JSON

Content Parsing

JSON files are based on name and value pairs. For example, in this basic JSON file, “button1” is the name and “Home” is the value.

{
 "button1" : "Home"
}

Name/value pairs can be nested so that a path of several names leads to a value.

Smartling parses JSON files for translatable strings, and for key/variant metadata (Smartling keys) and translator instructions relating to those strings. Only JSON values can become strings or translator instructions in Smartling. Depending on how your file is structured. However, you may want to capture either a JSON value, or part of a name path as a key. Smartling allows for either option using the translate_paths directive.

Inline file directives are listed below.

Smartling normalizes non-functional spacing in translated files. Translated files will be returned with a space between the key and value in the following valid JSON format:
{"key" : "value"}

Default

If you upload a JSON file without any custom Smartling directives, Smartling will:

1. Capture all values in the file as strings.
2. Use the complete name path to each string as key and variant data.
3. Create placeholders in the strings using a default regular expression to capture a number of common placeholder formats.
4. Not capture any string instructions
5. Deliver translations, one file per language.

For more information, see Content Parsing.

HTML

If a string contains HTML, Smartling automatically parses the strings in the file with basic HTML parsing, even without any HTML directive. Just note, this basic parsing will not break down the JSON value with HTML into smaller strings. It is ingested as one string.

If this is not desirable, and you want the value to be broken down into smaller strings in Smartling based on the HTML formatting, you can use the directive:

string_format_paths with the value of HTML.

This will benefit both your translation resources and your translation memory leverage.

It is worth noting that in doing so, you lose any "keys", however, you still have "variants". In most cases, such as translation Jobs, this is acceptable, however, this is not acceptable if you are importing translations from a file, as keys are critical for source and target string alignment.

Example JSON string with default JSON parsing vs HTML parsing:

"terms" : "<p>These are the terms you should be aware of them.</p><h1>First things first</h1><p>The first thing about the terms is that they apply to you.</p><h1>Second things second</h1><p>The second things about the terms is that they apply to us.</p>"

Plurals

ICU MessageFormat

To parse the strings using ICU MessageFormat you can use two Smartling directives (either inline or via API):

1. string_format with a value of icu
2. string_format_paths with a value of icu and then specifying array of the specific keys or paths.

Smartling paths support simple wildcards. See ICU MessageFormat for additional information.

ICU MessageFormat parsing implies both placeholders and support for advanced formatting syntax such as select statements and plurals. When parsing strings as ICU MessageFormat that default placeholder syntax takes precedence and will always apply if the syntax is present.

If ICU string formatting is used, then that takes precedence over HTML and any HTML directive will be ignored if your directives resolve in a value being parsed for both ICU and HTML. It is possible in a single file to have both HTML formatted strings and ICU formatted strings, but they must be on different paths.

Visual Context

Visual context is not automatically provided for JSON files. To provide visual context for your JSON file, you can upload a context file manually, or integrate with Smartling’s JavaScript Library, or the Context Capture Google Chrome Extension, or an API.

An alternative method of providing visual context is to allow translators to view the raw JSON file as context. Large files can split into chunks of strings or kilobytes by your Smartling Representative.

To enable raw file image context for a project:

• Go to Settings > Contexts
• Under Use file content as visual context, switch JSON on

Preparing JSON for Translation

Directives are commands embedded in code that essentially direct Smartling to the various elements in your file. Examples include the path where your content for translation, where to find translator instructions, where any key or variants are, and command multilingual output, so all translations are on one file. See examples of these directives below.

Specifying Paths

Some directives require you to specify a path or set of paths to keys or strings in the file. A path is a slash-separated string which uses Xpath-like syntax (although it’s not Xpath.). The node’s separator is always / (slash).

Wildcards are allowed in path definitions.

• If no wildcards, then the path identifies a single node and all its children (“exact subpath”).
• If wildcards, then a path identifies a set of nodes and all their children (“path pattern”). Currently, only the * (asterisk) wildcard is implemented, which means “one or more nodes with any names”.
• Exact subpaths have precedence over path patterns.

For example, in the following path specifications:

[*/text, */string, system/log/text, system/log/text/details]

Smartling processes these paths as follows:

• /description/text — matches */text.
• /description/general/text - matches */text directly.
• /description/text/general — matches its parent, /description/text, matches */text.
• /system/log/text — matches both /system/log/text (exact path) and */text (pattern). Exact path takes precedence.
• /system/log/text/details — matches its parent, /system/log/text and system/log/text/details (exact). Exact path takes precedence.

