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Add Your Domains to the Global Delivery Network

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

There are 4 steps required to set up a website to use the Global Delivery Network (GDN):

Add Your Source Domain to Smartling

Your source domain is the environment on which your translated sites will be based. To set up a source domain:

  1. Set up a Global Delivery Network Project, or access an existing GDN project in your account where you want to add a new website to be translated.
  2. From your GDN project, click the Settings tab > Domains. 
  3. Click the blue + button next to Domains.
  4. In the Add Domain prompt, enter the following:
    1. Domain: The domain that will be referenced to capture content for translation.
    2. Label: A display name for the environment (optional).
    3. Type: The type of environment (optional).
    4. Content Delivery Network Usage: Specify whether or not you use a CDN in front of Smartling. If you are unsure, check with your Network Operations team.
    5. Click Finish to add the domain.

A new blue globe icon will appear on your domains page. You may see an "Updating Configuration" message below your new domain while your configuration is loading.

In addition to production, we recommend that you also add staging or development domains to  capture new source content for translation before it reaches your production site, as well as for testing purposes.

Configure Your Translated Sites

Once your source domain is added, Smartling generates temporary translated domains that can be used to begin to capture and translate content. These temporary domains can be accessed by clicking on the globe icon on your domains page, then clicking on any translated subdomain that appears.

Before you launch your translated sites, you will have to complete the translated site setup below for translations to be served to your users:

  1. From your GDN project, click the Settings tab > Domains. 
  2. Click the globe icon for the source domain that requires translated site configuration.
  3. Click the > arrow next to a translated domain (subdomains are set up by default).
  4. Click Edit localized domain from the menu:
    Screen_Shot_2017-12-19_at_9.30.28_AM.png
  5. In the Edit Domain prompt, choose your settings:
    1. Select your Domain Setup Type.
    2. Enter your localized domain.
      1. Subdomain, TLD/ccTLD: Enter your subdomain or TLD for relevant language (i.e. es.yourcompany.com or www.yourcompany.es).
      2. HTTP Header Value: Enter your localized domain and the Locale Header Name that Smartling should use to determine which language to serve to a site visitor.
      3. Cookie Value: Enter your localized domain and the Locale Cookie Name that Smartling should use to determine which language to serve to a site visitor.
      4. Folder: Enter your localized domain (typically the same value as your source domain). Then enter the Localized folder value. This is the folder value Smartling will write into the URLs requested by users in this language. If Smartling should reference a specific folder to capture source content for this language, you can specify a source folder (optional).
    3. Protected (optional): Site protection will prompt visitors for a Smartling login if they navigate to your translated domain, preventing public access and bots from indexing your site. Uncheck the Protected checkbox to make your site publicly accessible.
    4. Localized Regex (optional): Any address that matches the regular expression provided will be translated through the Smartling proxy. For example: es(.*).mydomain.com will match `es-es.mydomain.com, and es-mx.mydomain.com.
    5. CNAME: This field is not editable, contact Smartling if the value is incorrect. Learn about your Smartling CNAME here.
    6. Alternate Endpoint (optional): Use this field to specify an alternate origin IP. For example, if you enter an IP of 88.88.88.88 and your source domain configuration is www.yourcompany.com, Smartling will point all requests for source content to that IP with a Host header of www.yourcompany.com. Learn more about Alternate Endpoints here.
    7. X-Language-Locale: Smartling sends an HTTP header with the locale code for the language a user is requesting, with every request sent to the server hosting your source site. Smartling locale code format is used by default, but can be customized to map it to your application’s method of indicating the language. For example, if you need Portuguese for Brazil, use the code pr-BR instead of the Smartling default pt-BR.
    8. DNS Verified: Click this button once you are ready to verify your connection. If you are using Smartling generated temporary domains to capture and translate content, do not verify the domain.
    9. Content Delivery Network: Is a Content Delivery Network used in front of Smartling. If you are unsure, contact your CDN administrator.
  6. Click Save to confirm your translated domain setup.

You will need to complete this process for each language enabled in your GDN Project.

Domain Setup Types

  • Subdomains: Subdivision of a domain, such as fr.yourcompany.com. This setup type requires you to point the DNS record of your subdomain to your Smartling CNAME to serve translations.
  • TLD/ccTLD: Top Level Domain or Country Top Level Domain. Highest domain level such as www.yourcompany.fr. This setup type requires you to point the DNS record of your TLD/ccTLD to your Smartling CNAME to serve translations.
  • HTTP Header Value: Smartling will look for a header value in order to determine which language to serve to a user. This setup type requires that your source server returns an HTTP header containing the locale that should be served. (Translated content is invisible to search engines with this setup type.)
  • Cookie Value: Smartling will look for a cookie value in order to determine which language to serve to a user. This setup type requires that your source server returns an cookie containing the locale that should be served. (Translated content is invisible to search engines with this setup type.)
  • Folder: Smartling will look for a folder value in order to determine which language to serve to a user. This setup type requires that you have a Content Delivery Network (CDN), web server or other networking appliance with proxy capabilities. Be aware that configuration can be very complex and setup can take longer than other solutions. We recommend that you consult your Network Operations team or CDN provider if you are considering this setup type.

Consult our domain strategy guide for a comparison of options to serve translated content using the Global Delivery Network.

Point Your Localized Sites or Traffic to Smartling

Reference our Global Delivery Network documentation for guidance on pointing your localized sites to Smartling, based on your Domain Setup Type.

Smartling CNAME

Your Smartling CNAME is a unique record in Smartling infrastructure, and typically follows the format of [yourcompany].sl.smartling.com. Each time a new source domain is set up in Smartling to use the GDN, we may need to issue you a new Smartling CNAME. Contact your Customer Success Manager if you are considering setting up a new source domain.

If you ping a Smartling CNAME you will not get a response.

Verify Your Connection

Once you have completed all setup steps above, you can verify your connection for a translated site. To do this:

  1. From your GDN project, click the Settings tab > Domains. 
  2. Click the globe icon for the source domain that requires translated site configuration.
  3. Click the > arrow next to a translated domain (subdomains are set up by default).
  4. Click Edit Localized Domain from the menu.
  5. Click Verify DNS (Do not click this button if you are using Smartling generated temporary localized domains. This will cause them to stop functioning.)

Your localized domain should turn from white text to blue text in your domains tab.

If your site does not verify, or you get a "Domain Not Configured" message when you visit your localized domains, see our section on Troubleshooting & Debugging for advanced troubleshooting.

SSL

If your source website has a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate and uses the HTTPS protocol, you may need to obtain and maintain an SSL certificate which covers your language domains. You can learn more about SSL certificate requirements here.

To install SSL certificates for your localized sites, contact Smartling Support.

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