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Setting Up Your Contentful (Entries) Connector

Before getting started

If you’re interested in using the Contentful (Entries) Connector, please contact your Solution Architect or another Smartling representative, as some parts of the setup process must be handled by our team. You will need to provide Smartling with the container content type you want to use for translation.

For entry-level localization in Contentful, you'll set up a content type that serves as the container for your localized content. For reference, see the example described here. Our team will need this information to configure your connector project.

The setup process is largely the same as for the Contentful (Fields) Connector. As such, many of the resources below will link to Contentful (Fields) help articles.

Please contact our team before beginning the setup process below to ensure your project is configured correctly.

Step 1: Create a dedicated user for the connector

Before connecting Smartling to your Contentful account, you need to create a dedicated service user that will act on behalf of the connector. This account will update your entries with translations. We strongly recommend creating a dedicated service user with a self-descriptive name (e.g., Smartling Connector, smartling@yourbusinessname.com) rather than using an employee account. This ensures continuity if the employee leaves your organization or their permissions change.

Follow steps 1 and 2 outlined here to create the service user and grant the required permissions.

Step 2: Enable localization in Contentful 

Before using the connector you will need to make a couple configuration changes to your Contentful account. 

Be sure to enable the required languages and flag content for translation as described in this article. Only your top-level entry (i.e., the “container”) needs to have localizable fields, meaning the Enable localization of this field checkbox should be selected for the fields you want to translate.
 

Step 3: Create a dedicated Smartling project for the connector

You must create one dedicated Smartling project per Contentful environment. If you have multiple Contentful environments, 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 "Contentful (Entries)" as the connector type.
  4. Choose your desired linguistic package or create a new one, and add the source and target languages.  

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 4: Connect Contentful to Smartling

Before completing this step, make sure you are logged in as the dedicated service user you created in Step 1. This will ensure that you connect Contentful to Smartling, using the appropriate account. 

  1. Navigate to your Contentful (Entries) Connector project in Smartling
  2. Click the Settings tab > Contentful Settings > Connect to Contentful
    connect-contentful.png
  3. A modal will appear where you can select the environment, space, and source locale to use for your project. 
    connection-modal.png
  4. Click Save to complete the connection.
     

Step 5: Configure the connector

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

The connector settings are largely the same as the field-level version of the connector. Click the links below for details on each of the settings.

Now, you're ready to start Translating with the Contentful (Entries) Connector.

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