Once your localized domains have been created and configured in your GDN project, you’re ready to translate content. The following outlines steps to translating your website with the GDN, including automation options.
Step One: Capture Content
To send your web content to Smartling for translation, the content must be captured by the GDN. To capture the content, each page of one of your localized domains must be browsed. If your localized domains are already configured and live, simply navigate to your localized pages to capture content. If the localized site is not yet live, you can still browse the pages through Smartling, by following the steps below.
If your website supports multiple languages, you only need to visit one localized page to capture its content, not all pages for all languages. Each time your website content is updated, it will need to be browsed to capture the new content. For a live site, this usually happens automatically as a result of users browsing the site. It's also possible to configure an automated crawl of your site with the GDN Crawler.
Note: Unless you have enabled automatic machine translation on your GDN configuration, your web content will display in its source language until it has been translated.
Viewing Captured Content
Most website content is captured automatically when the localized site is browsed, by default. However, some website content, such as JSON or JavaScript strings, requires additional configuration to capture and send it for translation. Smartling Professional Services can assist you in advanced configuration to ensure all content is captured for translation as intended. You can test to see what content will be ingested for translation by using pseudo translation.
Pseudo translation is the simulation of translations using modified characters, which allows you to view the resemblance of the translated content. Any text that is captured in pseudo will be captured for translation. The text expansion or reduction with pseudo translation identifies the impact of translated text on your website's structure or design, allowing you to assess possible UI changes, if any, before the localized domain goes live.
Pseudo is also useful to highlight what content will not be ingested for translation. Content that is not displayed in pseudo requires additional advanced configuration to capture and send it to Smartling for translation. Smartling Professional Services can help implement configurations to capture this content for translation.
How to Capture Content
Once your domains are configured in Smartling by your Smartling Solution Architect, you can begin to capture content for translation. Your Solutions Architect may have already run a crawl of the website to capture all the content during implementation. But if not, or if you have new or changed content, you can use the steps below to capture and send it for translation.
To view and capture the translatable content of your website in Smartling:
- From your GDN project, click the Settings tab
- On the left-hand menu, click Domains
- Click the tile of the domain with content you want to translate
- If this is the first time you are capturing your website, click the > icon on the source domain
- Click Capture Content
- The translatable content on the page is displayed with pseudo translation marks
- Anything not displayed in pseudo will not be sent to Smartling for translation without advance configuration
- If you are recapturing your updated website, click the > icon on any localized domain
- Click Capture Content
- The newly captured content on the page is displayed in the source language
- Anything not displayed in the source will not be sent to Smartling for translation without advance configuration
- Browse through every page of your site to capture content
- Ensure to visit every page as if you were your own end user browsing through your website
- Click any dropdown menus, popups, forms etc.c to capture the content of your website's entire experience
Once the content is captured, it can be found awaiting authorization in your GDN project. Strings must be authorized for translation within 14 days for them to remain within Smartling. If it has been more than 14 days, you will need to re-browse the page to re-capture the content.
Step Two: Create a translation Job
Captured content can be found in your GDN project in Smartling, awaiting authorization. To translate your captured web content, you must bundle the strings up into a Job. Jobs allow you to manage the translation process of your content as it is translated in a workflow.
Tip: You can automate Job creation and authorization with Job Automation Rules. However, if you want control on a granular-level, follow the steps below.
How to create a translation Job
To manually create a translation Job for your captured web content:
- From your GDN project, click the Strings tab
- This opens the Strings View where you can view, manage and action captured web content on a string-level
- Locate the strings you want to translate:
- Without applying any filters, the strings view displays all captured strings individually for all your target languages.
- To only view the source strings, select the Show source language only checkbox
- To find captured strings that have not yet been translated, change the Status filter to Awaiting Authorization. This is known as your "Auth Queue"
- If you want to locate strings on a specific page, use the URL filter to locate strings that were captured on that page
- Strings are associated with the URL they were captured from first. If you cannot find a string on a specific page, it is likely because the same string was already captured and translated on a different URL first. For more information, read about Creating Unique Strings with Namespaces in the GDN.
- Select the strings you want to translate
- If you want to select all strings, select the first checkbox (to the left of Source String) and select all matching current filter
- Click Actions > Request Translation
- Give your Job a name, due date and select the target languages you want to translate into
- A success message will appear at the bottom of the screen confirming the number of strings that have been added to the Job
Step Three: Authorize translation
Translation Jobs can be found in the Jobs tab of your GDN project. This is known as the Jobs Dashboard, and gives you an overview of all Jobs in the project. To manage a Job, click the Job name to enter the Job Details. Here you can view the progress of each language, as well as get a cost estimate for the job.
