Adds blog post about translation

_posts/2021-11-22-translation.md

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+---
+author: oliver
+title: Translating InvenTree
+---
+
+How we provide translation support for InvenTree in multiple languages
+
+### Community Contributed Translations
+
+At the time of writing, InvenTree provides language translations for 25 languages (in addition to English), with over 11,000 translated words! This is thanks to the sustained efforts of 130+ InvenTree users.
+
+Translation progress can be viewed on our [Crowdin project page](https://crowdin.com/project/inventree). Here you can view the progess of the translation efforts:
+
+![Translations](/assets/blog/2022-11-22-translation.png)
+
+### Translation Pipeline
+
+As translations are entirely community contributed, we need a software framework that allows non-technical users to submit and proofread translations, and a way to bring those translations back into the InvenTree software.
+
+#### Backend - Django
+
+At its core, InvenTree is built on the [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/) framework, which provides a [translation framweork](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/i18n/translation/) "out of the box". 
+
+The Django translation framework provides a toolkit for marking certain text strings as "translatable". Translation strings are able to be replaced by a translated string from a language specified by the user - *if a translation for the text is available in that language*.
+
+There are many files within the InvenTree project which can provide these translation strings:
+
+- Python source files
+- Javascript source files
+- HTML template files
+
+Additionally, translation support is provided for the [InvenTree Mobile App](/extend/app.md)!
+
+#### Exporting Translations - GitHub
+
+On every commit to the InvenTree main branch, the source code is analyzed to discover and extract translation strings. This information is then pushed to a separate code branch, which is monitored by the [translation service](#community-translation---crowdin)
+
+#### Community Translation - Crowdin
+
+The crucial piece of the puzzle is the integration with [Crowdin](https://crowdin.com/) - an online translation service which provides community contributed translation, and supports open source projects.
+
+Crowdin monitors the [InvenTree GitHub repository](https://github.com/inventree/inventree) for any changes to translation files, and provides a user interface for translators to suggest appropriate translated strings.
+
+Suggested translations are then approved (again, by the InvenTree user community), and periodically pushed back to the InvenTree GitHub repo.
+
+#### Merging Translations - GitHub
+
+Updated translated strings are periodically merged back into the main code branch, keeping the InvenTree code base up to date.
+
+### Contributing
+
+The translation framework is provided by the InvenTree team to make our software more useful and appealing to a greater number of people. The entire translation effort is driven by the InvenTree community. Any contributions, no matter how large or small, are greatly encouraged!
+
+If you would like to see improved translations in a particular language, read the [contribution guide](/contribute.md#translate)! The InvenTree project benefits greatly from your efforts, and you get a great piece of open source software in your native language.
+
+#### Adding New Languages
+
+If you would like to see support for a new language, [raise an issue on our GitHub page](https://github.com/inventree/InvenTree/issues/new?assignees=&labels=enhancement%2Ctriage%3Anot-checked&template=feature_request.yaml&title=%5BFR%5D+title).