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URL Translation via the GDN

This article is for Account Owners and Project Managers using the Global Delivery Network.

The Smartling Global Delivery Network (GDN) allows you to capture and translate the URL paths that appear on your localized sites along with the rest of your website content. This feature is useful in cases where your website URLs directly reflect the information contained on your page. Translating these URL paths can enhance the end-user experience on your localized sites.

URL Translation happens outside any other content translation. For example, it will not be included in any Job Automation rules.

To translate your URLs without breaking any links on your site, the following steps need to be followed to deploy URL translations:

  1. Capture your URLs.
  2. Authorize URLs for translation.
  3. When translation is complete, switch over to the translated URLs.
  4. Filter unwanted URLs from translation.

Capture Your URLs

URLs are captured when navigated to the page and translated in the same manner as any other string from the GDN. To get started, do one of the following:

  • From your GDN project, go to the Settings tab > URL Translations to enable either automatic or manual URL translation capture.

Automatic

  1. Click on the "Enable capture of URL strings" checkbox.
  2. URLs will now be ingested as you or an automation tool browses your site.

Manual

  1. Click the blue "Add URL" button.
  2. In the dialog box, enter your URL and click "Add."

Authorize URLs for Translation

As URLs are captured or added, they will be displayed in the URL Translation pane. The default view displays your source URLs.

To authorize URLs for translation:

  1. Select a language from the "Select locale" drop-down menu.
  2. For each language, click on "Translate", or check multiple URLs and use the Actions > Request Translation option.
  3. URL strings will then be authorized into the default workflow for the language. The translation column will update to "Translation in Progress." for each requested URL.

 

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Switch over to Translated URLs

Once the translation is complete for your URLs, you can switch over to them as follows.

  1. Click the "Enable URL Translation functionality" checkbox.
  2. Select a language from the Select locale drop-down menu.
  3. In the Actions column, switch individual URLs to "ON," or check multiple URLs and click Actions > Enable URL.

Unchecking this box at any time will turn off all translated URLs. For a consistent launch, we recommend leaving this option unchecked until all URLs are translated.

Filter Unwanted URLs from Translation

Your website may include URLs you want to avoid translating, such as CSS or JavaScript resources. Leaving these URLs in the URL Translation menu won't affect functionality, but removing them can improve management of the URLs you do want to be translated. 

To filter out these unwanted URLs:

  1. Go to the Settings tab > URL Filters. 
  2. Click on "Add Filter." Filters are formatted as a Java Regular Expression inside capture groups denoted by parenthesis. For example, (.+\.js) will exclude any URLs ending in .js.
  3. Click "Add."

Filter rules only apply to future URL path capture. If you have already captured unwanted URL paths, you will need to clear them from your capture list manually (Content > URL Translation > Translations > Actions > Delete URL). Moving forward, paths matching your filter will not be re-captured.

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