Info: This article is for Project Manager and Account Owner users.
If you have a Requester user role in Smartling, please refer to this article to learn more about making updates to existing source files.
Changes happen. If you need to modify your source content while it is already in translation in Smartling, you can simply do so by making the change in the source file itself, and re-uploading the file for translation.
This article guides you through the appropriate steps to updating source content in an existing file in Smartling, when you want to replace an existing version of a file in Smartling.
1: Notify Your Translation Provider in Advance (Optional)
Although not a mandatory step when modifying your source content, it is always a best practice to keep your translation provider in the loop. If a file is currently in progress and being worked by your translation provider, we would recommend notifying your translation provider in advance. This allows the translators to save any work that they have already begun, to ensure they will be properly credited for it.
Tip: It is not possible to pause a Job in Smartling. If a Job needs to be put on hold until the new version of the source file is ready to be uploaded, we would recommend reaching out to your translation provider and ask them to pause their work for now. A Job can also be renamed (e.g. "HOLD - Job name") to further indicate that it should not be worked on for the time being.
2: Update The Content In The Source File
Smartling is a Translation Management System, but it is not a Content Management System per se. This means that any necessary changes to the source content need to be made outside Smartling, directly in your source files or in any of the content platforms that your Smartling Project may be integrated with.
Even small updates, such as changes in punctuation or spacing, will lead to the entire string being treated as a new string.
Directives change how Smartling parses the strings, and this can impact translation memory leverage and SmartMatch. If you choose to use or introduce a new directive to a file, we recommend testing how this might impact leverage by uploading the test files with unique names and comparing the strings in the Strings View.
Tip: This step can also resolve the issue of having incorrect directives in a file. If directives are formatted incorrectly, or lead to a path with no translatable content, Smartling flags that there is "No Content" in the file.
Note: If you update only the HTML tags or placeholders, and not any text or spacing, it is recognized as not having new content for translation and the "No Content" flag will appear when you upload it to Smartling.
3: Save Changes Using The Same File Name
Once the source file has been updated, save the changes and ensure the file is named the same as what's already in progress in Smartling.
Tip: This instruction applies to Files Projects (where files are uploaded either via manual drag & drop or via API). If you are using a Smartling Connector, refer to the relevant documentation to learn more about how it can be configured to handle updates to the source text.
4: Upload To Smartling & Overwrite Existing File
When the updated file is ready to be uploaded to Smartling, you can do so via the Files tab in the existing Job or from the Files tab in your Project. Choosing to upload the file via the files tab in the Job, keeps strings in the one Job. Whereas, choosing to upload the file via the files tab in the Project, gives you the option to add strings in a new Job. This can result in the file being in multiple Jobs, meaning the file will only be fully translated once the strings from both Jobs are completed.
Job Files Tab
- Go to the Job by clicking the Job name
- Click Files > Add File
After it is uploaded, a warning is shown to inform you that proceeding with the upload will cause the previous version of the file will be overwritten.
- Click Confirm to proceed.
- This will overwrite the previous file, but only the new or modified content will require authorization, no other content is impacted.
Project Files Tab
- In your Project, go to the Files Tab
- Click Upload File
After it is uploaded, a flag is shown to inform you that proceeding with the upload will cause the previous version of the file will be overwritten.
- Click Confirm to proceed
- This will overwrite the previous file, but only the new or modified content will require authorization, no other content is impacted
- Smartling automatically detects which changes were made to the source file and calculates the various states the content is in
Note: Overwriting an existing source file will impact all target languages in the Job. You cannot modify source strings for a specific target language.
Considerations
Smartling does not store a version of each file you upload. If you upload a file with the same name as a file that has already been uploaded to the same Project, it will overwrite the first file that was uploaded.
This is an important distinction from other Translation Management Systems. It allows you greater control over what content is being translated, and the system performs better as it is not continuously processing words and rematching strings in your TM.
5: Authorize New or Modified Strings For Translation
As mentioned above, even if the file had already been in progress in Smartling before it was modified, only the new or modified strings need to be authorized for translation. Any strings that have been modified in the source file or added to the source file are now Awaiting Authorization.
Job Details
If the updated file was uploaded in the Files tab of the Job Details:
- Click Authorize to initiate the translation of the new content.
Project
If the updated file was uploaded to the Files tab of your Project:
- Click Request Translation to add the new strings to a new or existing Job (recommended)
- Complete required fields in the modal
- Authorize the Job
New String in a New Job
If the new strings are added to a new Job, the original (unchanged) strings will remain in the original job, while the new or modified strings are now part of the new Job.
The file will only be fully translated once the strings from both Jobs are completed.
Important Considerations
Unchanged Strings
Any strings, which have remained unaltered and have not been changed in the source file, will simply not be impacted by the file update. They will remain in the exact workflow step and in the same Job as before. If these strings had been assigned to a particular linguist, this assignment remains intact. Any existing translations for unchanged strings will not be removed.
Any unchanged content simply remains in the original Job and workflow step.
Removed Strings
Strings which were removed from the source file are marked as “Inactive” once the new version of the file is uploaded to Smartling.
You can find inactive strings which have been removed from files by using the State "Inactive only" filter in the Strings View.
The inactive strings are automatically removed from the original translation Job, so they are no longer available for your translation provider, and any translation work on these strings will cease. This means that the Job which you had created for the original version of the file does not need to be cancelled, and you don’t need to manually stop the translation of obsolete strings.
Note: Any translations, which have been saved to the Translation Memory while the content was still in progress, will remain stored there and can still be referenced for future work.
Connector Projects
The above information also applies to Connector projects.
When using one of these integration options, the translatable content is exported from the connecting platform and uploaded to Smartling as a file. Any updates to the content assets (i.e. the source files) which have already been sent for translation, will be processed exactly as described above.
Consult the relevant Connector documentation for options on automating the translation of changes to previously translated assets.
With most of Smartling’s connectors, the translated content is exported back to your content platform only once the entire file has been fully translated.* This means that translated assets will be exported once all strings from the related files have reached the Published step, even if they are dispersed across several different Jobs.
*Smartling’s GitHub connector is an exception to this rule. With this connector, content is exported back to GitHub only when the entire Job is completed. See our overview for more information.
Example Tutorial
Let's look at an example.
Our original example file has 3 strings:
All three strings are part of the same translation Job.
- The first string ("Hello!") already has a saved translation and is Published.
- The second and third strings ("Hi!" and "Welcome!") both have a saved translation, but they are still in progress in the translation workflow.
Let’s now make some edits to the source file:
- The string "Hi!" is changed to “Hi”.
Even a small change like removing the exclamation mark will lead to this being recognized as a new and updated string. - A new string is added to the file ("Contact us").
- The other two strings remain unaltered, without any changes.
When this file is uploaded with the same file name to the same Project, a warning is shown to let us know the previous version of this file will be overwritten.
Once confirmed, the file is now updated:
- The two strings which had remained unaltered remain in the same job and in the same workflow step. They are still assigned to the same translation vendor. These unchanged strings are not affected in any way.
- The string which has become obsolete ("Hi!" with the exclamation mark) has automatically been removed from the Job and is no longer in progress. This means that we do not need to cancel the original translation Job.
- Both the updated and the new string are "Awaiting Authorization".
In our example, a new Job was created for this new content. This means that one file is now split up across two different Jobs: one for the unchanged original content and one for the new strings. Once both of the Jobs are completed, the file will be fully published and can be downloaded.