How do I translate using a "pivot" source language?

Most of FICO's documentation is authored in English. However, we have a small group that authors in German. The German source text is then translated to English. We want to use the English translations as the source language (the "pivot" language) to translate into other languages. How can we accomplish this in the tools?

Parents
  • Dear Elizabeth,

    You can accomplish this by extending the Translation Management configuration with the language paths required for you setup.
    So if you introduce a language path which will allow you to create 'English' translations from the 'German' source language, this means that you can translate the 'German' content into 'English'

    As soon as the 'English' content is released the normal language path starting from 'English' will allow you to create the respective/required language variants.

    So in SDL TD 14 syntax this kind of configuration would like like:

    Example shows setup to support 'German' to 'English' and 'English' to 'French', 'Dutch', 'German' and 'Spanish'


    <languagepaths>
            <languagepath from="en" to="fr"/>
            <languagepath from="en" to="nl"/>
            <languagepath from="en" to="de"/>
            <languagepath from="en" to="es"/>
            <languagepath from="de" to="en"/>
    </languagepaths>

    I hope this helps setting up the 'pivot' language.

    Kind Regards,
    Raf

  • Hi Raf - we are on LCA still. Attached are our XML Translation Settings. Can you help me figure out what to edit here? 

    <InfoShareTranslations version="1.0">
    	<parameters>
    		<parameter name="deletedElements">no</parameter>
    		<parameter name="chgAttribute">no</parameter>
    		<parameter name="ResolutionRestriction">
    			<!--Resolution ishvaluetype="element">VRESLOW</Resolution>
    			<Resolution>High</Resolution-->
    		</parameter>
    		<parameter name="isNumericRegExp">[0-9,\.,\,]+</parameter>
    		<parameter name="MaxInheritedLanguageDepth">0</parameter>
    		<parameter name="objectInfoOnRoot">no</parameter>
    	</parameters>
    	<InfoshareTranslationMgmts>
    		<InfoshareTranslationMgmt>
    			<languageList>
    				<language>
    					<ISHField ref="FAUTHOR"/>
    					<ISHField ref="FTRANSLATOR"/>
    				</language>
    			</languageList>
    		</InfoshareTranslationMgmt>
    	</InfoshareTranslationMgmts>
    	<GenerationScheme>
    		<FromLanguage ref="EN-US">
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-MX"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-XM"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="EN-GB"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR-CA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="DE"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="IT"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="JA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="KO"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="PT-BR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="TR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-CN"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-TW"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="RU"/>
    		</FromLanguage>
    		<FromLanguage ref="DE">
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-MX"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-XM"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="EN-GB"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR-CA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="EN-US"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="IT"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="JA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="KO"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="PT-BR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="TR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-CN"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-TW"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="RU"/>
    		</FromLanguage>
    	</GenerationScheme>
    	<!-- Disabled Pre-Translation - cfr Email 20081201 - [Fair Isaac] Pre-translation confirmation - Nigel Lock
    	<ComparisonElements>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/section ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/example ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/shortdesc ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/table ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/row ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/ol ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/ul ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/li ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/sli ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/title ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/alt ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/indexterms ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/term ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/tm ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/fn ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/xref ')]</xPath>
    	</ComparisonElements>
    	-->
    	<ComparisonElements/>
    </InfoShareTranslations>
    

Reply
  • Hi Raf - we are on LCA still. Attached are our XML Translation Settings. Can you help me figure out what to edit here? 

    <InfoShareTranslations version="1.0">
    	<parameters>
    		<parameter name="deletedElements">no</parameter>
    		<parameter name="chgAttribute">no</parameter>
    		<parameter name="ResolutionRestriction">
    			<!--Resolution ishvaluetype="element">VRESLOW</Resolution>
    			<Resolution>High</Resolution-->
    		</parameter>
    		<parameter name="isNumericRegExp">[0-9,\.,\,]+</parameter>
    		<parameter name="MaxInheritedLanguageDepth">0</parameter>
    		<parameter name="objectInfoOnRoot">no</parameter>
    	</parameters>
    	<InfoshareTranslationMgmts>
    		<InfoshareTranslationMgmt>
    			<languageList>
    				<language>
    					<ISHField ref="FAUTHOR"/>
    					<ISHField ref="FTRANSLATOR"/>
    				</language>
    			</languageList>
    		</InfoshareTranslationMgmt>
    	</InfoshareTranslationMgmts>
    	<GenerationScheme>
    		<FromLanguage ref="EN-US">
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-MX"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-XM"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="EN-GB"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR-CA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="DE"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="IT"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="JA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="KO"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="PT-BR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="TR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-CN"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-TW"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="RU"/>
    		</FromLanguage>
    		<FromLanguage ref="DE">
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-MX"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ES-XM"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="EN-GB"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="FR-CA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="EN-US"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="IT"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="JA"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="KO"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="PT-BR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="TR"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-CN"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="ZH-TW"/>
    			<ToLanguage ref="RU"/>
    		</FromLanguage>
    	</GenerationScheme>
    	<!-- Disabled Pre-Translation - cfr Email 20081201 - [Fair Isaac] Pre-translation confirmation - Nigel Lock
    	<ComparisonElements>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/section ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/example ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/shortdesc ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/table ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/row ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/ol ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/ul ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/li ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/sli ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/title ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/alt ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/indexterms ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/term ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/tm ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/fn ')]</xPath>
    		<xPath>//*[contains(@class,' topic/xref ')]</xPath>
    	</ComparisonElements>
    	-->
    	<ComparisonElements/>
    </InfoShareTranslations>
    

Children
  • Hi Elizabeth,

    Looking at the Configuration you provided above it is allowed in your system to translate from either "DE" or "EN-US" to any other language.

    Hence in your case you have the unpredictability of which language will be used to translate towards for example "RU".

    If you want to restrict the translation process in such a way that "DE" can only be translated into "EN-US" and all other languages need to be generated from "EN-US" I would go for the following configuration in the <GenerationScheme> element.

        <GenerationScheme>
            <FromLanguage ref="EN-US">
                <ToLanguage ref="ES-ES"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="ES-MX"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="ES"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="ES-XM"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="EN-GB"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="FR"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="FR-CA"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="DE"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="IT"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="JA"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="KO"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="PT-BR"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="TR"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="ZH-CN"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="ZH-TW"/>
                <ToLanguage ref="RU"/>
            </FromLanguage>
            <FromLanguage ref="DE">
                <ToLanguage ref="EN-US"/>
            </FromLanguage>
        </GenerationScheme>

    With this configuration the "DE" authored content can only be translated into "EN-US" and once this "EN-US" variant is released, the other languages can be generated from that content.

    In the original configuration (where "DE" content could be translated into any language) the system had two options to generated the "RU" language variant and hence picked randomly one of the allowed starting points.

    I hope this helps,

    Raf

  • And upgrade from version 11.0.x so you have the option of the more controlled languagepath configuration besides many more improvements :-)

  • trust me, we are trying Slight smile. we do only translate from DE to EN-US, so your suggested edit appears to be working for us now. I will let you if we run into any snags. Thank you!