Smartling's Zapier App

Zapier is a web automation tool that simplifies workflows by connecting different applications. When a specific event occurs in one application, Zapier can automatically initiate a corresponding action in another platform. 

These automated workflows are called Zaps. By creating Zaps, users can connect thousands of applications and automate routine tasks that would otherwise require manual effort.

With Smartling’s Zapier app, you can automate localization processes, for example by:

• Integrating Smartling's machine or LLM translation capabilities directly into your existing Zapier workflows
• Receiving notifications in your communication app when certain events occur in Smartling
• Downloading translated content to your preferred file storage application
• And much more.

Tip: If you prefer watching over reading, join the Smartling Community for a video walkthrough.

How it works

Each Zap consists of a Trigger (the event that starts the workflow) and one or more Actions (what happens next). With Smartling’s Zapier app, you can set up Zaps to include translation and localization management capabilities.

Common Zap scenarios

1. Smartling trigger → Action in a connected app
Example: When an Issue is created in Smartling → Send a notification to your Slack channel
Use case: Keep your team informed about translation activities in real-time

2. Smartling trigger → Smartling action
Example: When a file is published in Smartling → Download the translated file from Smartling
Use case: Automate the retrieval of completed translations

3. Trigger event in a connected app → Smartling action
Example: When a new file is added to a specific Dropbox or Google Drive folder → Translate the file with your preferred MT or LLM provider, using Smartling's MT API
Use case: Automatically translate content as soon as it is uploaded to your cloud storage

You can also chain multiple actions together to create more complex, end-to-end translation workflows.

Tip: See below our catalog of Smartling events that can be set up as triggers as part of your Zap, as well as a list of all actions that can be initiated in Smartling.

Getting started

1. Visit Zapier's integration page.
2. Sign in to Zapier - Log into your existing account or create a new one.
3. Start building - A new draft Zap will be created automatically, or you can add the Smartling app from Zapier's apps section.
   • Optionally, click on the pin to add Smartling to your favorite apps. 
     
4. Configure your flow - Create and set up your Zap using the Zap Editor. 
   • When configuring Smartling as a connecting app, you will be asked to authenticate your account.
   • You can add Smartling triggers and/or actions to your Zap.
5. Test and activate - Verify your Zap works as expected before publishing it.
    

Connecting Zapier to your Smartling account

When setting up a Zap that includes Smartling triggers or actions, you will be asked to sign into your Smartling account. To verify your account, you will need to provide the following details: 

• API User Identifier
• API Token Secret

To generate these identifiers:

• Log into the Smartling dashboard.
  • Smartling's Zapier App can be set up and managed by users with an Account Owner or Project Manager role.
  • Account Owners can include up to 10 Smartling projects per Zap across all projects in their account.
  • Project Managers can configure Zaps for up to 10 Smartling projects, limited to the projects they have access to.
• Navigate to Account Settings > API.
  
• Generate an API token.
  • If an account token is used, up to 10 Smartling projects can be configured per Zap.
  • If a project token is used, only the project that the token is generated for can be configured in your Zap.
  • For more information, see API Tokens.
• Select a token name that is easily identifiable by you and your team.
• Copy and paste the user identifier and token secret from Smartling into the authentication dialog in Zapier.
  
• In the authentication dialog, confirm by clicking Yes, Continue to Smartling.
• Once your account has been successfully authenticated, it is now displayed in Zapier under Account.
  

Smartling triggers

The following triggers can be added to a Zap. When one of these trigger events occur in Smartling, one or more actions will be initiated, as configured in your Zap.

Files

Jobs

Issues

Configuring Smartling triggers

To configure a Smartling trigger:

• Select Smartling as the initial app when setting up a new trigger in your Zap.

• Then select the desired trigger event.

  

• Under Account, click Sign In to connect to your Smartling account. Follow the authentication process as described above.
• On the next screen, you will be able to select the Smartling project(s) you would like to configure for your Zap.
• Test the trigger to ensure that the connection with Smartling has been established successfully.
   

Smartling actions

The following actions can be initiated when as part of a Zap.

Files

Machine and LLM translation

Your preferred MT Profile for the above translation actions can be configured from the top navigation of your Smartling dashboard AI Hub > Instant MT > MT API.

Please note that using Smartling's Zapier app for machine or LLM translations counts towards your MT usage. You can track and monitor usage from your Account Dashboard or by viewing your MT Usage Report.

Request translation to create daily jobs

Configuring Smartling actions

To configure a Smartling action:

• Select Smartling as the connecting app when setting up a new action in your Zap.
• Then select the desired action event.
  
• Under Account, click Sign In to connect to your Smartling account. Follow the authentication process as described above.
• For actions where this is applicable, you will be able to select the Smartling project that you would like to configure for your Zap, as well as any additional required Smartling details on the next screen.
  Example:
  
• Test the step to ensure that the connection with Smartling has been established successfully.
   

Request Translation: Configuring translation jobs

Smartling's "Request Translation" action allows you to upload a file from a previous step in your Zap to your Smartling project for translation. New content gets batched into a daily bucket job, which can then be authorized into a workflow of your choice (either automatically or manually).

