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Language Conversion for DB site - on the fly. Is it poss?

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 6:48 am
by simonmlewis
We haev a UK site, and a Spanish site. I built the spanish version with duplicate DB fields, and multiple queries based on a Cookie.

But, is there some tool, some script you can embed on the template/page, that converts it all for you, without us needing to do anything? Converting just the text.

I know there are tools to take you to another translate site, but we need them to stay on the site.

Any thoughts of advice appreciated.

Re: Language Conversion for DB site - on the fly. Is it pos

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:18 pm
by mecha_godzilla
Hi,

Some of the online translation services will provide you with an API you can use, or an AJAX widget of some kind, but anything that works "behind the scenes" will probably require a paid-for subscription. In the good old days, SYSTRAN were the go-to guys for this kind of thing but Microsoft also offer a similar service now and there must be quite a few other companies out there offering something similar (Google did have a translation solution with free API access but you now have to pay for it, according to Wikipedia). Quality of the translations does vary but this tends to be dependent on the type of material you're translating - anything formal should be fine, but these translators do stumble over colloquialisms, informal discussion and some technical terms. That said, you can usually get the gist of what's being said and, as someone with a passing knowledge of French, I've found that the translations from English to French and back again with Microsoft's translator are fairly accurate, and of course you can always evaluate the quality of translation using the free online service. I do occasional support duties on another PHP forum that has a lot of French, German and Spanish users (probably 50% of the audience) and I'm usually able to work out what they need with the aid of an online translator.

http://www.systransoft.com/translation- ... e-services

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translat ... opers.aspx

HTH,

Mecha Godzilla

Re: Language Conversion for DB site - on the fly. Is it pos

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:35 pm
by pickle
If you want the translation to not sound/read all ghetto-like (ie: poor translation), then you'll have to do it manually. From what I've heard from analytics and user studies, if you're going to have a language specific site you really need to take the time to translate it properly. Having a poorly or automatically translated site is almost insulting.

Re: Language Conversion for DB site - on the fly. Is it pos

Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 5:35 pm
by mecha_godzilla
I agree with that - if your text is fairly static, it would be worth spending any money you do have available on having the text formally translated by a native speaker, or (better still) employ a freelance copy writer that can cover all the main languages you need. If your text is mostly dynamic though, I still think that you should give your visitors the option of an in-site online translation - if they can see that the translation is "powered by Microsoft" then their expectations will be suitably lowered by that point :mrgreen: More seriously though, if this is your only option then it does at least show that you're trying to accommodate your audience.

M_G