Account Owners and Project Managers can import pre-existing translation memory files (TMX), into Smartling. This is useful if you're migrating from another tool or process, to Smartling.
TMX imports do not preserve plural information, meaning once imported, all information about plural forms for the translations is lost.
How To Import a TMX
- Go to Account Settings > Linguistic Assets.
- Under Assets, click Translation Memory.
- In the Actions column, click the three dots and select Import TMX File
Configure Translation Unit Properties from TMX
Once the TMX is uploaded, you can map additional metadata from your TMX file to Smartling. These properties are optional, but it is recommended to specify the Translation Date property whenever possible. Any TMX uploads without this property identified will show the import date as the "Last Updated" date.
Importing a Smartling TMX
When importing a TMX file that has previously been extracted from Smartling, choose the first item in each property list: Smartling Translation Date, Smartling Translator UID, Smartling Variant, and Smartling File/URL.
Finding Properties in the TMX
To confirm the properties contained in your TMX, simply open the TMX file locally and search for the following properties:
- creationdate
- changedate
- creationid
- changeid
- tuid
These properties will most likely be listed in the translation unit element (<tu>), for example:
You might also see a separate property in your TMX file, typically after the translation unit element (<tu>), for example:
In the above example, <prop type="x-smartling-translated-date" defines the translation date property in Smartling TMX files.
Defining Properties in Smartling
Once you found the properties in the TMX, simply define each from the respective dropdown menus. If the property in your TMX file isn’t included in the dropdown menus, use the “Custom” options to define the property.
The “Custom Value” option can be used to assign a single value to every unit being imported from the TMX. For example, if you do not have translation dates in the file, but you’d like to assign a translation timestamp to every imported translation, you can enter a date and time value as your Custom property. Translation dates must follow ISO-8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ), but for the other properties (Translator Name, Variant, File/URI), any format is accepted. Using this option will add the same metadata to every unit, so be sure that this is the right option, as it may not be ideal to ascribe the same Translator Name to every translation.
The "Custom Property" option can be used to extract dynamic metadata from your TMX. For example, you may see a property that looks like this: <prop type="translator-name">. This can be mapped as a Custom Property by entering the definition: @prop.type.translator-name.
Locating Properties in Smartling
This metadata can be used to locate translations using filters in the Translation Memory, as well as being displayed in the Translation Unit Activity. Each time a new and unique TMX file is uploaded, it is entered as a new activity for every Translation Unit in the file, so nothing is overwritten. However, if you upload a TMX with the same name as a previous TMX upload, this will overwrite the original content associated with the same TMX file name.
TMX Upload Errors
When uploading a TMX file, Smartling checks to ensure each entry is valid and has all required information. After processing the file, you may see a message in the import history indicating the file has errors. Smartling displays the first 100 errors found, as shown below:
There are two error types that could block a TMX import:
- Source locale mismatch.
- For example, the TMX says the source is "en" but the TM in Smartling source is "en-US."
- Element not terminated.
- For example, a translation unit has an opening <img> element but does not have an matching end-tag </img>.
Any other error will not prevent the import, and the TMX will still upload and can be found in your Translation Memory in Smartling.
Should you wish to resolve any errors for quality purposes, the error message gives you all the information required to fix the discrepancies in the TMX file.
The "line" and "column" header indicate where the error exists in the file.
The translation unit with the error is also displayed following the "line" and "column". After the unit, there is a message indicating the nature of the error.
Example Error and Solution
In the above example, the message states:
"The following placeholder values of the original text are not found in the translation: • Placeholder values mismatch."
This indicates that a placeholder exists in the source but is missing in the translation. Most likely, the placeholder was modified or removed when the translation was submitted. For more information on placeholders, read Placeholders in Resource Files or our tutorial on Placeholders.
To fix this error, you can navigate to the indicated location in the TMX file using the code or sheet editor of your choice and make sure the placeholders match. Once done, you can save the file and re-import it into Smartling.
View TMX Import History
You can now view all TMX imports and any errors that may have resulted from incomplete preparation. Items are ordered by import date (most recent first). The TMX Import History lists:
- TMX Name: the name of the imported TMX file
- Status: flags the number of errors in the import (if any). Click to view the errors in detail.
- Total Units: number of translation units in the TMX file
- Successfully imported units: number of successfully imported translation units
- Imported Date: the date the TMX was imported
- Imported To: the name of the TM the TMX was imported to in Smartling
Note: The history lists the last 100 translation units imported.