Depending on the content of your site, there may be areas that display confidential information such as credit card details, or personal information. The Smartling Whiteout class (sl_whiteout) allows you to prevent the capture of sensitive date by the Global Delivery Network (GDN) and the display to linguists working with in the Smartling dashboard. You will still be able to display this content to end-users visiting your translated site.
Content within the Whiteout class is not stored anywhere in Smartling’s infrastructure.
Applying "sl_whiteout" to your site
If your site contains sensitive data, you can add the "sl_whiteout" class to your source code to ensure this data is handled properly.
In the following code:
Translators will see the following context when working in Smartling:
However, if you add the "sl_whiteout" class to your code:
Translators will see the obscured content inside the whiteout class instead, and it will not appear on the string they are working on:
Understanding notranslate vs. sl_whiteout
You can exclude content from translation in the GDN by applying a notranslate class to HTML elements on your site. This prevents the capture and translation of specific content like product names, numbers, or proper nouns. See Exclude Content from Translation with the GDN.
When you apply the notranslate class:
✅ The text will be "placeholderized" in the Smartling dashboard, meaning it will appear grayed out and will not be translated.
❌ The text is NOT masked in the visual context uploaded to Smartling.
When you apply the sl_whiteout class:
✅ Masks the text in the visual context.
❌ Does NOT mask or "placeholderize" the text in the Smartling dashboard.
Using both classes together
✅ The string will be masked and "placeholderized" in the Smartling dashboard and masked in the visual context.