't break anything!
+
+
+Caveats and Warnings
+====================
+#. These sandboxes will be updated with new translations and the newest version
+   of the edx-platform code roughly once per week.
+
+#. Within the LMS, you can use the language preference widget on the student
+   dashboard page to set your language. However, when viewing Studio or when
+   viewing the site logged-out, the site will use your browser preference to pick
+   which language to display, so make sure your browser is set to the language
+   you're translating to.
+
+#. To see a normal edX instance in English (useful for comparing), switch your
+   language to English, or visit the `edx.org Sandbox`_.
+
+#. At the moment, the side does not properly work for languages with an ``@``
+   symbol in the language code, so for now, those languages cannot use the
+   sandbox.
+
+#. If you have a copy of the edx-platform code, you can generate a list of broken
+   translations in your language by first pulling down the latest translation files::
+
+     tx pull -l LANGUAGE_CODE
+
+   Replace ``LANGUAGE_CODE`` with your code, eg ``zh_CN``. Next, run the script::
+
+     python i18n/verify.py
+
+   This generates a report of broken translations in your language. This will not, however,
+   catch HTML tags that are out of order (ex. ``</b> <b>`` instead of ``<b> </b>``).
+
+
+We hope you find these sandboxes helpful. If you have any questions, comments, or
+concerns, please give us feedback by posting on the
+`openedx-translation <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openedx-translation>`_
+mailing list. We'd be happy to hear about any improvements you think we could make!