Extension | .html |
Smartling Identifier | html |
Example File | Example HTML file with common directives |
Resources | HTML5 Standards |
By default, Smartling will create a single String for each block element in the HTML document. Additionally, the value of alt and title attributes are captured as a single string. Smartling does not capture the values of any other attributes.
HTML-like template files, such as those used by Angular, Ember, Backbone, EJS, Handlebars, etc., are not officially supported by Smartling and should not be uploaded as HTML files. See Localizing Template Applications for more information.
Variants
HTML files uploaded via our API supports the data-sl-variant
attribute, similar to our Global Delivery Network (GDN). See an example here.
Exclude Content from Translation
Content inline in an HTML file can be marked as not translatable through attributes on tags:
<a href="" class="notranslate">
<a href="" translate="no">
<a href="" data-sl-notranslate="no">
<a href="" class="notranslate">
Directives
File directives are supported, both inline and via our API. Directives are specified in comments within the files, in the following format:
Inline File Format
<!-- smartling.[directive_name] = [value] -->
API Parameter
smartling.[directive_name] = [value]
Here are examples of supported directives for HTML:
Directive name | Values | Description | Example |
collapse_html_whitespace |
(case-insensitive) |
Disables or enables the HTML whitespace collapsing. By default, this is enabled, so the HTML parser turns all new lines (including tab, LF and CR - i.e.
|
<!-- smartling.collapse_html_whitespace = off --> Disables whitespace collapsing and retains new lines.
|
exclude_translatable_attributes |
Comma-separated list of HTML attributes |
Instructs Smartling to exclude the text of a list of HTML attributes for translation. For example, this can be used to exclude the title attribute of a button. This directive takes precedence over the include_translatable_attributes directive |
<!-- smartling.exclude_translatable_attributes = title, alt --> Will exclude text in title and alt attributes of any element as a translatable string
|
A comma-separated HTML tag list |
This parameter forces the HTML parser to treat the listed tags as inline. The difference between block and inline tags is that block tags are used to split HTML into strings, whereas inline tags are included in strings. |
<!-- smartling.force_inline_for_tags = external_link,reference --> Any <external_link> or <reference> tags will be parsed as inline tags. Smartling will not create separate strings for content in these tags.
|
|
A comma-separated HTML tag list |
This parameter forces the HTML parser to treat the listed tags as string separators. The difference between block and inline tags is that block tags are used to split HTML into strings, whereas inline tags are included in strings. If any tag is pointed in both smartling.force_block_for_tags and smartling.force_inline_for_tags, the force_block_for_tags directive prevails.
|
<!-- smartling.force_block_for_tags=br --> Enables string separation by <br> tags
|
|
include_translatable_attributes
|
Comma-separated list of HTML attributes |
By default, HTML tag attributes are captured as part of the tag itself and therefore are not translatable. This directive instructs Smartling to capture the text of a list of HTML attributes for translation. For example, this can be used to capture the title attribute of a button. |
<!-- smartling.include_translatable_attributes = title, alt, class, description --> Will capture text in title, description, class, and alt attributes of any element as a translatable string
|
entity_escaping_strategy |
(case-insensitive) |
Used to retain entity escaping for all non-base entities. For example, normally we turn © into © but if we use this new directive the translation will automatically update to use escaping from the source. For each entity character, we'll check to see if it was escaped in the source and try to match (propagate) it in the target. If HTML5 entities are required as well, you must use the entity_escaping_type=propagate directive. Numerical entities are not considered at all with this directive, and are treated normally. |
<!-- smartling.entity_escaping_strategy = propagate --> If the same character is both escaped and unescaped in the same string, propagate will return the characters in the translation escaped in the same order as they were in the source. However, if there are a different number of characters in the translation where the translation process removed or added some and the escaping is inconsistent among them, propagate will escape all entities for that character. This does not affect source content at all - so using it will not result in new strings. propagate will only affect non-base entities - all named entities except & , ", <, >. Base entities continue to be controlled by HTML detection and the entity_escaping directive.
|
entity_escaping_type |
(case-insensitive) |
By default, all html4 entities are unescaped, except the basic set: < > & ". When this directive is set to html5, all html5 entities will be unescaped as well. |
<!-- smartling.entity_escaping_type = html5 --> |
placeholder_format |
|
Used to specify a standard placeholder format. |
<!-- smartling.placeholder_format = IOS --> Specifies iOS-style placeholders for the file. |
placeholder_format_custom |
|
Specifies a custom placeholder format. Any text in your file matching the regular expression you provide will be captured as a placeholder. See Placeholders in Resource Files for more on placeholders. |
<!-- smartling.placeholder_format_custom=\{([^}]+)\} --> Any characters surrounded by curly brackets, e.g., {first name}, will be treated as a placeholder. |
pseudo_inflation |
Integer values between 0 - 100 |
Sets the percentage by which original strings are inflated when downloading pseudo translations. If this directive is not set, pseudo translations are 30 percent longer than the original strings. |
<!-- smartling.pseudo_inflation = 80 --> Downloaded pseudo translations will increase the length of original strings by 80 percent. |
variants_strategy |
(case-insensitive) |
This directive can only be used as an API parameter. context_match: enables ICE variants functionality. repetition_indexed: enables the "string indexes as variants for repeated strings" functionality that is the default behavior for biz docs. It is important to note that using this directive will override any use of variants_enabled and its supporting directives. |
smartling.variants_strategy=context_match smartling.variants_strategy=repetition_indexed
|
whitespace_trim |
|
A whitespace is any character or series of characters that represent horizontal or vertical space in typography. When rendered, a whitespace character is not a visible mark, but does occupy an area or space on a page. Although whitespaces are necessary within a string (typically to separate words), unnecessary whitespaces can be found at the start of a string (leading) and at the end of a string (trailing). With this directive, you can manage whitespace trimming. By default, the leading and trailing whitespaces are trimmed. You can choose to disable trimming or specify trimming for leading or trailing whitespaces. The directive can be used inline or as the API request parameter.
|
<!-- smartling.whitespace_trim=on--> Smartling will trim leading and trailing whitespaces (default)
<!-- smartling.whitespace_trim=off --> Smartling will not trim leading or trailing whitespaces
<!-- smartling.whitespace_trim=leading --> Smartling will trim only leading whitespaces
<!-- smartling.whitespace_trim=trailing --> Smartling will trim only trailing whitespaces |