Project Strings View

The Strings View is available for Account Owners and Project Managers who have access to our new user experience. It is also available in beta for customers in Classic and is used in the Jobs dashboard for all customers. To learn how to search for strings in the Classic Experience, go to Search within a Project.

Strings view is in beta for all linguist roles (Translation Resource, Translation Resource Manager, Agency Account Owner). There are two ways users who have vendor roles can access this strings view. If a content owner you are working with shares a link (URL) or you can access from the classic List View via the "Strings View (Beta)" link in the upper right hand of the page. See below for more details about link sharing between roles and a new experience called "Read Only".

Requesters can access the strings view via Jobs.

This new Strings View replaces and builds on the classic "List View" (Content > Translations).  Providing more powerful, broader views of content, more bulk actions, and some new actions not previously available.

This article covers the following details of the Strings View:

• Accessing the Strings View
• The layout of the Strings View
• String Details
• Views
• Search
• Filters
• Methods of Searching
• String Actions
• Quick Edit
• Read Only translations for linguists

Access Strings View via Jobs

Go to Jobs and click on a job - Under Job Summary, click View Strings. 

Access Strings View via Projects

Go to a Project and click on the Strings tab

Strings View Layout

• The Strings View contains the following columns of detail:

  • Source String: The string in the project's source language. This also contains strings namespace and variant metadata.
  • Translation: The translation of source string (if available)
  • File/URL: The file name or URL containing the source content. This also lists the context file and string key metadata
  • Language: The target language in which the source string will be translated
  • Job: The Job name in which the string will be translated. Strings can be translated outside a Job; therefore, a Job name may not always be present. If there is a Job name listed, this will be hyperlinked to bring you directly to the Job when clicked.
  • Status: The status the string is in, as well as the workflow name.
  • Actions: This ellipse contains two functions - Strings Details and accessing the CAT Tool.

String Details

The String Details dialog allows you to  View String History, Instructions, and Issues, as well as any source string metadata, and translation details. To open the String Details of a string, click the ellipse under Actions and choose any of the first 3 options.

Once opened, you'll see the source string together with the target translation (if available). You can navigate from Issues, Instructions, and History by clicking the respective tabs. 

In the Issues tab, you can add a new issue, or, if there are any open Issues on the string, you can view, comment and close the Issue from here, instead of using the Issues Report.

You can view, add, edit, and delete any file or string instructions from the Instructions tab.

You can view all actions taken on the string, from the History tab.

To the right of the String Details dialog, you'll find source string metadata, which includes:

• Any visual context associated with the string.
• The project name which the string is in.
• The string hashcode, which is used to identify the string. This can be very useful for any support issues you may have.
• The source string word count. If you are applying a character limit to the translation of a string, it's best to ensure the limit is more than the word count of the source.
• Any string tags, variants, or keys.
• Any character limit applied to the translation will be detailed under max length. 

Scroll down to find the translation details, which includes:

• The name of the workflow name that the string is progressing through.
• The workflow step the string is currently in.

Views

There are two primary views for the new strings interface; Source and Translations. By default, you will enter the Translations view. To enter the Source view, check "Show source language only" under the Languages filter.

The Source view is only available to content owners, not linguists/vendors.

Additionally, you can customize the strings view.

Translation Strings View - Search Results

Reviewing and managing strings in the translation view will allow you to carry out bulk actions across multiple languages, as well as;

1. Viewing strings that are Awaiting Authorization, In Progress, and Excluded at the same time.
2. Applying any filter listed on the left-hand panel.

Source Strings View - Strings Results

Reviewing and managing your strings in the source view can be more efficient, as it removes any translations from your view and allows you to focus on the source content. You can apply many actions to the source string which will be applied to your target language translations. 

When viewing by source language we show the source string and its source metadata (File/URL name) as well as a summary of its status.  Status is calculated based on the status for all the language pairs.

Custom Strings View

You can customize the columns and re-arrange their order to suit your preference. To find out more, read our documentation on customizing your Strings View.

Search Results and Counters

The counter in the results is the count of the source strings that match your filter.

When looking at multiple target languages (the default), a source string will be repeated for each row with its current translation.

You will see more results (rows) than the number of the string counts shown if you are looking at multiple languages. Example:

The count of this result is 1 string (2 words). "Hello" is one source string, listed twice for both translations (2 words).

The translation search results use dynamic pagination. When searching across multiple languages, a result will never split a single source string and its translations across multiple pages, meaning all the translations for a single string will always be shown on the same page.

As a result, the number of individual source strings that will be shown on a single page, and the number of results shown on a single page are dynamic. They adjust automatically depending on the total result set and the number of languages selected.

Strings View Filters

Search for strings with the filters on the left area. Reset your search with the link at the top. You can also save your string searches for the future.

The available filters will change depending on the view you are using. The following translation-related filters are not available when using the Source view: Languages, Translation keyword, Issues, Assignment, Translations and Workflow.

"Save Preferences"

Methods of Searching

1. Search separately by text in the source string and text in the current translation.
2. Search for exact strings by "quoting". However, this won't work for strings with placeholders or HTML markup.
   
   
   Will return any string with the word “content” in it.
   
