Using Multilingual

The multilingual capability in the Akumina Platform complements the core functionality.  For detailed information on how to enable and work with multilingual content, please watch the Multilingual Solution video tutorial:

You can navigate directly to a multilingual topic in the video using the following start times (mm:ss):

• Introduction
• Multilingual Approach Overview (1:03)
• Adding the Multilingual Feature key (Admins) (9:51)
• Deploying New and Adding to Existing Sites (Admins) (10:52)
• Language Manager (Admins) (13:29)
• Using Multilingual Content Apps (All) (17:52)
  • Author App Type (18:10)
  • Quicklinks App Type (26:42)
  • Slider App Type (27:47)
  • Non-multilingual Enabled Content Apps (29:11)

• Using Fallback (30:21)
• Site Specific setup for multilingual support (Admins) (32:32)
  • Search Term Setup (32:32)
  • Using "tokens" for Static Label Replacement (35:01)
  • Required List Columns (38:19)
  • Language Specific Widget Instances (41:08)

Using Multilingual Auto-Translate

The purpose of this topic is to provide the steps necessary to configure and use the Auto-Translate feature that is available for the Akumina Multilingual solution beginning with the 4.0 Release.  The Auto-Translate feature enables a content editor to automatically translate the text of the source language content item as part of generating the matching items for the additional languages.  In addition, it can be configured to translate only specific fields or be enabled only for specific Content Apps to help you govern the use of automatic translation.

Note: Auto-Translate uses the Microsoft Cognitive Services Text Translation service.  For the latest list of supported languages check the following URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator/languages.aspx

Step 1: Acquire a Microsoft Cognitive Services Translator resource key

To learn more about creating cognitive resource key, in your azure portal, please visit:  Create a Translator resource - Azure Cognitive Services | Microsoft Docs.

Akumina requires Region setting to be set to Global and recommends the price tier to be set to Standard (pay as you go).

Acquiring the Key:

Once the resource has been created select "Keys and Endpoint" and copy a key:

Step 2: Configure AppManager for Auto-Translate

In a Central and Delivery environment, login to your central site (on a Standalone site this will be done on the one existing site) as a Site Administrator and visit Settings and click on the "License" tile.

On the license page, scroll down and enter the above acquired key, into the Auto-Translate input field, and click on "Activate Key"

Enable Content Apps for Auto-Translate

Each Content App can be individually enabled for auto-translation.  This allows you to choose on which apps and which content auto-translation is appropriate.

Visit Settings > Content Settings (tile)

Select a Content App to enable for auto-translation and edit its settings (only Author and Slider App Types can be enabled)

There are two areas to configure for each content app.

• Under the “Columns” section, you can select the text fields that you want to enable for auto-translation.  This allows you to control which sections of the content in each app can use auto-translation.  By default, all the text-based fields are selected.  Non-text based field types (such as date, checkbox and metadata) cannot be enabled for auto-translation.
• Next, you must enable Auto-Translate for the app.  This allows you to only make Auto-Translate available on those apps where it is appropriate to use.

Step 3: Using Auto-Translate in Content Apps

The Auto-Translate feature is available only for Author and Slider types of Content Apps.  It is not available for Quicklinks, File or Image Gallery app types.

There are two ways to use Auto-Translate in a Content App:

• As part of creating the Language Versions of a content item
• From within a content item to translate new text from another language

Creating Language Versions with Auto-Translate

As part of the “Create Language Version” process (for a content app enabled for Auto-Translate), you can choose to have the source language content translated to the target language(s) at the same time the target language(s) version is created.

Example:

The following is a content item in English. You want to create the Spanish version. Choose “Create Language Versions” to start the process.

The Create Language Versions dialog box is displayed.  The “Auto-Translate” option is shown as it is enabled for this content app (you always have the option to disable it should you not want to use it).  Select the Spanish language to create its version.  You can create versions and Auto-Translate more than one language at a time if needed.

When the new version is created, the text fields (such as Title and Body in this example) will have automatically been translated to the target (Spanish) language.  The fields that are translated will be those that were specified in the Content App Settings for this app.

Translating Fields Within the Current Content Item

You can also use Auto-Translate to re-translate selected fields in an existing content item.

For example, you may have an item in Spanish, but just received updated English text for the Body field of the item.  From within the Spanish version:

• Enter the new English text for the Body field (you cannot mix two languages in one field, so must replace the entire text in the field)
• Click on Auto-Translate
• You will be given the option to select the fields you want to translate.  Leaving all fields is technically fine as it will auto-detect the current language in the field and translate to the target (in this case Spanish).  You can disable fields that don’t need translation to reduce the time to process as well as the character counts against the monthly translation quota of the service.
• When the process completes, the content in the targeted field(s) will be translated into the current language.  Be sure to “Save” or “Publish” the content item to keep the new translated text.

Site Content Supported Languages

The following is a table of the languages supported for the front-end site content as part of the default Akumina installation (stored in the Languages_AK list). The table also indicates their default status when deployed.

NOTE: Although content management is supported for these languages, the "token" file will still need to be created for any enabled language(s) in order to automatically replace the static content on the site. See "Using "tokens" for Static Label Replacement" in the Multilingual Video.