π NOTE: This feature requires that the Product Integration option be enabled.
Prep - link subcommunities to knowledge bases
Knowledge bases (KBs) can be linked to subcommunities through a shared product. In order to do so, you have to:
- enable the Product Integration setting,
- link a subcommunity to a product, and
- select the product on the preferred KB's add/edit modal.
The KB will then be available in all languages and all subcommunities of that product.
This article details the process.
Machine Translation
Knowledge base users can also use Machine Translation services to translate KB articles.
In order to use this feature, you have to:
- enable the Subcommunities addon (for multilingual and multi-product communities),
- enable the Knowledge addon, and
- be subscribed to either of our Translation Service Providers: Google Translate or DeepL Translator.
What does this process do?
This process allows you to add and edit translations for each knowledge base article. This is simplified by the addition of a language-selector dropdown on every translated KB article:
Your KB will have the same number of articles in the same organization/structure in each language, but it will serve up different (language-based) content depending on which subcommunity is being viewed. This allows each translation of an article to have the same ID as the original article, which is important for maintaining the organization of multiple subcommunities.
βοΈ TIP: Another way of explaining this is that it creates one KB that lives in one spot, has one set of articles, has one layout and structure, but "speaks" multiple languages depending on who's talking to it.
You can use this process with machine translation and with customer-provided translations.
What can I not do?
You cannot connect a KB that is written in one language to a different KB that is written in a different language.
How to set up a KB for translation
This series of steps requires you to access the Settings tab of the Dashboard and work across several pages.
βοΈ TIP: Be sure to save your work (where available) as you navigate.
Language Settings
1. Navigate to Technical > Language Settings.
2. Slide the toggle to the right to enable any language that you want available for your KB translations.
Subcommunities
1. Navigate to Discussions > Subcommunities.
2. Slide the toggle to the right to Enable Product Integration.
3. Click manage products and add a product (e.g., Translation) to represent the translation.
4. Add (or edit) a subcommunity for each language.
π NOTE: Be sure to set the Product field to the product that you've just created (in our example, Translation).
π NOTE: Every subcommunity that you want a translation for should use the same product.
Knowledge Base
1. Navigate to Knowledge > Knowledge Bases.
2. Click the pencil icon to edit a KB that you want to translate.
3. Click the Product dropdown and select a product (e.g., Translation).
4. Click the translate button in the upper right of the Edit Knowledge Base window to translate the KB articles for each locale.
π NOTE: Repeat these steps for each of the KBs that you want to translate. Remember that you create the content (KB / articles) only once -- and then you add the translations to that original content.
Lastly, provide translations for each KB article.
π NOTE: KB articles can be manually translated or translated using Vanilla's Machine Translation option, as described in the sections that follow.
Manual translation
To manually translate an article:
1. Navigate to the article page in the primary language.
2. Click the dropdown under Other Languages and select the language you want to translate.
π NOTE: An exclamation mark (!) displays next to any languages for which there is not a translated version of this article.
You will now be viewing the article in the new Language subcommunity.
A message (in the new language) displays telling you how to update this version of the article.
3. Click the ellipsis icon in the upper right and select Edit (translated version):
4. Add in the translated version of the article and click Publish.
The translated version of this article is now linked to the original language version.
Machine Translation
To use Vanilla's Machine Translation feature, you must configure at least one of Vanilla's Translation Service Providers.
π NOTE: You can configure both and have both available in your community, but each article can be translated by only one.
1. Access the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Technical > Language Settings and click the Machine Translation tab.
3. Slide the toggle to the right (ON) to enable machine translation.
4. Click the pencil icon for either Google Translate or DeepL Translator and refer to the relevant "configure" section below.
βοΈ TIP: You can configure both service providers and have both available in your community.
π NOTE: When you complete these steps, remain on the Language Settings page and refer to Set Translation Service Providers for languages, below.
Configure Google Translate
1. Specify your Google Translate API Key and click Save.
Configure DeepL Translator
To use DeepL Translator:
- You must have a DeepL API Pro account.
- You must submit a request to Vanilla Support (support@vanillaforums.com) or your CSM to have this option enabled.
1. Specify your DeepL Translator API Key.
2. Optionally, specify any of the following, and click Save.
- Words to ignore while translating
- HTML/XML tags to ignore while translating
- HTML/XML tags to cause splits
Set Translation Service Providers for languages
After you've configured one or both Translation Service Providers, you can set which service provider to use per language.
π NOTE: If you've configured only one Translation Service Provider, it is automatically set as the default for your enabled languages.
1. Click the Localization tab on the Language Settings page.
2. Click the pencil icon for any enabled language and select the service provider you would like to use.
βοΈ TIP: Set this to None (i.e., no machine translation) individually for any enabled language that you prefer to manually translate.
Translate an article
Now that Machine Translation is set up, you can start translating articles.
1. Navigate to your knowledge base and open an article in that you want to translate.
2. Click the ellipsis icon and select Machine Translation.
The Machine Translation modal lists which languages (French, Japanese, English) are configured for this KB and this article's translation status for each language.
- Not Translated - the article is not available in that language because it has not been translated.
- Up To Date - the article has been translated and is aligned with the source locale.
- Out Of Date - the article has been translated but the source locale has an update that may not be reflected in the translation.
3. Click Translate to translate an article that has not been translated or is out of date.
4. Translate the article into another language or click Close.
When the translation is complete, the article is automatically published.
βοΈ TIP: Click the Other Languages dropdown to preview a translation.
βοΈ EXAMPLE: Below is an example of a KB, Mysteries of the Universe, with several translations. This KB "speaks" four languages: German, English, French, and Spanish.