Translation will not commence until an Account Owner or Project Manager user authorizes it for translation. This is a confirmation of your approval of the translation costs. Only when the Job is authorized will the strings be sent to your translation provider for translation.
How to authorize translation
- From your GDN project, click the Jobs tab
- Locate the Job
- Input the Job name in the Job filter
- Change the Job Status filter to Awaiting Authorization
- To check that everything is as it should be, click the Job name to enter the Job
- Are the target languages correct?
- To add another language to the Job, click Add Language
- To remove a language from the Job, click the ellipsis button under Actions > Remove
- Is the due date correct?
- To adjust the overall due date, click the date and choose another date and time for translation delivery
- Some dates may be auto-calculated by Due Date Profiles
- Are the estimates as expected?
- View the word, weighted word and character counts
- If you added or removed content from the Job, click Refresh to get an updated estimate
- To view and download a detailed estimate by language, click View Estimate Details > Download CSV
- Will translators see your website as visual context?
- Check the percentage of context coverage
- To upload visual context to the Job, click Upload Context
- Do you need to upload an attachment for translators?
- Job attachments allow you to upload additional files related to the Job for translators to easily view and download
- Do you want to provide additional information about the Job?
- Add a reference number, job description or any custom field information
- Do you need to check the strings that will be translated in the Job?
- Click View Strings to open the Strings View, filtered for strings in the Job
- Are the target languages correct?
- When everything is as it should be, click Authorize
- An overview of costs and delivery estimates appear
- Select the workflow you want the strings translated in
- To choose a workflow for all languages in the Job, click the dropdown under Workflow
- To choose a specific workflow for each language in the Job, click Show details and choose a workflow from the dropdown on the right-hand side for each language
- When you’re ready to initiate translation, click Confirm
Translation
When a Job is authorized for translation, the translation of your web content is in progress. The content is parsed into smaller translatable units, called strings. The strings enter a workflow and can then be accessed and translated by your translation provider. Translation providers can be human (LSP / Translation Agency / Freelancer) or machine (MT provider).
Tip: For more information on translation workflow options, read our documentation on Translation Options.
The workflow can be configured to pre-publish any saved translations so that end users can view the translated site if they browse your website before the translations are published in Smartling.
Tip: For more information about workflow configurations, read our documentation on configuring workflow steps.
While your translations are in progress, your website remains in its source language, (unless you've prepublished the translations). We recommend turning on automatic machine translation to instantly machine translate your website, so your end users can experience a translated version of your website while your content goes through the workflow. Once your translations reach the published step, they overwrite the machine translations on your website.
Translation Delivery
Once a string is published or prepublished for a language, the translation is automatically displayed on the localized page. Navigate through a localized domain to view your translated website.
Updating Your Website
If you update the source content of your website, the same steps apply - updated pages must be browsed to capture and send the new strings to Smartling for translation. Only new or modified content is captured for translation. Failing to capture new content as soon as it is live on your website will result in untranslated content on your localized domains.
If you are planning to update your website’s structure, we recommend consulting Smartling Professional Services to update your GDN configuration.
Tip: For more information, read our documentation on Maintaining your Translated Website.
Updating Translations
If you notice a translation on your website that should be updated, you can do so in Smartling. Once updated in Smartling, it will then be displayed immediately on the localized site. For more information, see Options for Editing Translations.
Note: If the updated translation is not displayed automatically, this could be due to caching. If you do not have Static Cache enabled, reach out to your web operations team about possible changes made to your website.
Custom Configurations
Websites come in many shapes and sizes, with a variety of elements that make the experience unique. If a string appears untranslated, it could be because it was never captured. Untranslated content may require a custom configuration.
The GDN offers a range of customization configurations, including:
- Patterns: to placeholderize variable content that should not be translated
- Swaps: to replace content blocks or images with locale-specific alternatives.
- Rules: to prevent content from being captured, translated, localized or displayed entirely
Advance Customization
The GDN also offers developer tools for advance configuration, including:
- Advance rules: to control how the GDN handles content
- Rewrites: to alter the contents of a file or page, either before or after it has been parsed by the GDN
Tip: Consult Smartling Professional Services for guidance on advance configuration.