For the dashboard, it will load translations from the system installation.
When I want to test translations, I do it through the flatpak, in order to do so:
tools/gen_flatpak_manifest.py --dir generates the flatpak manifest from the template file, it will need python toml and aiohttp packages. It generates files in the directory it is executed.
flatpak-builder --force-clean --user --install-deps-from=flathub --repo=repo --install builddir io.github.wivrn.wivrn.yml builds and install the flatpak.

You should also be able to enable "Actions" on your github fork, and this will include the flatpak build.

If you are using Arch or Gentoo, it is easy to modify the PKGBUILD/ebuild to install from your fork instead of the official repo.

There may be some Qt environment variable to use translations from the build directory, but I don't know how to do so.

@xytovl Thank you for detailed explanation!

There may be some Qt environment variable to use translations from the build directory

Tried searching for them, didn't find anything either.

I do it through the flatpak

I really wanted to do this, but got stuck with the following error (on flatpak-builder command):

Downloading sources
Fetching git repo https://github.com/crosstool-ng/crosstool-ng.git, ref refs/tags/crosstool-ng-1.27.0
remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 1 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (1/1), 685 bytes | 685.00 KiB/s, done.
git-lfs/3.7.0 (GitHub; linux amd64; go 1.24.5)
Running git lfs fetch
1 object found, done.
Fetching all references...
Fetching git repo https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync.git, ref refs/tags/v3.4.1
remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 1 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (1/1), 823 bytes | 823.00 KiB/s, done.
Running git lfs fetch
1 object found, done.
Fetching all references...
Failed to download sources: module toolchain: Can't find file at ct-ng-x86_64.config

Among other errors that preceded it, that I managed to fix, all from missing dependencies and configurations.

Ended up doing the simplest thing, putting the file where app expects it to be:

sudo ln -vs $(pwd)/build-dashboard/dashboard/share/locale/ru/LC_MESSAGES/wivrn-dashboard.mo /usr/share/locale/ru/LC_MESSAGES/

I actually kinda like how it just works now.
I'll play around with both apps and write back when I'm happy with the translation.

The flatpak issue seems to be that the command only works from the flatpak directory itself, it references files that are there.

Just a heads up, i'm going to add a new dashboard message shortly, to toggle system checks (firewall and cap_sys_nice)

The flatpak issue seems to be that the command only works from the flatpak directory itself, it references files that are there.

Ahh I see that makes sense.

Just a heads up, i'm going to add a new dashboard message

Thanks, I'll merge it when it becomes available.

The additional message was added, when you consider your translations ready, just post here and I'll merge.

And I see that I forgot to mention, thank you for your contribution!

Alright I think everything looks very good now, it's fine to merge.

Thank you for the translation, I have merged it.

When translations become out of date, CI will automatically raise an issue with "localisation" label, named "[ru] Missing translations".
The issue will automatically get closed and reopened depending on the status on master. I'll ping you the first time it happens so you can subscribe to the issue and be able to track it.