Keys and Variants

By default, the full path of keys leading to a string are captured as Key and Variant metadata. Custom key paths can be set, and variant behavior turned off by using the variants_enabled directive.

Please note that keys cannot be generated for paths parsed as HTML or Markdown.

String Instructions

Smartling will automatically ingest and display any value or path paired with the "instruction" name as instructions for translators. The instructions must  precede the "translate_paths".

For example, for the following thread, the instruction is anything that is paired with the "translation-node" path will be captured as a file instruction for translators,

When translators translate the string, Hello, ^^USER_NAME^^ the instruction "^^username^^ will be the first name, e.g. Mary" will be visible to them in the CAT Tool. Similarly, the string Home will include the instruction "Used in navigation to provide link back to home page."

JSON

{
  "smartling" : {
    "translate_paths" : [{
      "path" : "*/translation",
      "key" : "{*}/translation",
      "instruction" : "*/translation-note"
    }],
    "placeholder_format_custom" : ["\\^\\^.*?\\^\\^"],
    "variants_enabled" : "true"
  },
  "Key1" : {
    "attribute" : "4215050",
    "translation" : "Hello, ^^USER_NAME^^.",
    "translation-note" : "^^username^^ will be the first name, e.g. Mary"
 },
  "Key2" : {
    "attribute" : "400913",
    "translation" : "Home",
    "translation-note" : "Used in navigation to provide link back to home page."
  }
} 

See File and String Instructions for more information on using instructions.

Placeholder Format

Default

If you do not specify a custom placeholder format, even if you specify other directives, Smartling will convert the following subtext of a string into a placeholder for that string:

• {x}
• {{x}}
• ${x}
• %x%
• %%x%%
• ##x##
• __x__

Specifying a custom placeholder directive at the top of the file will override the default that is set up for JSON.

Custom

If you want to control how Smartling will capture the content and metadata from your JSON file, or specify a custom placeholder format, you can use custom Smartling directives. The directives can be added "inline" to the file, or they be configured as API parameters.

JSON inline directives must be the "first" or "top" object in the JSON
If you are integrating "inline" the integration "smartling" must be the first object in the JSON.

The syntax for directives might change if you are using them as API parameters instead of inlining them.

Below is an example of a JSON document with custom directives integrated in the file:

JSON file example:

{
 "smartling" : {
 "translate_paths" : [{
 "path" : "*/translation",
 "key" : "{*}/translation",
 "instruction" : "*/translation-note"
 }],
 "placeholder_format_custom" : ["\\^\\^.*?\\^\\^"],
 "variants_enabled" : "true"
 },
 "Key1" : {
 "attribute" : "4215050",
 "translation" : "Hello, ^^USER_NAME^^.",
 "translation-note" : "^^username^^ will be the first name, e.g. Mary"
 },
 "Key2" : {
 "attribute" : "400913",
 "translation" : "Home",
 "translation-note" : "Used in navigation to provide link back to home page."
 },
 "Key3" : {
 "attribute" : "4215049",
 "translation" : "Copyright 2017",
 "translation-note" : ""
 },
 "Key4" : {
 "attribute" : "4213290",
 "translation" : "About Us"
 }
}

The value of placeholder_format_custom is a regular expression (regex). We want to match on a "^" character as part of our expression. "^" is a reserved character for regex, so we must escape it with "\". Because we are saving this in a JSON file where "\" is itself a reserved character for escaping, we must escape it for the JSON file with an additional "\".

Uploading this file will result in the following strings and metadata:

The values of the "attribute" names are ignored.

One of the strings has an empty/null instruction and another has no instruction at all. No errors are registered because of this.

See Placeholders in Resource Files for more on placeholders.

Exclude Content from Translation

You can specify paths to exclude from translation by using the exclude_path directive. Note that exclude_path always must be a sub-path of path pointer in the same set of translate_paths item.

For more information on excluding content via the Smartling dashboard, see Exclude Content from Translation and Restore.

Return Untranslated Strings as Empty

When using the API file/get to download JSON files from Smartling, the parameter includeOriginalStrings=false ensures that if no translations are available, Smartling returns an empty string. If the parameter is set to true, Smartling returns the original string.

