Simple Website Translation Engine

 

 

Web Lite Solutions Corp.

SWeTE Quick-start Guide for Website Owners

This guide will help website owners to get up and running using Web Lite SWeTE to translate their website as quickly as possible. It is written in a tutorial format with steps for you to follow. If would like a more succinct summary of Web Lite SWeTE and what it can do for your website, please see the Quick Tour. If you are a translator and you are would like to see how to get started translating a website that is managed by SWeTE, please see the translator quick-start guide?.

Step 1: Signing up

The first step in getting SWeTE localizing your website is to sign up. The Sign-up form on the SWeTE website will get you running in the right direction.

The sign-up form will ask to you input the base URL of the website that you wish to translate (this should be a site that you own, or have permission to edit), the source language of the site, and the target languages that you wish to translate the site into. You'll be able to change these settings later, and add additional websites to translate once you have an account.

The SWeTE Sign-up form.

After you complete the sign-up form, you will receive an e-mail containing a snippet of HTML code to paste into any webpages that you wish to translate.

Step 2: Installing SWeTE in your Webpages

As a first example, let's consider a basic web page that simply displays "Hello World". The webpage source looks like: 

<html>
  <head>
   <title>Hello World</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Hello World!</p>
  </body>
</html>

After uploading this page to my website and loading it in my web browser, it looks like:

Our Hello World webpage before adding the SWeTE snippet to the page.

Now we will install SWeTE in this webpage to transform it into a multilingual webpage.

The HTML snippet that you received in your sign-up email is a special snippet as it instantly enables any webpage containing it to be displayed in multiple languages. Let's copy and paste this into our Hello World webpage. We paste the snippet of HTML so that it appears inside the body (i.e. between the <body></body> tags), and not the head of the document. A language selection menu will appear in the web page wherever this snippet is placed, so you may want to experiment later to find the best positioning for the snippet within your site design.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello World</title>
  </head>
  <body>
        
    <!-- Begin WebLite Translate Code -->
    
      ...
    <!-- End WebLite Translate Code -->

    <p>Hello World!</p>
  </body>
</html>

Please note that SWeTE will only work in the domain that you specified on the sign-up form. If you attempt to load your webpage from a different domain (including localhost), you'll just get a javascript error, and a never-ending message saying "Please wait...". Have no fear, however, as you can easily add an alias (alternative domain) for your site by logging into your SWeTE Control Panel? using the username and password (included in the SWeTE confirmation email you received after signing up) and adding your alternate domain. You can add as many alias domains as you like.

Now that you have placed the snippet into your sample webpage, it's time to test it out to make sure it worked properly. Open your web browser and navigate to the page where you added the snippet. You should see a language selector menu with flags and links to select your preferred language (based on the target languages you selected in the sign-up form. If this language selector does not appear, please see the following section on "Troubleshooting".

After placing the SWeTE code in our webpage we have a language selector for the user to choose his preferred language. In this case the site is set up only for English and Chinese, but other languages can be used.

Click on one of these languages to see the translated version of the page.

The first time the page loads it may take a few seconds (up to 30 seconds) for SWeTE to process the page and perform an initial machine translation of the text, so be patient. It will give you a message that says "Please wait..." until the translation is complete. Subsequent page requests will instant. If the "Please wait..." message does not disappear and/or you receive a javascript error, that likely means that something has gone wrong. Not to worry, please see the following section on "Troubleshooting" to fix the problem.

Clicking on the Chinese link shows us the Chinese translated version of our web page.

If everything went well you should see a translated version of your webpage. This translation will be a machine translation, meaning that it is likely poor. If you are concerned at all about your web site's image, you should not use a machine translation on your site unless it has been reviewed by a human. SWeTE allows you to easily modify or override this translation with your own translation. You can also configure your site settings to require your approval before a translation is shown to the public.

At this point, you can take some satisfaction in the fact that you have successfully internationalized one of your web pages, and you can do the same for all of your webpages by simply copying and pasting the same snippet of HTML code. Don't stop here, though. This is just the beginning.

