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We are using SDL Web Cloud (8.6) in combination with Cloud TMS. We want to translate Structure Groups and some Pages, so that URLs and the menu (which is based on structure group titles/meta) are translated.

If we send a Structure Group for translation, then it appears that all pages (and their components) are sent for translation, but not the structure group itself - the exact opposite of what we want.

If we send a page for translation, we can see that the filename of the page is translatable, but it is not clear for the translators that this is a URL/filename, so they will mistranslate it (adding spaces or special characters)

Ideally we would like to have a special kind of job, to translate site structure, which only sent the structure groups (and sub structure groups) for translation + pages (only the page, not the components). For this special kind of job, we could make it clear to the translators that this was site structure (so URL translation rules could be applied). Is this possible?

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Just a quick info, in the answer below I will be using the "TMS" acronym for translation management systems. The "actual" SDL TMS I will write with bold letters.

Each translation workflow in Tridion corresponds to a workflow in a translation management system (TMS) (be it WorldServer or TMS (am unsure about LanguageCloud)). These workflows are made available in the Translation tab in the Publication properties by the Translation Manager (TM) plugin. It uses the APIs of the TMSs to retrieve this information.

On the other end, each workflow within the TMSs is custom built to cater to various customers and their special translation needs by incorporating various human and automatic steps (much like Tridion's workflow). You can have multiple workflows (and associate them to different publications or even item types). Having in mind that the TMS workflows are custom built, it's just a matter of clearly communicating to the translation project manager (PM) (of your project withing the TMSs) that you require a special kind of translation (URL translation rules as you call them), and then use that workflow for sending the relevant translation jobs. The special translation need can then be communicated to the translators by some method from within the TMS (custom attributes in WorldServer for example), or by simply knowing that the translation project was created based off of the special workflow.

Now addressing the 1st part of the question, well, if not possible to send a SG or Page direclty, you could create some custom code to send only the needed data. For example: you could have a CoreService code which:

  • Runs through all the Structure Groups and Pages under a given entry point,
  • Reads the 'to be tranlsated' data and write the values as key value pairs to a Component: 'tcm_id_of_the_source_item'-'to be tranlsated value(directory or filename)'.

Afterwards:

  • Using the TM API, you could send just this Component to translation using the "special" workflow.
  • Once the Component is retrieved, you can again have a custom code which goes through all the items, localizes and updates the with the received values.
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  • Thanks Atila... Good ideas and food for thought. I suspect we will try to keep it simple and just export the structure in Excel or some other data format which we can pass through TMS offline from the CMS and then import again. I will update with further findings
    – Will Price
    Commented Nov 20, 2018 at 20:20
  • Would the Excel solution be simple as in "simple to understand" or simple as in "simple to maintain a translated side with fast turnaround and minimal errors over the next X years". Those two "simple" are not necessarily the same thing. TM is fully customizable with events that can control which items are send and the exact XML send for each item. So maybe that offers a better approach than moving the text out in components or Excel files.
    – Lars Møllebjerg
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 6:36

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