Tip: Before using this action, please ensure that any uploaded files will follow a localization-friendly format. Many file types require some preparation to ensure that the right text gets translated and any metadata is processed correctly. See our Introduction to Files, as well as Smartling's documentation on Supported File Types for more information about the file type you would like to translate.

To use the "Request Translation" action, follow these steps:

Set up a trigger event

In your Zap, create a step for your connecting application, and specify the desired trigger event.
For example, specify that an action should be triggered once a new file gets uploaded to your file storage application.

The polling schedule for this step indicates how often your Zap will check for new content.
Example:

In this example, your Zap will check for new files in your Google Drive folder every 15 minutes. Once the "Request Translation" option is configured, new content will be uploaded to Smartling following this same schedule.

Add a step for Smartling's "Request Translation" action

In your Zap, add a step for Smartling's "Request Translation" action:

• Add a step to your Zap.
• Select Smartling as your connecting application.
• Select the action event "Request Translation".
• Connect Zapier to your Smartling account.
• Click "Continue" to confirm.

Example:

Configure the Smartling project

On the next screen, you will need to configure all details for the translation jobs created with the "Request Translation" action.

Under Smartling Project, select the Smartling project that the file should be uploaded to. 
We recommend selecting a project that best captures the content type that will be sent for translation, and is accessible to the team working in Zapier.

Select the job type

Under Job Type, choose between daily jobs (default) or custom daily jobs. 

Info: With both types, a daily job will be created when the Zap runs and detects new content for translation. If a daily job has already been created for that day, the new content will be added to the existing job. 
The Daily Job option follows the default naming convention. If you wish to add a custom prefix to the job name or specify a Job Reference Number, select Custom Daily Job. More on these options below.

Daily Job (default)

Daily jobs follow the default naming convention: Daily bucket job for Zapier content {yyyy-MM-dd}.

Tip: The timezone used for the job creation date is UTC.

Custom Daily Job

If you select the job type "Custom Daily Job", you will need to specify a Job Custom Name Prefix (max. 75 characters). This job name prefix will be used as the job name in Smartling for all translation jobs created with this Zap, together with the default name and job creation date: [Job Custom Name Prefix] Daily bucket job for Zapier content {yyyy-MM-dd}.
We recommend choosing a job name prefix that indicates the content source (e.g. the Google Drive folder where files are uploaded from), as this may help with troubleshooting.

Custom Daily Jobs also allow you to specify an optional Job Reference Number (max. 100 characters). This field can contain both numbers and letters, and can be used to add a reference to the request source (such as a Dropbox folder name, a Jira ticket or Trello Card ID). This can help identify where the content of a translation job originated.
In Smartling, this Job Reference Number will be displayed on the job details page, under "Additional Details".

Note: If content from different sources is uploaded to one job (e.g., if two Zaps use the same job custom name prefix), the Reference Number field in the job will be overwritten every time the Zap runs.

Tip: If an existing daily or custom daily job is cancelled, deleted or closed, a new job is created (using the same job name as the previous daily job). If the previous job was closed, a sequence of alphanumeric characters is added as a suffix to the regular job name, in order to create a unique new job.

Target locales and authorization preferences

Target Locales

Select the Target Locales. All jobs created with your Zap will include the target locales selected here.
You can select any of the target locales which are currently set up in the Smartling project where the jobs will be created. Click "Choose Value" to add further target locales.
Example:

Authorize job for translation?

Under "Authorize job for translation?", choose whether you would like to enable auto-authorization.

• If the value "False" is selected, the jobs created with this Zap will be available in your Smartling Jobs Dashboard, where they will be "Awaiting Authorization". 
  • The jobs need to be authorized manually in order for the translation process to begin.
  • This setting is recommended, especially when a Zap first gets created or is modified, as it allows you to check the uploaded content before authorizing the jobs.
• If the value "True" is selected, all jobs created with this Zap will automatically be authorized for translation. 
  • You will be asked to select the desired Target Language Workflow. The workflow selected here will be used for all target locales.
    
  • If the Target Language Workflow selection is left blank, all target locales will use their respective default workflow as specified in your Smartling project settings.

Map the file data to the previous step in your Zap

To ensure that Smartling inherits the file data from the previous step in your Zap, the "File" and "File URI" fields need to be mapped to the file content and title provided in the connecting application.

File

Map the "File" field in Smartling's configuration to the file value configured in the previous step:

• Click on the plus sign (+) to open a menu of available values from previous steps in your Zap. 
• Navigate to the step in your Zap where the file to translate will be provided.
• Select the value "File". 

Example:

File URI

Map the "File URI" field in Smartling's configuration to the appropriate value. The File URI will be used as the file name in Smartling. In most cases, this should be mapped to the file's "Title" or "File Name".

• Click on the plus sign (+) to open a menu of available values from previous steps in your Zap. 
• Navigate to the step in your Zap where the file to translate will be provided.
• Depending on your connecting application, select the value "Title" or "File Name".