Character Limits

Character limits can be set to limit the character count of the translated strings. The limit is set on the source string and applies to all languages.

Example

{
   "smartling" : {
     "translate_paths" : [
     {
       "path" : "/*/text",
       "key" : "/*/id",
       "character_limit" : "/*/limit"
     },
     {
       "path" : "/*/value",
       "key" : "/*/key",
       "character_limit" : "/*/charlimit"
     }],
   },
   "testkey1" : {
     "limit" : 10,
     "text" : "item1",
     "id" : 1
       }, 
   "testkey2" : {
     "limit" : 20,
     "text" : "item2",
     "id" : 2
     }, 
   "testkey3" : {
     "limit" : 30,
     "text" : "item3",
     "id" : 3
     }, 
   "testkey4" : {
     "charimit" : 100,
     "value" : "item4",
     "key : "key" 
   }
}

Pseudo Translations

The pseudo_inflation directive is not supported as an inline directive for JSON files, however, you can still control pseudo inflation for JSON files by including it as an argument in the API upload request. For example: smartling.pseudo_inflation=70 will result in pseudo translation length being increased by 70 percent.

See Pseudo Translations for more information on how you can view pseudo translations.

Directives

File directives are supported, both inline and via our API.  Directives are specified in comments at the top of the file, in the following format:

Inline File Format

{
 "smartling" : {
 "directive_name" : "value",
 "directive_name" : "value",
 "..."
 },
 ...
}

API Parameter

smartling.[directive_name] = [value] 

Here are some examples of supported directives for JSON:

Path To Translatable Strings, Instructions, and Keys

"smartling" : {
  "translate_paths" : [{
    "path" : "//text",
    "key" : "/{}/text",
    "instruction" : "/*/notes"
  }]
}

Character Limits

Escape Base Characters

Unescape HTML5

Escape Characters the Same as Source

Exclude Path From Translation

{
  "smartling" : {
    "translate_paths" : [
      {
        "path" : "/nodes/*",
        "exclude_path" : "*/comment"
      },    
      {
        "path" : "/messages/*",
        "exclude_path" : "*/note"
      }
    ]
  },
  "nodes" : [
      {
        "text" : "item1",
        "comment" : "comment1"
      },
      {
        "text" : "item2",
        "comment" : "comment2"
      },
      {
        "text" : "item3",
        "comment" : "comment3"
      }
    ],
  "messages" : [
      {
        "message" : "message1",
        "note" : "note1"
      },
      {
        "message" : "message2",
        "note" : "note2"
      },
      {
        "message" : "message3",
        "note" : "note3"
      }
    ]
}

Standard Placeholder Format

"smartling":{"placeholder_format" : "IOS"}

Custom Placeholder Format

"smartling" : {
    "placeholder_format_custom" : ["\\[.+?\\]"]
}

See Placeholders in Resource Files for more on placeholders.

Keys as Variants

{
  "smartling": {
    "translate_paths" : [{
      "path" : "/strings/text",
      "key" : ["/strings/key1", "/strings/key2", "/strings/key3"],
      "key_generation_strategy" : "partial_match"
    }]
  },
  "strings" : [{
      "key1" : "A",
      "key2" : "B",
      "key3" : "C",
      "text" : "String1"
    },
    {
      "key1" : "A",
      "key2" : "B",
      "text" : "String2"
    },
    {
      "key2" : "B",
      "key3" : "C",
      "text" : "String3"
    },
    {
      "key1" : "A",
      "key3" : "C",
      "text" : "String4"
    },
    {
      "key3" : "C",
      "text" : "String5"
    },
    {
      "text" : "String6"
    },
  ]
}
}

Enable Variants to Make Strings Unique

"smartling": {"variants_enabled" : "TRUE"}

Control CLDR Mapping for ICU Strings

"smartling":{"icu_plural_mappings" : "off"}

Parse with ICU Message Format Rules

"smartling":{"string_format" : "icu"}

Change how strings are parsed

"smartling": {"string_format_paths" : "html: *"}

"smartling": {"string_format_paths" : "html: */text"}

"smartling": {"string_format_paths" : "html: [/text, string]"}

"smartling": {"string_format_paths" : "html: /product/description"}

"smartling": {"string_format_paths": "icu: [*]"}

"smartling": {"string_format_paths" : "html: */text, @default: /system/log/text"}

Trim Whitespace