Connect Salesforce Lightning Knowledge to Smartling

Please note that this Connector is a paid product. For pricing information, please reach out to your Smartling Customer Success Manager.

With the Salesforce Knowledge connector, you can translate Salesforce Knowledge Base articles in Smartling and upload translated content back into Salesforce. The Smartling Connector supports both Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic. 

This article outlines the steps to connecting Smartling with Salesforce Lightning. For information on how to connect Smartling to Salesforce Classic, read this article.

Configuring Salesforce Lightning

1. Enable and set up your Salesforce Knowledge Lightning account.
2. To install the Smartling Connector Package, contact your Smartling Representative to obtain the Package link. Once you have installed the Package, proceed with the next steps.
3. Choose whether to install for All users or Admins only.
4. Enable languages in Knowledge Settings. Ensure all target languages are Active.
5. Create or edit an existing profile.
   • Under “Administrative permissions” check: “API Enabled”.
   • This is required for the Smartling Connector to access the articles.
   • Under "Knowledge Base permissions" check “Read, Create, Edit” permissions.
   • This is required for the Smartling Connector to read articles and detect changes to the content.
   • Additionally, some editions of Salesforce Knowledge Lightning, such as "Unlimited", must have the "manage all knowledge" permission enabled for the Profile to integrate the connector successfully
   • Under the “General user permissions” check:
     • “Manage articles” - This is required for creating translations.
     • “Article Translation - Edit”, “Article Translation - Publish”, “Article Translation - Submit for Translation” -  This is required for managing translations.
     • “View Archived Articles”, “View draft articles” - This is required for listing articles in the Smartling Dashboard.
6. Create new or edit an existing user: 
   • Click on the user profile
   • Check "Knowledge User" - This is required for accessing and creating draft articles

Configure Smartling

1. Create a SFKB Connector project type in your Smartling account.
2. From within this project, click Project Settings > Salesforce Knowledge Base Settings.
3. Choose to connect Smartling to a sandbox or production environment.
4. Follow the steps to log into your SFKB.

Your Salesforce Knowledge Base instance will now be connected to your Smartling project.

SFKB Connector Configuration

General 

You can configure how the connector behaves when your source content changes. 

1. From within your Smartling SFKB Project, click on Project Settings > SFKB Settings
2. Click the Automaton of Prior Requests for Translation dropdown to select your desired behavior.
3. Click Save

Automation of Prior Requests for Translation

• Auto: The SFKB Connector will detect changes to previously submitted source content every three hours. Any detected updates are batched into a Job and sit in awaiting authorization. However, if auto-authorize is enabled under Smartling Settings, the updated content is automatically authorized for translation. This feature does not detect content in new assets—only updates to content from assets previously submitted for translation. In other words, if an asset is brand new and has never been requested for translation, its content will not be picked up by this automation. See additional details here. 
• Manual: The SFKB Connector will detect changes to source content every 3 hours, but will not submit new content for translation. Changed content will be indicated by a checkmark in the Outdated column in the SFKB Asset List. 
• Disabled: The SFKB Connector will not detect changes to source content or automatically submit new changes.

3 hours is the recommended shortest time duration between checks. Talk to your Solutions Architect about changing the frequency to longer wave periods using cron.

Delivery Options

Delivery Options determine whether delivered translations should be published in Salesforce Knowledge.

• Always publish: Smartling will publish an article after successful delivery, even if the source article was in a Draft state.
• Never publish: Smartling will deliver translations in a Draft state.

Upload Options

Each SFKB article can have one or more versions. The two different types are: Draft and Published. 

The Upload Options setting determines which version (Draft or Published) is used as the source for translation. The options include:

Draft version is preferred

• If the article only has a Draft version, the Draft version is used.
• If the article has both Draft and Published versions, the Draft version is used.
• If the article only has a Published version, the Published version is used (since there is no Draft).

Published version is preferred

• If the article only has a Published version, the Published version is used.
• If the article has both Draft and Published versions, the Published version is used.
• If the article only has a Draft version, the Draft version is used (since there is no Published version). 

When Does the Connector Use the "Upload Options" Setting?

The Upload Options configuration is used in the following scenarios:

1. When a user requests translation, and the connector ingests the source content into Smartling.
2. When Automation of Prior Requests for Translation is enabled (i.e., not set to “Disabled”), and the connector checks for content updates and re-ingests the source content. 

What Happens When You Change the Upload Option Setting?

• Changes to the Upload Options setting only apply to new translation requests. 
• The connector does not immediately re-upload all articles. 
• However, new content may be ingested due to the Automation of Prior Requests for Translation setting, which checks for updates. If you change the preferred version, you may see new content, as the connector could ingest new strings that were not present in the previously selected version (i.e., the Draft or Published version contains new or different content). 

Language Configuration 

1. From within your Smartling SFKB Project, click on Project Settings > SFKB Settings
2. In the Language Configuration section, you will see the number of target languages in your Smartling project. These details should match dropdown menus with your SFKB language configuration
3. Choose the correct target language from the dropdown menu to map the language in your SFKB language configuration to your Smartling project target language
4. Click Save

If you decide to change any language mapping after completing the initial configuration, contact your Customer Success Manager or Solutions Architect to assist in reconfiguring target language mapping in Smartling. 

Content Parsing

Under Content Parsing: 

• Select your Salesforce Article Types and click Save. 
• Select the type of content each article section will be made up of (for example, HTML for the body).
• Click Save. 

Lightning Knowledge 

If you are using Salesforce Lightning, you must select Use Lightning Knowledge instead of Classic.

Smartling Settings

Talk to your Customer Success Manager or Solutions Architect about options on auto-authorization, translation retrieval, and file namespace.

Your Customer Success Manager or Solutions Architect will be able to help configure your desired placeholder format using custom placeholder (regular expression). Content matching this regular expression will not be editable by translators.

Your Salesforce Knowledge connector is now configured and articles are automatically downloaded to Smartling for translation.

Ready to begin translating SFKB Content? Learn how in our Salesforce Knowledge Base translation guide.

For more information on translating Salesforce Knowledge articles, read their documentation.