Drupal 8/9/10/11 TMGMT: Continuous Jobs Support

The Drupal Translation Management Tool (TMGMT) offers a Continuous Jobs feature that automatically detects and submits new and updated content for translation to your translation provider. This feature is compatible with Smartling’s Drupal TMGMT Connector, allowing you to send Continuous Job content directly to Smartling for translation.

This feature is supported as of Smartling's Drupal Connector version 8.x-9.15. 

How do Continuous Jobs work? 

Continuous Jobs automatically detect new and updated content of a specific type. This content is sent for translation in individual projects at predefined intervals set in Cron.

TMGMT Continuous Jobs begin working as soon as they are created. From that point forward, any new or updated content in Drupal that matches the job’s configuration will be detected and sent to Smartling for translation.

A TMGMT Continuous Job retains previously sent content while adding newly detected content and updates. The Smartling Connector ingests the Drupal source content as an XML file, meaning that with each new addition, the source file in Smartling will continue to grow, as it will contain both the old and the newly added or updated content.

Content from Continuous Jobs are batched into "Daily Bucket Jobs" in Smartling. 

Important Considerations

• Detecting Updated Content: TMGMT does not automatically detect content changes. A Continuous Job will only recognize changes to the source content if old translations are marked as outdated. To mark translations as outdated, select the Flag other translations as outdated checkbox in the Content Editor view and save. This will update the status of the existing translations, triggering the Continuous Job. 
• Cron Dependency: TMGMT Continuous Jobs rely on Cron so be sure it is scheduled to run regularly. 
• One Language Pair Per Continuous Job: Continuous Jobs support only a single source-to-target language combination. This means you must create multiple Continuous Jobs to detect content for different language pairs (e.g., one for en > fr, one for en > es, etc.). 
• Detecting Existing Content: A newly created Continuous Job will not look for existing content (i.e., content that was created before the Continuous Job was created). If you need to pick up this content, use the Check for continuous jobs option: 
  
  1. Navigate to Manage > Translation > Sources > Operations. 
  2. Select the relevant sources that match the configuration of the Continuous Job. 
  3. Click the Check for Continuous Job button. 
  4. At this point, the selected content is not yet sent to Smartling for translation. It will be submitted during the next Cron run.
  
  
  
  

How to Set Up a Continuous Job

Complete the steps below to create a Continuous Job for your Drupal instance. 

1. In Drupal, go to the Jobs section (Manage > Translation > Jobs). 
2. Click the button + Add continuous job. 
   
3. Next configure the Continuous Job.
   • Label: Enter a name for your Continuous Job. 
   • Source & Target Language: TMGMT Continuous Jobs support only a single source-to-target language pair. Choose the source and target language for which content will be sent to Smartling. If you need to translate into multiple languages, you will need to create multiple Continuous Jobs (i.e., one for each language pair). 
   • Continuous settings: Select what entity and entity type (node and content type/block and block type, etc.) will be sent for translation to Smartling.
   • Provider: choose one of the Smartling translation providers configured in Manage > Translation > Providers. Content will be uploaded to the Smartling project configured in the selected provider to the current Smartling "Daily Bucket" Job.
     
     4. Click Save job to create the Continuous Job. 
     
     • The newly created Continuous Job will be listed in the Jobs section. 
     
     
     

Continuous Jobs vs. Track Entity Changes Feature

The Smartling Drupal Connector's Track Entity Changes feature works for any content that was previously submitted to Smartling for translation. It detects only updated content that was previously requested for translation and does not pick up any newly created content. 

In contrast, TMGMT Continuous Jobs can detect both new and updated content, but only if it matches the criteria defined in its configuration. Additionally, Continuous Jobs support only a single source-to-target language combination. This means you must create multiple Continuous Jobs to detect content for different language pairs (e.g., one for en > fr, one for en > es, etc.). 

Content from both features is batched into the "Daily Bucket" Job in Smartling. 

Can I enable Track Entity Changes AND Continuous Jobs? 

Yes, technically, you can use both features simultaneously. However, it is important to understand that they function differently and detect different types of content.

• Track Entity Changes: Detects only updated content that was previously requested for translation.
• Continuous Jobs: Detects both new and updated content. It checks for content that matches the criteria (content type and source/target language pair) defined in the Continuous Job configuration.