As I've blogged about this before, work on localize.drupal.org's improved functionality was going on heavily in the past weeks. We launched a staging site with interface improvements almost a month ago, and kept adding small improvements on top of that.

Given all the great feedback on the new user interface, it was time to finally launch it on the live site. Here is a rundown of the most important improvements.

Refreshed, simplified look

Given that we are rolling out new features and functionality not provided elsewhere on drupal.org, we need to look at patterns applied for similar things on the site family. However, it often turns out we are first of a kind. With things like the call for action ("Contribute") boxes around the localization server, drupal.org's theme does not have patterns to apply. Even for simple things like are 50-50% column layout, the boxed, rounded corner panes proved to be clumsy.

So since drupal.org is in a transitional period towards a redesign, I decided to take some cues from where we are going, and apply simplifications while keeping the color scheme and general framework of our current look. If you compare the previous and the current front page, hopefully you'll notice the new one is made much simpler, reduces visual noise and leads you to data / action more effectively.

Localize.drupal.org before the update

Localize.drupal.org after the update

Easier navigation

You can now directly jump to your group or groups from the "Contribute" block on the home page, join groups via the same block or register on the home page if you are not yet registered.

The group and translation pages are now unified with "/translate/languages/*" pages providing both content of the group page and summaries of status. No need to click around to find the group page and then wondering how to get back to translation. Group features like broadcasting to group members is integrated there.

The browse, translation and moderation page are now unified into one page, easing lookup and verification of suggestions (see more below).

Simpler filters, extended searches

When browsing or editing translations, the filters are now highly simplified. Only the most important filters show initially, and you can reveal more complex filters on request. If you did apply a filter before, all used filters are shown without further action.

Two new status filters are available: "is suggestion" and "is translation". To explain these, you need to be aware that the text and user filters now work on both suggestions and translations. So if you look for text submitted by "Joe", both suggestions and translations will be matched. If you look for text containing "operations", both suggestions and translations will be matched. If you'd like to limit the search to suggestions only (as it was before on the moderation page), you can choose "is suggestion". Respectively for "is translation" (which was the previous behavior of the translation page).

Revamped editing controls

This is the single biggest change we rolled out, and we hope for it to really transform your experience working with the localization server. The new editing controls show all existing suggestions by source strings. The current translation is marked with an active radio button. Moderators can pick the active translation by moving the radio button.

Members of groups can suggest new strings, and while you type, a live diff will show the changes of your suggestion to existing ones (if any). You can also compare any suggestion to the current translation. Moderators can also decline strings right away (which can be undone until the form is submitted).

Please read the details with screenshots in the announcement post: Come and test drive the latest user interface improvements for localize.drupal.org. Once again, special thanks to Konstantin Kaefer for contributing this improvement.

More to come

Work on filters, simplifying the navigation even more, tools to track activity in different teams, exporting translations as .po files for l10n_update module are all ongoing. We hope you found the improvements rolled out as exciting as we did, and keep working with us on more improvements for the localization server.