   
   Will return only the string that is exactly the single word, “content”.
3. You can limit results to one specific File or URL by clicking the exact match checkbox.
4. Search is not case-sensitive, even exact search.
5. All filters are combined using logical “AND”; you may get zero results when combining filters, even if an individual filter would have some results.
6. The behavior of the History filter has been updated.  The "preselected" date ranges (e.g. last 24 hours) are now dynamic.  The URL for the filter (and eventually saved searches with that filter, a forthcoming feature) will use the range relative to the time the page is being loaded. So you can get different results if you run the same filter today vs. tomorrow (or even 5 minutes or one hour later) because it’s really last 24 hours from the time the page is loaded.  If you want to share a search or revisit a search for a specific time range use the Custom date range options to specify the exact time range.  A saved search or shared URL with a custom range should produce the same results over time (assuming nothing else changes).
7. The History filter continues to have limitations for how many results can be returned.  The UX provides explicit feedback when a search using History can not be returned.  You can narrow your history or remove it from the search.

Wildcard Searching

When searching for text-based fields you can use the * character as a wildcard to match anything. This is especially useful for the following use cases:

1. To find a string that includes a placeholder. Although Smartling will show the placeholder in the string, the only way to find the string including the placeholder is to use a wildcard.
   1. Example: Hello, *
   2. Will match Hello, ${firstName}
   3. Will not match Why, hello there!
2. To find multiple strings that are similar in the form they start with or end with.
   1. Example: Good *!
   2. Will match: Good morning!, Good evening! Good afternoon! Good job!
   3. Will not match: Goodbye! G'day! Good riddance.
3. To refine your search for a string that otherwise results in getting too many results from our standard similar match results.
4. To find strings that have HTML markup inside them

If you want to match an actual * character that is part of your text you can use \* to match exactly one * character in the filter.

You can save any filter-set used in the Account Strings View. For more information, read Saved Searches. 

Actions

Source Actions vs. Translation Actions

Certain actions apply to the language-specific translation that is selected, while other actions apply to the source string, regardless of which language is selected. Depending on the action, and the view, the application will operate on the source string of the translation.

For example, if you are looking at a translation view result set that includes just one string that is "In Progress" across five languages, you will have five items (rows) in the result. If you choose the result for language1 and then take the action to "Add instructions", that instruction is applied to the source string. Therefore, the instruction that is added will be shown no matter what language someone is working on for that string.

String instructions are applied to the source string and are shown for all languages.

Given the same result set (1 string for 5 languages). If you select the row for language1 and then choose the action to Submit to the next workflow step, that action will only apply to the language and translation selected, since submitting is a language/translation specific action.

Similarly - when you request translation using the translations view, you are taking actions on the specific language that is selected. If you request translation from the source strings view, the application will ask you for which languages you want to request translation.

Not all actions can be applied to all selected strings or translations.

The application will attempt to take the requested action on all selected strings. But it does not validate if that action actually can be applied. If it is not applicable, the action will not be performed, and it will silently fail. No feedback is provided in this case.

Reload the page after you perform an action to see the updated results. Depending on your current filter, and the action just performed, you may get a smaller or larger result set. You may need to update your filter to see the strings or translations that you just took an action on.

String View - Actions

Some Language-specific actions are not available in the source view. For those that are available, the application will ask you to specify the language for your action if needed.  Following is a summary of a few actions and how they differ between the string translations view and the source string view.

Bulk Actions and Select All

All actions are now "bulk" actions and will apply to all selected strings. (You must make a selection before you can take any action.)

You can select/check a string on one page, navigate to another page, select other items, and then take an action, and the application will remember exactly which items you have selected, regardless of the page you are currently viewing.

You can also take an action on all the items in a result set without navigating to all the result pages. To perform an action on the entire result set:

1. Select the All on this page checkbox that is in the table's header row.
   
   
   "All on page" checkbox:
   
2. Choose the Select all matching current filter option that appears after you have selected all on the page.
   

Quick Edit

If you need to make changes to translated content quickly, Account Owners and Project Managers can do so directly from the Strings View via Quick Edits.

Filters and Actions - Users

The filters and available actions depend on your role.  Content owners see all the filters and actions available for the Strings View and linguists see a subset of them.  Similarly, the results of a filter may differ slightly between roles because of other permission differences. The application will retain the filters that can be applied for the linguist, but omit any which are not available to the linguist.  Therefore, if a content owner shares a link with linguist they might see different results.

Examples of reasons why the linguist will see different results than a content owner for a given filter:

1. Workflow (Awaiting Authorization)
   1. Linguists do not see content that has not been authorized. Any filter that includes awaiting authorization can result in different results when viewed by a content owner vs a linguist.
2. Workflow + language permissions
   1. Linguists are given access to specific workflow steps in specific languages.  If a content owner shares a URL for a language that the linguist has no permissions to then they will not see any strings/translations.

Read Only translations for linguists

In the new Strings View linguists will have a new experience for seeing content in the projects where they have been given access to work on specific workflow steps and languages. Linguists can now see translations in all steps of a workflow, before or after the steps that they have been assigned to (for the languages that have access to).

Strings in these steps, they will be labeled "Read Only".  Linguists cannot edit the strings/translation when they are in Read Only steps. This gives linguists more visibility into content that might be in the steps before or after the step where they will be working.  

The workflow filter will include a shortcut to filter the Strings View for just the steps they need to work on.  In the Workflows filter click "My Steps Only" to quickly view just the strings you need to work. If a workflow is configured to use "assignment" but the translation has not yet been assigned, it will simply show with an "unassigned" label. The translation will not be editable until it is assigned to a linguist. If it's not assigned to the linguist viewing, it will simply show who is assigned and be un-editable.