This article guides you through the improved GDN Domain Management experience.

Prerequisite

1. Set up a Global Delivery Network Project with your Customer Success Manager.
2. Consult your Solutions Architect about the best domain configuration for your site.

Access Domain Management

To access domain management:

1. In Smartling, go to Account Settings > GDN Hub
   • You can access Domain Management and GDN Crawler settings for any project. There is also a link to take you directly to GDN documentation.
2. Click Manage Domains
   • You are now at your domains list page
   • Select your desired GDN project from the filter drop-down on the left bar

Add a Source Domain to Smartling

To set up a source domain:

3. Go to Account Settings > GDN Hub > Manage Domains > Add source domain
4. In the Add Domain prompt, enter the following:
   • Domain: The domain that will be referenced to capture content for translation.
   • Description: A description of the domain (optional).
   • Environment Type: Choose between Production, Staging, Development, or Other
5. Click Save Domain
   • You can edit this source domain configuration by clicking the ellipses beside the domain name > Edit

Once the source domain is created, it is added to your domains list. Next, you can configure the localized domains.

Smartling CNAME

Your Smartling CNAME is a unique record in Smartling's infrastructure and typically follows the format of [yourcompany].sl.smartling.com. Your CNAME is the entry point for receiving traffic routed from your localized sites. The same CNAME is typically used for all GDN projects and domains in your account. Some customized deployments may require Smartling to provision additional CNAMEs. Your Solutions Architect will inform you if this is the case for your account. 

When adding a new localized domain, you will see a temporary CNAME for that new domain. This display is for informational purposes and does not need to be modified. When setting that domain to "live" your localized domain will use your production CNAME previously provided by your Solution Architect. 

Note: If you ping a Smartling CNAME, you will not get a response.

SSL

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

Tip: To install or update SSL certificates for your localized sites, contact Smartling Support.

Configure Localized Domains

Once your source domain is added, you have to complete the localized domain setup below for translations to be served to your users:

1. Go to Account Settings > GDN Hub > Manage Domains
2. Click the ellipses on the source domain you want to configure localized domains to > Add Localized Domain
3. In the Edit Domain prompt, choose your configuration type from one of the following options:
   1. Subdomain
   2. TLD/ccTLD
   3. HTTP Header Value
   4. Cookie Value
   5. Folder
4. Choose the locale for the domain from the dropdown menu of target locales in the GDN project.
   • Note that if the locale you want is missing, you must first add the new language to the project.
5. Enter the localized domain URL
   • This needs to match the localized domain DNS entry or traffic routing configured by your IT Ops team when ready to go live.
6. Set the Browser Cache Header Control to one of the following options:
   1. CDN in front of Smartling, caching controlled by CDN
      • A CDN is in front of the GDN; headers that control caching (Etag, Last-Modified, Cache-Control) are not modified by the GDN.
      • For more information, read our documentation on Using a Content Delivery Network
   2. No CDN used; optimized caching for JS/JSON content
      • A CDN is not in front of the GDN; headers that control caching (Etag, Last-Modified, Cache-Control) are set by the GDN to ensure the correct loading of localized pages.
7. For HTTP Header Value configurations, set the custom header name
   • This is the localized header name the GDN inspects to determine which language to serve to a site visitor.
   • Example: Use the browser's preferred language, or ‘Accept-Language’ header value, to determine what language to serve to a user visiting your site.
   • Advanced Setting: This domain type supports setting a localized folder and source folder, similar to Subfolder domains. This setting is optional and is present in the Advanced Settings area at the bottom of the editing page. 
8. For Cookie Value configurations, set the custom cookie name:
   • This is the name of the cookie the GDN inspects to determine which locale to serve to a site visitor.
   • Example: A user has visited your site before and chosen “German (Germany)” as their preferred language, overriding their browser’s preferred language settings. Your site sets a cookie like “preferred_language=de-DE,” which is read when serving up content to that user to ensure the right locale is used.
   • Advanced Setting: This domain type supports setting a localized folder and source folder, similar to Subfolder domains. This setting is optional and is present in the Advanced Settings area at the bottom of the editing page. 
9. For Folder configurations, specify the Localized Folder where translations should be served. If needed, a Source Folder name can be entered(optional)
   • The Source Folder is used to point the GDN to an alternative folder that contains material for translation. For example, your source site may display content from 'www.yoursite.com/us' by default, but source content for translation should instead be pulled from 'www.yoursite.com/intl.' 
     In that case, you would enter 'intl' in the Source Folder setting. 
10. Optionally, complete advanced settings.
    • Consult your Solutions Architect when configuring or modifying these settings.
11. Click Save Domain to confirm your translated domain setup
    • You can edit the configuration later

Tip: You must complete this process for each language enabled in your GDN Project. In the same way, if you add a language to the GDN project in the future, you must complete the localized domain configuration, so your site can be translated into the new language.

