Please note that this Connector is a paid product. For pricing information, please reach out to your Smartling Customer Success Manager.
The Zendesk Connector integrates with your Zendesk Suite to translate Zendesk Guide content and Zendesk Support dynamic content.
It is important to ensure that languages selected in the Zendesk Help Center languages configuration are the same as the languages selected in Zendesk Support.
To link your Zendesk Account to Smartling, complete all sections below.
Prerequisite
- You must be a Zendesk Admin user and a Smartling Account Owner or Project Manager user to install and set up the Zendesk Connector.
- It is essential to set up both the Guide Languages and the Support Languages below for the Smartling Zendesk Connector to operate. If only one of those Languages configuration is enabled in your Zendesk instance, the languages will not be accessible in the Zendesk Connector Language mapping settings in Smartling. Continue reading to find out how to set up languages in Zendesk
Set up Languages in Zendesk
Guide
From within your Zendesk Admin:
The Help Center languages need to be enabled for translations to be publicly accessible. See our Tips for launching your translated Help Center.
Next, set up languages in Support.
Support
Translating Dynamic Content requires your Zendesk Support product to be configured with languages. We recommend enabling languages in both Support and Guide and keeping them in sync.
While logged in to your Zendesk Support dashboard.
- Click on Admin then select Settings > Account > Appearance > Localization
- In the Languages section, click on Additional Languages
Zendesk's supported languages may not align with Smartling language codes. See how to map Zendesk languages to the languages in your Smartling project.
Create a Zendesk Connector Project in Smartling
- Follow steps to creating a Connector project
- Ensure the linguistic package includes the same source and target languages as your Zendesk instance.
- By default, the source locale in Zendesk Guide is en-US.
- A Smartling Project can have only one source language, meaning the Zendesk Connector can integrate with only one source site. If you have multiple source sites, you need to create a Zendesk Connector project in Smartling to connect with each source site.
- Confirm your Zendesk source language with your Solutions Architect.
For more information, read Zendesk Language Configuration.
Connecting Zendesk to Smartling
- From within your Zendesk Connector project, click on the gear icon > Project Settings > Zendesk Settings
- Click Connect to Zendesk
- Enter your Zendesk subdomain
- Your subdomain can be found on your Zendesk instance homepage, http://[this-is-your-subdomain].zendesk.com
- For example, if your Zendesk homepage is smartling.zendesk.com, your subdomain is 'smartling'.
- Click Connect to Zendesk to save your subdomain or cancel to exit the menu.
- Click Allow to authorize the Smartling Zendesk Connector
Your Zendesk instance will now be connected to your Smartling project.
Zendesk Connector Configuration
General
You can configure the behavior of the connector when content in your source articles change.
- From within your Smartling Zendesk Project, click on Project Settings > Zendesk Settings
- Click the Automation of Prior Request for Translation dropdown to select your desired behavior.
- Configure publishing options for delivered translations in Zendesk
- To apply changes, click Save
Automation of Prior Request for Translation
- Automatically request translation (Auto): The Zendesk Connector will detect changes to source content every 3 hours. Any changes detected to the source content will be submitted to Smartling for translation, batched into a Job and sit in awaiting authorization. However, if auto-authorize is enabled under Smartling Settings, the updated content will be batched into a Job and automatically authorized for translation. Smartling will not detect net new content, only updates to content that have been submitted for translation in the past.
- Flag changed content (Manual): The Zendesk Connector will detect changes to source content every 3 hours, but will not submit new content for translation. Changed content will be indicated by a checkmark in the Outdated column in the Zendesk Asset List.
- Disabled: The Zendesk Connector will not detect changes to source content or automatically submit new changes.
3 hours is the recommended shortest time duration between checks. Talk to your Solutions Architect about changing the frequency to longer wave periods using cron.
We recommend that you do not combine Jobs Automation rules with automation of prior requests for translation settings, as doing so may result in unexpected behavior.
Language Configuration
Precise language mapping between Zendesk and Smartling is essential to ensuring the Zendesk Connector is set up correctly and your content is passed from Zendesk to Smartling for translation. It is also essential to ensuring your content is translated in the correct languages and translation are returned to the correct target sites. Please take extra care in completing the following steps:
- From within your Smartling Zendesk Project, click on Project Settings > Zendesk Settings
- In the Language Configuration section, you will see the number of target languages in your Smartling project, along with the source language in your Smartling project.
- Confirm your Zendesk source language with your Solutions Architect. Choose this source language from the Source Language (Zendesk) dropdown. This should exactly match with what is listed under Source Language (Smartling).
- Do not modify the source locale. Changes will break the integration.
- If you need to change the source locale mapping, reach out to your Solutions Architect.
- Choose the correct target language from the dropdown menu to map the language in your Zendesk language configuration to your Smartling project target language
- Click Save
You cannot map a Smartling language to more than one Zendesk language. Ensure both Zendesk Guide and Zendesk Support dynamic content languages are unified before mapping to Smartling.
Smartling Settings
Talk to your Customer Success Manager or Solutions Architect about options on auto-authorization and translation retrieval.
Launching a Translated Help Center
See Zendesk’s Documentation for Supporting multiple languages in Help Center.
Learn how to hide your Help Center in our Zendesk Developer Guide.
Ready to translate Zendesk Content? Learn how in our Zendesk translation guide