Source projects & linked targets

When several teams translate the same source text into different languages, Aquilla has two ways to organize that work. Which one you want depends on what “the same source” means for you.

The common case: one project, many target languages

If every team is translating the same original source text (say, one Greek New Testament translated into five languages), the recommended shape is a single project with more than one target language. The first target language you set is the project’s default lane; add more in Settings → General → Languages and each becomes its own lane. Every lane shares the same source text, so there’s nothing to keep in sync: it’s the same project.

See Creating a project for setting this up, and Files, cells & navigation for how lanes work day to day.

The chain case: source projects & linked targets

Sometimes a team isn’t translating the original source: they’re translating someone else’s translation. For example, a regional-language team working from a national-language translation rather than from the original text. That’s a translation chain, and it’s what source projects and linked targets are for.

• A source project holds text that another project imports as its source.
• A linked target is a translation project that imports its source text from another project. You can link many target projects to one upstream project.

This keeps a chain in sync: the upstream text is maintained in one place, and every linked project draws from it.

When the upstream text changes

Upstream text can be corrected or revised. When the text behind a cell changes, Aquilla puts a stale-source marker on the matching cell in each linked target project.

The marker is a gentle “please look at this” signal: it tells the translator that the source they translated from has moved, so the existing translation may need a second look. It doesn’t change or discard your work: you decide whether an update is needed.

Tip

A stale-source marker is about the source changing underneath you. It’s different from a decay marker, which is about whether a cell’s neighbourhood has been validated. Both are attention signals, not errors.

Linking a project to a source

You can link to a source project when you create the project: choose Linked target as the shape, pick the upstream project, and choose its translations as what becomes this project’s source: that’s the chain case. (If you’re adding a sibling language for the same source instead, Aquilla will suggest adding a target lane on the existing project rather than linking a second one.) Once linked, the source text appears in the target project ready for translation, and stale-source markers begin flowing whenever the upstream source is updated.

Importing a Door43 (DCS) resource as your source

A project’s source can also come straight from Door43: the door43.org Content Service (DCS) that hosts published Bible translation resources such as unfoldingWord’s texts. Linking a Door43 resource works like the chain case above: the project’s source lane mirrors the resource and stays pinned to the release you imported, so it only moves when you choose to pull an update.

Importing from Door43

From the Import dialog, choose Door43 (DCS) (marked beta), described as “Import any released Door43 resource as source and pin it to a release — pull upstream changes later.” It opens a catalog browser you can filter by:

• Language
• Owner: for example unfoldingWord, Door43-Catalog, STR, or a free-text owner name
• Subject: Aligned Bible, Bible, Greek/Hebrew testaments, Open Bible Stories, TSV Translation Notes/Questions, Translation Words, Translation Academy
• Stage: Released (prod) (the default), Pre-release, or Latest (HEAD)

Bibles (USFM), Open Bible Stories, and Translation/Study Notes and Questions import today. Types Aquilla can’t import yet, such as Translation Words (+Links), Translation Academy, and grammars, show greyed out with a Not yet supported badge.

Browsing the Door43 catalog: filter to a resource, and importing pins your project to its release.

Confirming an import pins the project to that release: “Pinned to release {ref}.” Pinning needs maintainer rights on the project; without them, the import still completes but you’ll see “Imported, but couldn’t pin the release — you may lack maintainer rights on this project.”

Working with a Door43-linked source

A Door43-linked project shows a badge in the workspace header, owner/repo @ ref (for example unfoldingWord/en_ult @ v89), that explains where the source came from and when it was imported, and opens Project Settings when clicked.

Because the link manages the source cells, source editing is locked for every role on a Door43-linked project. Where the source-edit control would normally be, a lock icon explains why: “Source is synced from Door43 — a maintainer can detach it in Project Settings.”

Managing the link: Project Settings → Door43 upstream

Every project member can see the Door43 upstream panel in Project Settings; its actions need Maintainer or above (members below that see “Maintainer or above required to import upstream changes.”):

• Check for updates: looks for a newer upstream release and imports the changes if you choose to pull it.
• Re-sync content: a repair tool, not a release update: “Scans the source at the pinned version for cells that were imported incorrectly. Nothing is changed until you confirm.” It’s scan-then-confirm: scanning is read-only and reports either “Everything already matches the pinned source.” or “Scan complete: {N} to repair, {M} new, {K} to remove.” Reviewing the scan and clicking Apply re-sync applies it; cells the scan wants to remove will hide their translations, so you’re asked to acknowledge that first. The pinned release itself doesn’t move: this is for fixing an import (say, after an upstream parser fix), not pulling new content.
• Detach from upstream: permanently unlinks the project from {owner}/{repo} and makes its source cells editable again. This can’t be undone: the project stops receiving updates, and relinking to Door43 later means a fresh import, not resuming where you left off.