Example:

Tip: The "Title" or "File Name" value displays the file name used when testing the previous step in your Zap. This does not mean that only that specific file will be requested for translation. Any files that match the criteria defined in the previous Zap step will be uploaded to Smartling, even if they have different file names. Selecting the "Title" value simply means that Smartling will use each file's Title property from the previous step as the File URI.

File Type

This field specifies which file type(s) will be uploaded to Smartling for translation. This field should only be filled in if the file source can only have one specific file type.

• If the connected application will be sourcing only a specific file type, select the relevant file type from the dropdown menu.
• If there could be multiple file types uploaded for translation, leave this field blank for auto-detection. 
  Please note that auto-detection does not work for .xcstrings files. If this file type is used, select it from the dropdown menu.

Test step and publish the Zap

Test the step to ensure that the connection with Smartling has been established successfully. 

When you click Test step, a first daily bucket job gets created in your Smartling project. This job contains the file specified under "File URI". If, at the time when you publish your Zap, the specified location in your connecting application already contains multiple files to translate, run the Zap manually to add them to the first daily job.

If the test was successful, publish your Zap to activate it, or add a Looping step as needed.

Optional: Looping to request translations for multiple files

Smartling's "Request Translation" action adds one file to a job at a time. Whether this action needs to be looped depends on whether your Zap uses a single-object trigger or a multi-object trigger:

• If your connecting application uses a single-object trigger (e.g., one file at a time is added to a Google Drive folder), each new file will be added to the current daily bucket job, and Looping by Zapier is not required.
• However, if a previous step in your Zap connects to an application using a multi-object trigger (e.g., a trigger event for an “Updated Issue” in Jira), Zapier may receive a list of multiple files at once. This is often indicated by multiple values being stacked vertically in the test output for the trigger event. 
  Any following actions in your Zap do not run automatically once per item. Therefore, a Looping by Zapier step needs to be added to your Zap, in order to trigger the "Request Translation" action for every file in the list.

Tip: We recommend testing your Zap to confirm if Looping by Zapier is required to produce the desired results.

Static vs. custom values

For most fields in a Zap, it is possible to choose between static and custom (i.e. dynamic) values.

Static values are fixed pieces of data and remain the same every time the Zap runs. Custom (or dynamic) values are variables that pull in data from a previous step in the Zap and change each time the Zap runs.

Tip: We recommend using custom values by default whenever a Smartling step should inherit the relevant data from a previous step in the Zap.

Example of a Zap using custom values

For example, custom values can be helpful if your Zap includes multiple Smartling steps, where the second step should use the same data (e.g., the same project or files) as the first step.

Step 1 - File published in Smartling
Select the project(s) you want to monitor for published files as static values.

Step 2 - Download published files from Smartling
From the ellipses, set up a custom value to pull in data from step 1. This ensures that when files are published in any of the projects specified in step 1, they will be downloaded automatically. Data like the project name or the file URI will be applied dynamically once step 1 is completed. 

Managing Zaps

From your Zapier account, Zaps can be enabled, disabled or deleted as required.

 

Example Zap: Receive Slack notifications for completed translation jobs

The following is an example use case to illustrate how Zaps can be set up to connect Smartling with other applications used by your organization.

Tip: A video walkthrough for this use case is available in our Smartling Community.

To be notified in Slack when a translation job is completed, configure your Zap as follows:

• Under Trigger, select Smartling as the connecting app.
• Under Trigger event, select Translation Job Completed
  
• Under Account, sign into your Smartling account.
• Click Continue.
• On the next screen, select which Smartling projects you want to include in the Zap.
  
• Once you have selected all Smartling projects to include in the Zap, click Continue.
• Click Test trigger to check if the connection between Smartling and Zapier has been set up correctly.
  
• Once the trigger has been tested successfully, move on to step 2 to configure the corresponding action in Slack: Under Actions, select Slack as your connecting application.
• Under Action event, select how you would like to be notified about completed translation jobs, e.g. Send Channel Message or Send Private Channel Message.
  
• Under Account, sign into your Slack account.
• Once your Slack account has been successfully authenticated, click Continue to confirm.
• Under Channel, select the channel(s) that should receive notifications about completed translation jobs.
• Add the Zapier app to the selected channel(s).
• Under Message Text, specify the desired message text which will be sent when a translation job is completed. 
  
  • Click on the plus sign to add any details about the completed Smartling job that should be included in the Slack message. 
    
  • The available Smartling values can be included as placeholders in the message text. 
    For example, include the Smartling project and job name. 
    
• Complete all remaining details on this screen to configure how the Slack notification should be sent. Then click Continue to confirm.
• Click Test step to check if the connection between Slack and Smartling has been established successfully.
  
• You should now receive a success message in the configured Slack channel(s), which includes placeholders for the configured Smartling data.
  
• Click Publish to activate the Zap.
• When a translation job in one of the configured Smartling projects is completed, you will now receive a notification message in the configured Slack channel(s).