Troubleshooting

Step 3: Configuring Your Website Translation Settings

When you signed up with SWeTE, you specified a few settings for the translations of your website such as the base URL of your website, the primary language of your site's content, and the target languages to which you wanted the site translated. SWeTE, however, gives you many more options with respect to the translation of your website. Some such options include:

  • Site Aliases. I.e. alternate base URLs for your site. For example if your main site is at http://mysite.com, but you have a development site for testing at http://dev.mysite.com, you'll probably want to add "http://dev.mysite.com" to your list of site aliases so that the translations will work on your test site also.
  • Requires Approval. By default all translations are shown to your public visitors. If you enable the "Requires Approval" feature for your website, then only approved translations will be shown. And you are the one who holds the stamp of approval. If you are using SWeTE as an alternative for machine translation, you can leave approval off. Otherwise it is best to enable the "Requires Approval" option for your site so that you maintain full control over what your visitors see. Remember, your website is your image. You don't want a poor machine translation to reflect badly on your image.
  • On changed email. You can specify an email address to send notifications to when your webpages are modified. This allows you to easily track which pages require retranslation.
  • Translators. By default, you are the only one who can translate your webpages. You can, however, specify other users who are allowed to translate webpages for your site. These translators aren't able to approve translations, but they can edit the translations and submit them to you for approval.
  • Managers. If you want other users to be able to manage your website translations, you can assign them as managers for your websites. Managers have full permission to translate pages, approve translations, and modify website settings. Think of a Manager as a proxy owner for your website.

In order to modify one or more of your website settings follow these steps:

  1. Log into the SWeTE Control Panel? using the username and password that you received in your sign-up email.
  2. Click on the Websites tab at the top of the page to see the websites that you own or have access to.
  3. This should bring up the website profile. Click on the "Edit" tab. This should bring up the edit form for your website with fields to modify many key options.

Step 4: Install the SWeTE Toolbar Button

The SWeTE Toolbar Button is a useful tool that makes the management of your website's translations much easier. It is a button that sits on your web browser's links bar (or bookmarks bar) and opens the SWeTE Toolbar? if it is clicked while you are viewing one of the web pages that contains the SWeTE HTML snippet. This toolbar appears along the top of the page and gives you access to many useful functions such as approving or retracting the current translation, submitting the page to be translated by a professional translator, or translating the page yourself. It will also display the current status of the translation so that you know if there is anything that you have to do to make it active.

Installing the SWeTE Toolbar Button on your links bar is just like adding any link to your links bar. The procedure varies from browser to browser, but we include instructions here for two major browsers: Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

Installing the SWeTE Toolbar Button in Internet Explorer

Watch Video Tutorial

  1. Before you begin, first make sure that Internet Explorer's links bar is enabled. If it is enabled, you will see a toolbar near the top of your browser window labeled "Links":
    The links bar in IE 7.
    Depending on the arrangement of your toolbars, this may appear to the right of another toolbar, but it will always be labeled "Links". If you don't see the toolbar, then it is not enabled. You need to enable it.
  2. If your toolbar is not enabled, click on the View menu at the top of the page and hover over the Toolbars menu option to see a fly-out menu with all of the different toolbars that Internet Explorer offers.
    The IE 7 View > Toolbars menu allows you to enable the Links menu if it does not appear on your toolbar.
    Make sure that "Links" is checked. If it is not, click it to check it. You should now see the "Links" toolbar at the top of your window.
  3. Log into SWeTE Control Panel? using the username and password provided to you in the sign-up email.
  4. Click on the dashboard tab at the top of the page.
  5. In the Translation Toolbar Button section in the left column, right click on the big gray Translation Toolbar link and select "Add to Favorites..." from the menu.
  6. You may see a security similar to the following illustration:
    If you try to add a javscript expression (like the [[SWeTE Toolbar Button]]) to your favorites in Internet Explorer 7, it will pop up with a security alert.
    Don't worry about this message. Internet Explorer displays this message any time you want to add a javascript function to your favorites, and the SWeTE translation toolbar button needs to perform some javascript functions in order to work properly. Click "Yes" to continue.
  7. Next you'll see a dialog to add the link to your Favorites:
    Select "Links" in the Create in: select list, and click the Add button.
  8. If everything went well, you should now see a button on your links bar labeled "Translation Toolbar". If you don't see it, don't panic. You may just have too many links on your toolbar so the link was added in the links bar's overflow menu. Notice on the right end of the links menu there is a little button with a double arrow.
    Click on this to reveal the rest of your link bar favorites, including (hopefully) your Translation Toolbar link.
  9. At this point, clicking on your new Translation Toolbar link won't do anything. It will simply say "Please drag this link to your toolbar". It is not until you are browsing one of your SWeTE enabled web pages that this link becomes useful.