Localized Domain Configuration Types

1. 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.
2. 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 GDN CNAME to serve translations.
3. HTTP Header Value: The GDN looks for a header value 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.)
4. Cookie Value: The GDN looks for a cookie value to determine which language to serve to a user. This setup type requires that your source server returns a cookie containing the locale that should be served. Translated content is not visible to search engines with this setup type.
5. Folder: The GDN looks for a folder value to determine which language to serve to a user. This setup type requires a Content Delivery Network (CDN), web server or other networking appliance with the ability to route traffic based on a URL path rather than a DNS entry. Remember that subfolder configurations can be complex to deploy, depending on the capabilities of your source website infrastructure. We recommend that you consult your Solutions Architect and IT Operations team or CDN provider if you are considering this setup type.

Tip: Consult our domain strategy guide to compare options to serve translated content using the Global Delivery Network.

Advanced Settings

1. Localized Site Regex: Any address that matches the regular expression provided will be translated through the GDN. 
   • This allows various localized host names to be associated with a single localized domain configuration.
   •  For example, a localized regex of ‘es-.*.yoursite.com’ would cause requests containing host names es-es.yoursite.com and es-mx.yoursite.com, etc., to be associated with this localized domain. 
2. CNAME: Smartling automatically generates a CNAME value when a GDN project is created. This field is not editable and is for reference only. Smartling will update this value to a production CNAME when you are ready to put your localized site(s) live. 
3. Alternate Endpoint: Use this field to specify an alternate origin server name or IP address than the publicly advertised one. 
   • This is typically used in configurations where a CDN is in place. The Alternative Endpoint points the GDN to connect directly to the origin server rather than back through the CDN, which would happen with the default behavior of using the source domain name as the origin server. The origin domain name, rather than the alternate endpoint name, is used in the host header in this configuration by default.
   • For example, if you enter an IP of 88.88.88.88 and your source domain configuration is www.yourcompany.com, Smartling points all requests for source content to that IP with a Host header of www.yourcompany.com. 
   • For more information, read our documentation on Using an Alternate Endpoint
4. X-Language_Locale Header Value:  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. This allows a choice of two formats for the locale value set in this header in the request sent to the origin server: xx-YY or xx_YY. 
   • For example, if you have Portuguese (Brazil) as a locale in your project, you can select whether the locale code should be 'pt_BR' or 'pt-BR'.
   • If a different format is required, it can be set through advanced GDN rules. Contact your Solutions Architect for more information.
5. Password Protection: Site protection will prompt visitors for a Smartling login if they navigate to your translated domain, preventing public access while your site is in pre-launch translation. When making your localized site(s) live, it is recommended that this setting be disabled. Otherwise, only users with a Smartling login will be able to access your site(s). 
   • Toggle the switch to password-protect your localized site(s) while testing.
   • Toggle the switch off to make your site publicly accessible. This will need to be done to go live with your localized site.

How to Edit a Configuration

To edit a source domain configuration, the source domain, click the ellipses under Actions > Edit

To edit the localized domain configuration, click the relevant source domain row to expand the list of localized domains beneath it. Once expanded, find the localized domain you want to edit > ellipses > Edit 

How to Go Live with a Localized Domain

Set up network traffic routing based on your localized domain configuration. Your IT Ops team and Solutions Architect should handle this work. 

Edit the localized configuration to turn off Password Protection on your localized domains.

After you have fully tested your configuration and are ready to go live, click the relevant source domain row to expand the list of localized domains beneath it. Once expanded, find the localized domain you want to edit  > ellipses > Live Routing.

How to Delete a Localized Domain

To remove a localized domain permanently, click the relevant source domain row to expand the list of localized domains beneath it. Once expanded, find the localized domain you want to delete > ellipses > Delete

How to Disable a Localized Domain

To temporarily disable a localized domain, click the relevant source domain row to expand the list of localized domains beneath it. Once expanded, find the localized domain you want to edit > ellipses > Disable

You can also disable a localized domain by editing it's configuration. Use the same steps as above to access the Actions menu > ellipses > Edit

In the Localized Domain editing window, scroll to the bottom and set the Localized Domain Enabled toggle to OFF

Ensure that you click the Save Domain button afterward to apply your changes

Note: Regardless of which method you use to disable the localized domain, you will get a pop-up dialog asking you to confirm that the domain should be disabled. 

How to Enable a Localized Domain

If a localized domain is disabled, you will see that reflected in the Site Status column.

 

To enable a localized domain, use the Actions menu to either select the Enable option or Edit the domain to enable from the localized domain editing window.

Next steps

Ingest content by browsing your localized domains, or set up the GDN Crawler to automate this process.