Setting Up Your Sitecore XM Cloud Connector

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

If you are currently using Smartling’s connector for Sitecore XP and would like to migrate to the Sitecore XM Cloud Connector, please contact your Smartling representative for guidance.

Authentication prerequisites

Before setting up the connector, make sure you have created environment-level credentials and obtained your environment host name. You’ll need this information when completing step two below: connecting Sitecore to Smartling.

Access to these items requires either Organization Admin or Organization Owner roles in the Sitecore Cloud Portal. Regular users cannot access XM Cloud Deploy without role elevation. 

Create environment-level credentials

You'll need to create environment-level credentials to set up the connector to access CM instance APIs of specific environments. To do so:

1. Navigate to the XM Cloud Deploy app at https://deploy.sitecorecloud.io/
2. In the Deploy app, navigate to Credentials
3. Select the Environment tab
4. Click Create credentials > Automation client
5. Enter a "Smartling Integration" Label and optional Description
6. Select the target Project and Environment from the drop-down menus
   
7. Click Create and save credentials. You will use them to connect the Smartling connector in the Smartling dashboard.

Obtaining environment host names

You'll also need to obtain an environment-specific URL as part of the connector setup. 

1. Navigate to XM Cloud Deploy app
2. Go to Projects → Select your project → Select your environment
3. Click the Details tab
4. Locate the Environment host name field
   Environment URLs follow the pattern:
   https://xmc-{unique-identifier}.sitecorecloud.io/
    

Step 1: Create a dedicated Smartling project for the Sitecore Connector

You must create one dedicated Smartling project for each Sitecore site. XM Cloud follows this structure: Organization/Account > Project > Environment > Site Collection > Site. If you have multiple Sitecore sites, you will need to create a separate Smartling project for each one.

1. Create a new project in Smartling.
2. Select the project type "Connector".
3. Select "Sitecore XMC" as your connecting platform.
4. Choose your desired source and target locales. 

Once the project has been created, ensure that all workflows, linguistic assets, and team members are set up correctly. In particular, we recommend checking that the default workflows for all of your target languages are set up according to your preferences. If auto-authorization is enabled in your Smartling settings, these workflows will be used automatically for all translation requests through the connector. 

Step 2: Connect Sitecore to Smartling

1. Navigate to your Sitecore XMC Connector project in Smartling.
2. Click the Settings tab > Sitecore XMC Settings > Connect to Sitecore.
3. A connection modal will appear. Complete the following fields:
   
   • Host Name: Enter your environment host name.
   • Client ID: Enter the client ID from your credentials.
   • Client Secret: Enter the client secret from your credentials.
4. Click Test Connection to verify the connection is successful.
5. Click Save Connection.
6. Next, another connection modal will appear. 
   
   • Source Path: Click into the empty field, it will display the folder structure of your Sitecore content, making it easy to select the appropriate source path that contains the content you wish to translate.
   • Source Language: Select the source language from the drop-down menu.
7. Click Save Connection. 

Step 3: Configure the Sitecore XMC Connector

Once you have successfully connected your Sitecore site to Smartling, complete the following configurations within the Sitecore XMC Settings page by navigating to the project > Settings tab > Sitecore XMC Settings. 

• General
• Language Configuration
• Translatable Templates
• Content Parsing
• Smartling Settings

General 

Automation of Prior Requests for Translation 

This setting controls how you want the connector to monitor changes to content that has already been requested for translation in Smartling. 

Options include: 

• Auto: The 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 connector checks for changes to source content every 3 hours but does not automatically submit updates for translation.
• Disabled: The connector does not check for changes to source content.

Three hours is the shortest recommended duration between checks. Consult your Solution Architect to adjust the frequency to a longer interval using cron. 

Language configuration 

In the Language Configuration section, you will see the target languages for the project. The first time you open this page, you will find a blank field to the left of each of the Smartling target languages. For each Smartling target language, select the appropriate Sitecore language from the drop-down menu.

Click the checkmark to save each mapping. 

Any language left blank will not appear in the list of target languages when requesting content for translation in Smartling. 

Each time you add a new language to the project, you must map that language in the connector settings.

1. From within your Sitecore XMC project, click on the Settings tab > Sitecore XMC Settings.
2. Select the appropriate language from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the checkmark to save each mapping. 
   
   
    

Translatable templates

Sitecore XM Cloud comes with a large number of pre-configured templates, many of which are required to determine the structure of your site, but will not be relevant for localization purposes. To reduce the processing time of your translation requests, Smartling will only take into consideration those templates or template folders that are added under the "Translatable Templates" setting in Smartling. Content using a template which is not added here will never be displayed as localizable content in your Smartling project.

To make the localization process easier, Smartling recommends organizing all localizable templates into dedicated folders within Sitecore's Template Manager. In Smartling, it is possible to add an entire folder as a template path, or a specific template within that folder.

In the Translatable Templates section of the connector settings, define which templates you want to translate. The templates you select here determine which items are shown in the Content Parsing settings.

To add a template:

1. Click Add New Template.
2. A modal will open displaying your site structure.
3. Navigate through folders to select a specific template path, if desired.
4. Click Add Template to confirm your selection.

Please note that any fields that are marked as “Shared” in your Sitecore template will use the same content across all languages and therefore cannot be translated.

Content parsing 

Content parsing refers to the process of breaking content into translatable strings. Content parsing settings are only available for Items relevant to the templates you selected in the Translatable Templates configuration.  Use the drop-down menu to select how each field should be parsed.

Smartling settings

Talk to your Customer Success Manager or Solution Architect about options regarding auto-authorization, translation retrieval type, file versioning, and capturing custom placeholders. For more details, see the information linked here.