When Linguists ask a question about a Job, they open an Issue. Issues are a way for users working on translations to communicate information about the source content to content owners. A Translator might create a Source Issue to ask a question about terminology in a particular string. 

Getting answers to questions about content helps the translation process move quickly and effectively. All issue correspondence history is stored in-platform, allowing you to access it at any time. 

Issues are automatically assigned a unique, sequential account-wide Issue ID Number. Users may refer to the issue number for convenience.  Issue ID Numbers cannot be modified.

A single string can have multiple issues of any type. A string can have more than one source issue and more than one translation issue (in a specific language and across all languages).

Each issue's state is managed independently of the other issues.

 

Managing Issues

Issues are a key tool to get your translations done quickly, and accurately. Smartling offers 3 ways in which you can find and manage issues;

• The Dashboard
• Email
• Slack

The Dashboard

There are a number of places to access and manage Issues in the Dashboard. Typically, the red flag icon will be visible as a quick-link to access and manage Issues. The number indicates the number of open Issues.

Issues Report

Account Owner and Project Manager users can access the Issues Report on the top-panel beside your Account Name. The Issues Report contains a list of all Issues across all Jobs the user has access to. Use the filter and search panel on the left to find specific Issues.

Using the multi-select and Actions function, you can select Issues to mass-close. Select-all and Actions will allow you to or Export a CSV file of all Issue details. This report can be useful for finding common questions related to your content, or common revisions needed for your translations.

Jobs Dashboard

If the red flag icon is visible under a Job name on the dashboard, this means that there are open Issues on that Job. Click the red flag to quickly access and address the Issue.

In the Job

When you are in the Job, you will see the number of open Issues on the left-hand panel under Job Summary. Click the number to quickly access and address the Issue.

In the Strings View

When you are in the String View, you will see if a string has an open Issue by the "Unresolved Issues" flag under the source sting. Click Unresolved Issues to quickly access and address the Issue.

You can also access the Issue by clicking the 3 dots Actions > View String Details/Issues

This will open the String Details dialog where you can manage all aspects of the Issue. You can add comments, edit the issue description, add attachments, resolve, re-open, add watchers, and mark the issue as answered. 

 

Depending on how you open the string details dialog you may see only source strings or only translation issues for one particular language.  If you don't see translation issues find the string or issue in that language, then open the string details dialog.

 

Email

Issue notifications are delivered by email. You can add comments, add attachments and resolve issues via email; except for watchers, who cannot close issues. Other aspects of the issue must be managed via the web dashboard.

Reply to the email to add a comment to the issue.

Your reply can include one image attachment (with or without a written comment). 

You can resolve issues via email replies. If your entire reply is just one of the following phrases, the issue will be resolved:

• Close
• Close issue
• Resolve
• Resolve issue
• Resolved

If you include any other text in your reply it will be considered a comment.

 

Closing Issues

Though all issue participants can close an issue, we recommend that the user that opened an issue is the one to close the issue once their question has been answered. All users who participated in the issue will be notified when the issue is resolved.

Issue Types & Subtypes

Source

Source issues are direct at the source string itself.  Account Owners and Project Managers are notified of all source issues. Translation Resource users will see any source issues opened on content they are working on.

• Question/Clarification: Question about the source content (e.g. what is a "Smart Inbox"). 
• Typo/Misspelling: Mistake in the source content (i.e. were vs. where).

Issue Visibility and Notifications

Any user who opens or comments on the issues will be notified of subsequent comments and if the issue is closed, even if the translations are published.

All Source Issues are sent to Account Owners and Project Managers (from the project that the Job is in)
All Translation Issues are sent to the translator who translated the string.

Smartling User Role	Source Issue
Account Owner / Project Manager	Can view, update, and close. Receives notifications for all source issues.
Requester	Can view, update, and close. Receives source issue notifications only if they participate in the issue (open/comment).
Agency Account Owner	Can view, update, and close. Receives source issue notifications only if they participate in the issue (open/comment).
Translation Resource / Translation Resource Manager	Can view, update, and close. Receives source issue notifications only if they participate in the issue (open/comment).

Watchers

Any email address can be added as a watcher by an Account Owner and Project Manager users. Watchers receive notifications about an issue being opened, commented on, or closed.

A watcher can add comments and add attachments to issues via email. Other aspects of the issue must be managed via the web dashboard.

Issue Assignment

Every issue can be assigned to a single user who is part of the account. Account Owners and Project Managers can change the assigned user in the String Details dialog which is accessible from the Issues Report or the Strings View pages. Any user of any role can be assigned. The user who opens an issue will be assigned to it automatically.

Some issues are "unassigned" because:

• the issue was created before the assignment feature was added to the product.
• the user who created the issues has been removed from the account.
• the issue was created through some system automation action such as translation imports or external translation.

There are no notifications related to issue assignment. Issue assignment does not affect the visibility or editing permissions of issues. Issue assignment is a flexible feature. You can choose to actively use it to help communicate and improve your issue management workflows, or you can ignore the assignment if it doesn't provide value to your projects or your workflows.

 

Tips for Managing Issues

• All users should respond to issues as fast as possible. When Translators open source string issues, there is a good chance they are not able to proceed with translation or don’t feel confident in creating a translation because they need resolution of their question. Having a source string issue is also a strong indication that there might be a problem with how the string was captured. For example, placeholders might be incorrect. It’s possible the string shouldn’t be translated at all, or needs to be recaptured with updated integration.
• At any time, Account Owners and Project Managers can view and manage all open issues for all their projects from the Account Dashboard. Requesters can view and manage Issues on their Jobs from their dashboard.
• Anyone can close an issue, but it is often good practice to let the person who opened an issue close it, to make sure they are satisfied with the resolution.
• When closing a source string of type "Clarification", consider adding an instruction to the string with a full and clear explanation of the string; as well as adding or updating the "visual context" that is assigned to that string.
• You can manage your e-mail notification preferences from the Project Notifications tab of your Smartling profile.
• Account Owners and Project Managers can keep track of issues in the Issues Report.
• We recommend that issues get resolved before the translation is published. We allow content to be published with open issues because most users don’t want to hold up their translation workflow, however, it’s good practice to resolve all issues so that the reports will accurately reflect your project’s current state. If needed, you can return translations for editing after they are published in order to address the issue. Alternatively, you can opt to use Smartling’s pre-publishing functionality, so you can begin using translations immediately, but wait to resolve all issues before they are officially published.