Installing the SWeTE Toolbar Button in Mozilla Firefox

Watch the Video Tutorial

  1. Before you begin, first make sure that Firefox's Bookmarks toolbar is enabled. If it is enabled, you should see a horizontal strip of links (or buttons) along the top of your browser window, just below the address bar.
    If the links bar is not enabled, then we'll enable it by selecting View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar, from the top menus; ensuring that there is a checkmark beside the Bookmarks Toolbar option. If Firefox's bookmarks toolbar is enabled, then you can move onto the next step. Log into SWeTE Control Panel? with the username and password provided to you in your sign-up email.
  2. Click on the Dashboard tab along the top of the page so that you are on your dashboard.
  3. In the Translation Toolbar Button section in the left column, you should see a big gray button labeled "Translation Toolbar". Using your mouse, drag this link up to your bookmarks toolbar. You will be prompted for a name for this bookmark. Just click OK.
  4. You should now see a link on your toolbar called "Translation Toolbar" exactly where you dragged it.
  5. At this point, clicking on your new Translation Toolbar link won't do anything. It will simply say "Please drag this link to your toolbar". It is not until you are browsing one of your SWeTE enabled web pages that this link becomes useful.

Step 5: Adding Webpages for Translation

There are two ways to add a webpage to be translated by SWeTE.

  1. By navigating to it in your web browser.
  2. Through the SWeTE Control Panel?

Method 1: Navigating to it in your web browser

Follow these steps to add a page to be translated in SWeTE.

  1. Copy and paste the SWeTE HTML snippet for the website into your webpage's <body>. (i.e. not inside the <head>).
  2. Navigate to the page in your web browser. You should see a language selection menu with flags to select a translation.
  3. In the language selection menu, select the translation that you wish to add. It may take a minute to load the page as it may need to perform a machine translation in the background.
  4. Click on the SWeTE Toolbar Button to open the SWeTE Toolbar?.

At this point, the page has been added to the system and you can begin translating it.

Method 2: Through the SWeTE Control Panel

Follow these steps to add a page to be translated in SWeTE.

  1. Log into the SWeTE Control Panel? using your username and password.
  2. Click on the Websites tab.
  3. Click on the website to which you would like to add the page to be translated. This should open the website profile.
  4. In the Webpages section of the right column, you should see a text field labeled "Add Webpage". Enter the URL to the page you wish to add. Note that this page should be part of the base path specified by the site URL or its aliases. Press Add Now
  5. It may take a minute to load the page and perform the necessary translations. When it is complete, the page will reload and you should see the webpage listed as a new row in the Webpages section of the page, with columns for each translation, showing its status. Move your mouse over any of these cells to reveal a contextual menu of actions you can perform on the translation.

Step 6: Translating a Webpage

Once you have the SWeTE Toolbar Button installed, translating your webpages into your desired language is quite easy:

  1. Navigate to the webpage that you wish to translate in your web browser.
  2. Click on the language you wish to translate in the language selector menu.
  3. Click on the SWeTE Toolbar Button to open the SWeTE Toolbar?. It may take a few moments for the page to reload with the translation toolbar as it may need to refresh the original page.
  4. Click on the Translate Page link on the SWeTE Toolbar?. This should open up a translation form for the current page.
  5. Complete the translations on the translation form. Note that only fields outlined in red require translations. These are the fields that are currently translated using machine translation. The other fields have been translated by a human.
  6. When you are finished with your translation, check the checkbox at the end of the form to confirm that you have proof-read the translations, and submit the form.

At this point, the translations should be saved. If, in your website settings, you have specified that translations require approval, you'll notice on the SWeTE Toolbar? that the status of the this translation is now "Pending". This means that it will not appear to the public until you have approved it. This is your chance to take a look at the page and decide whether the translation is ready for public consumption.

Step 7: Approving a Translation

If, in your website settings, you have specified that translations require approval, you will need to explicitly approve translations before they appear on the website.

Step 7: Re-translating when Content Changes

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