This article is for Account Owners and Project Managers using the Global Delivery Network
If you are having trouble capturing or finding content in the Smartling dashboard that should be translated on a Global Delivery Network (GDN) site, use the troubleshooting checklist below to help.
1. Check capture status
Has the content been captured?
To capture new content from a GDN site, you must visit one version of the localized page.
The GDN captures one instance of each unique string from your website, and will be associated with the first URL the GDN 'sees' the content on. That content is sent for translation and becomes available to your end-user when they browse the website.
When you add more source content to your website, those pages must be recaptured so that the new content is translated. If you add more source content and don't recapture the pages in Smartling, there is no translation available for those strings, so Smartling returns the source content. This could lead to a webpage having a mix of translated and untranslated content.
Note: Have you reached the content capture limit? By default, the GDN will capture up to 10,000 strings in the authorization queue for a GDN project. We recommend deleting unnecessary strings from your Awaiting Authorization queue. Contact your Customer Success Manager to raise your capture limit.
Need to check the status of your strings? Try Smartling's GDN String Status Google Chrome Extension while using ?smartling_editmode=1
2. Check workflow status
- Is the content authorized?
- Content must be authorized to be translated.
- Is the content not yet published?
- Content will appear untranslated on a GDN site until it reaches the Published, or Pre-Published state.
- Is the content excluded?
- Excluded content will appear untranslated on a GDN site.
- Go to the Strings View and use the Status filter to find Excluded content.
- To translate excluded content, select strings > Actions > Request Translation.
Use Editmode 1 to view the history and workflow state of a string on your GDN site. Use Global Content Search to quickly locate a string and workflow state within the UI.
3. Check capture configuration
- Is there a greedy pattern?
- Pattern logic that is too general can prevent desired content from being captured and translated. Try making your pattern more specific by using additional parameters.
- Is there a Do Not Capture or Do Not Translate rule in place?
- Go to your Project Settings and check the Rules and Advance Rules configuration.
Tip: Use Editmode 3 to surface any translation rules or patterns currently applied to content on a page to quickly find if this is preventing content from being captured.
4. Check content structure
- Is the content coming from Javascript, JSON, JS, or XML?
- This content is not captured by default, and requires directives before it can be captured by the GDN.
- Is the content embedded in an image?
- Text embedded in an image cannot be captured by the GDN. Try placing the text over the image or configuring an image replacement.
- Is the content type wrong?
- If you declare the wrong content-type in the content header, the GDN may not parse your content properly (or at all).
Use the developer tool feature in your browser to inspect the response, use the search feature to find the content within a response. This will allow you to view information about the response headers and body format.
5. Check source domain
- Is the content being served from a 3rd party domain, including an embedded iframe?
- Smartling cannot capture content from domains that are not set up to be proxied by the GDN.
Use the inspect element or developer tool feature in your browser to expose the domain serving a particular piece of content.
6. Check custom rules
- Is there a custom rule in place preventing content capture?
Tip: Use Editmode 3 for advanced debugging on a page.
7. Check caching
If the strings appear untranslated for you, perhaps your web browser is displaying a cached version of the page. You might find that the page displays fully translated if you clear your browser cache (or visit the page in an Incognito/Private browser window).
- If you have a caching layer between Smartling and your source site (typically a CDN), you may need to reset the cache in order for Smartling to capture new or changed content.
- If you are using Smartling's translation cache, and you have translated a piece of content, but it is not appearing on the translated site, you may need to reset the cache for that page.
Tip: If you are still unable to find your content, contact support.