The Smartling App for Contentstack allows you and your team to seamlessly submit entry content for translation. This allows your content writers to continue to create new content in Contentstack, and instantly submit it to Smartling for translation, without ever leaving Contentstack.
The Smartling Widget also allows you to track each language's translation progress from within Contentstack. Completed translations can be easily viewed and published from the Contentstack languages switcher.
Prerequisites
You must have a connected Contentstack Connector project in Smartling
Ensure the Contentstack Connector is connected to the correct stack in Contentstack.
The Contentstack Connector project requires authentication to a specific stack in Contentstack. This is the stack that the Smartling App is integrated with. You can find the Smartling App in the widget page of that stack.
A Contentstack Admin user must install the Smartling widget in Contentstack
An Account Manager or Project Manager Smartling user must connect the Smartling App to the correct Smartling project
Installation
The following steps must be completed by a Contentstack Admin user:
The Smartling App can be found in the Contentstack Marketplace. Search Smartling in the Apps and click install.
Next, you need to choose the same stack that is already integrated with Smartling to install the widget, and accept the T&C's before clicking Install.
Once installed, you must click Save (on the bottom-right side of the page).
A green notifier will appear once this has been successfully installed.
Next, let's find the Smartling App in your widgets, and connect the Smartling App to your Contentstack Connector project in Smartling.
Connect the Smartling App to Smartling
The following steps must be completed by a Smartling Account Owner or Project Manager user:
Go to the stack you selected to install the Smartling App to
On the left navigation, click Entries
Click on any entry you want to translate
On the right navigation, click Widgets
From your installed app list, select the Smartling App
If it's your first time using the Smartling App, you will need to connect to your Contentstack Connector project in Smartling, by clicking configuration page
This will open a new tab in your browser where you can log into Smartling using your Smartling credentials. Once logged in, you will see the following page:
Simply close this tab and return to Contentstack, where you must choose which Smartling project to submit content to. Ensure this project is a live Contentstack Connector project, with correct language mapping
Once you have selected a project from the dropdown, click Save
Now you're ready to translate entries from Contentstack.
Submit Content for Translation
There are two options available when requesting content for translation:
Translate Entry: Sends only the current entry for translation. You can choose to also include related assets up to one level deep.
Translate Release: To request translation for an entry and all its related assets beyond one level deep, you must use Contentstack’s Releases feature. Due to limitations in the Contentstack API, this is the only available method for including a larger number of related assets in a translation request. You can add all top-level assets to a release and then request translation for the entire release, including all references. This ensures that the entries and their references (e.g., subpages and components) are included in a single translation request.
Either method can be used by any Contentstack user with access to the relevant stack.
Translate entry
Follow these steps to request a single entry for translation:
Go to the stack where the Smartling App is installed.
Navigate to the entry you want to translate.
In the right-hand navigation, click Apps.
From your list of installed apps, select Smartling.
Click Translate Entry.
The Request Translation two-step wizard will appear for you to enter the job details. Choose to create a New Job or add the entry to an Existing Job. If creating a new job, please enter a name for the job.
(Optional) Select Include Related Assets, to include related assets up to one level deep.
(Optional) Insert a description for the linguists, if desired.
Select the Target Languages.
Click Save Job and Continue to create the job in Smartling.
The next step will display the job processing.
You can then choose to authorize the job directly in Contentstack, or save it for later and authorize it from within Smartling.
Translate release
If your data model includes related assets, meaning if your top-level entries references many other entries, you can request content in bulk using Contentstack’s Releases. This allows you to create a temporary release that includes all relevant pages, subpages, and components, and then submit the entire release for translation in a single request.
Optionally, the connector can delete the release after it has been requested for translation.
Follow the steps below to request a release:
Prefer to see it in action? Watch a video walkthrough on translating a release here.
Go to the stack where the Smartling App is installed.
Navigate to your list of entries, and select all the top-level entries you want to translate. Then select Add to Release.
Create a new release or add the content to an existing one. In most cases, it makes sense to create a new release specifically for submitting content for translation in bulk. Under Select Language(s) ensure the correct source language is selected, then click Add with References.
Please note that for entries with nested references, nested references up to a depth of five levels will be included in the release.
In the right-hand navigation, click Apps.
From your list of installed apps, select Smartling.
Select Translate Release.
The Request Translation two-step wizard will appear for you to enter the job details. Choose to create a New Job or add the entry to an Existing Job. If creating a new job, please enter a name for the job.
Select the release from the dropdown menu. It will show how many items are in the release.
(Optional) Select the checkmark Delete release after requesting. This means the release will be automatically deleted after the content is requested for translation.
(Optional) Insert a description for the linguists, if desired.
Select the Target Languages.
Click Save Job and Continue to create the job in Smartling.
The next step will display the job processing.
You can then choose to authorize the job directly in Contentstack, or save it for later and authorize it from within Smartling.
Authorizing jobs
Jobs need to be authorized to kick off the translation process. You can authorize them in one of two ways:
Authorize a job in Contentstack
When creating a job, you can either save it for later, or authorize it directly from within Contentstack:
Before authorizing the job, we recommend specifying the Overall Due Date, which is the deadline for the job completion.
Select the date and time when the job should be completed.
Unless otherwise specified, the job will be authorized into the default workflow for each target language, as defined in Settings > Languages in your Smartling project. To use a different workflow, select it from the drop-down menu.
For a more granular view of the workflow for each target language in your job, click Show Details.
You can now select the desired workflow for each target language.
To start the translation process straight away, click "Authorize Job".
Once a job has been authorized, you can monitor the translation progress for each language directly from the Smartling App in Contentstack.
Authorize a job in Smartling
If a job is saved for later, it can be authorized at a later point from the Smartling dashboard.
Once your content has been submitted to Smartling, an Account Owner or Project Manager user can find the job in Awaiting Authorization in their Jobs Dashboard.
To start the translation process, click Authorize.
Select the desired workflow and confirm.
Monitor translation progress from Contentstack
The following steps can be completed by any Contentstack user who has access to the specific stack:
Once authorized, you can monitor the translation progress for each language in the job, directly from the Smartling App in Contentstack.
If you want to add another language to the job for that entry, simply click Request Translation and add the content to the existing job.
Once translations are complete, the Smartling Status will indicate a green COMPLETED.
Locking completed translations
Once the translations for a target language have been completed, they can be locked to prevent this language from receiving subsequent translation updates.
This feature can be used if the translations for a given language are adapted to an alternative version that does not need to stay in sync with the original source language. This allows you to significantly modify the locked language without risking to lose those customizations with subsequent translation updates of the source asset.
Tip: To use the "Lock language" setting, the translations for the relevant target language need to be published and delivered back to Contentstack.
Please note that unlocking a language does not initiate an immediate re-delivery. It simply unblocks any future deliveries for this language.
View and publish translations in Contentstack
The following steps can be completed by any Contentstack user who has access to the specific stack:
To view the translated entry, click the language dropdown and select a language
Choose to Publish this translated entry in Contentstack when it's ready
Unpublish translations in Contentstack
The following steps can be completed by any Contentstack user who has access to the specific stack:
Unlocalizing the entry will prevent the translations being applied to the entry, and revert the copy to the source language. To undo this action, simply click Save and the entry will localize in the target language. unpublish trans