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Fluenta DITA Translation Add-on

Introduction

Fluenta is a tool designed to simplify the translation of DITA projects. It parses a DITA map, resolves the references to all topics and subtopics, and prepares a unified XLIFF file that you can send to your Language Service Provider. The Fluenta DITA Translation add-on allows you to manage the Fluenta translation workflow directly from within Oxygen XML.

Quick Installation

You can drag the following Install button and drop it into the main editor in Oxygen to quickly initiate the installation process:

Install

Manual Installation

To manually install the add-on, follow this procedure:
  1. Go to Help > Install new add-ons to open an add-on selection dialog box. Enter or paste https://www.oxygenxml.com/InstData/Addons/default/updateSite.xml in the Show add-ons from field or select it from the drop-down menu.
    Note:
    If you have issues connecting to the default update site, you can download the add-on package, unzip it, then use the Browse for local files action in the Install new add-ons dialog box to locate the downloaded addon.xml file.
  2. Select the Fluenta Dita Translation add-on and click Next.
  3. Read the end-user license agreement. Then select the I accept all terms of the end-user license agreement option and click Install.
  4. Restart the application.

Result: A Fluenta submenu is now available in the DITA Maps Manager's contextual menu.

Translation Workflow

A translation workflow based on Fluenta has the following steps:
  1. Create a Fluenta project. A project contains metadata associated with a DITA map (for example, the languages that the project is translated into). This is a one-time action.
  2. At various milestones (for example, when a new version is released), you generate XLIFF files for each language you translate to.
  3. You send the XLIFF file to the translation service provider.
  4. Once the XLIFF returns from translation, you import the XLIFF file. A translated version of your map and topics will be generated at the selected location from the XLIFF file.

Creating a Fluenta Project

The first step in the workflow is to create a Fluenta project:
  1. Open the main DITA map in the DITA Maps Manager.
  2. Right-click the map and select Fluenta > Create project.
    Note:
    This action is visible only if there is no project detected for the open DITA map.

  3. In the resulting dialog box, you need to provide a name for the project and the languages that the project will be translated into.

Result: A translation memory with the same name as the project will automatically be created. Also, only one project can be created for a DITA map file. Once created, you will be able to edit it to change certain information.

Generating XLIFF Files

When you are ready to send the project to translators, you can generate an XLIFF file like this:
  1. Open the main DITA map in the DITA Maps Manager.
  2. Right-click the map and select Fluenta > Generate XLIFF.
    Note:
    This action is visible only if there is a Fluenta project associated with the current DITA map and the XLIFF files will be generated for this project.

  3. In the resulting dialog box, select the Output folder where the XLIFF file(s) will be generated and the Target languages that you want to send to translation.

  4. Configure the other XLIFF generation options as desired:
    • DITAVAL file - Allows users to include a DITAVAL file. This file controls content conditionality, enabling exclusion of specific sections in the generated XLIFF files for translation. This option is useful in some use cases, such as when you do not want certain content translated into specific languages to reduce translation costs.
    • XLIFF version - Choose the appropriate XLIFF version from this drop-down menu to ensure compatibility with your translation systems.
    • Reuse ICE matches - Compares the current content with the content translated in the past and reuses all existing translations.
    • Use translation memory - Uses the translation memory associated with the project to recover translations for the segments not yet translated.
    • Ignore translatable SVG files - Excludes the SVG files that contain translatable text from the translation process.
    • Segment by paragraphs - Enables paragraph segmentation instead of the default sentence segmentation.
  5. Click Generate when finished.

Result: An XLIFF file will be generated in the output folder for each selected language.

Importing XLIFF

Once you receive a translated XLIFF from translation, you need to generate a translated version of your project:
  1. Open the main DITA map in the DITA Maps Manager.
  2. Right-click the map and select Fluenta > Import XLIFF.
    Note:
    This action is visible only if there is a Fluenta project associated with the current DITA map and the XLIFF file will be imported for this project.

  3. In the resulting dialog box, browse for the XLIFF file and set the options according to your needs:

    • Accept unapproved translations - Uses translations that are not marked as approved in the XLIFF file being imported.
    • Update "{MemoryName}" translation memory - Stores the imported translations in the project translations memory.
    • Ignore inline tag errors - If enabled, the application checks for mismatches in inline tags (such as <ph>, <bpt>, <ept>) between the source and target. This helps prevent formatting or structural issues in the translated content.
  4. Click Import when finished.
Result: A translated version of the project content will be created in the indicated output folder.
CAUTION:
If your images are not in SVG format, you will have to copy them to the newly generated project.

Editing a Fluenta Project

Sometimes after creating a project, certain information needs to be edited. The steps are similar to those for creating a new project:
  1. Open the main DITA map in the DITA Maps Manager.
  2. Right-click the map and select Fluenta > Edit project "{ProjectName}".
    Note:
    This action is visible only if there is a Fluenta project associated with the current DITA map and this project will be edited.

  3. In the resulting dialog box, you need to replace the project information you want updated and click OK when finished.

Managing Translation Memories

A translation memory is a database that stores sentences, paragraphs, or segments of text that have previously been translated. The original language (sometimes referred to as the "source") and its translation (also referred to as the "target") are both included in each entry or segment in the translation memory.
  1. Open the main DITA map in the DITA Maps Manager.
  2. Invoke the contextual menu and select Fluenta > Manage translation memories.

  3. In the resulting dialog box, you will see a table with all the translation memories defined in Fluenta.

  4. In this dialog box, you can perform the following operations:

    • Create - This action will open a dialog box for creating a new translation memory.

    • Edit - This action will open a dialog box for editing the selected translation memory from the translation memories table.

    • Delete - Deletes the selected translation memory. If a translation memory is associated with a project, it cannot be deleted.

    • Import TMX - Populates the content of the translation memory with content from a specified import file.
      Note:
      One or more files can be imported into a translation memory.

    • Export TMX - Exports the selected translation memory to TMX format to view its content and use at a latter time.

Preferences

Various options can be configured in the preferences page, both at the global level and at the project level.
  1. Open the main DITA map in the DITA Maps Manager.
  2. Right-click and select Fluenta > Preferences.

    Result: In the resulting dialog box, you will see the Fluenta Addon preferences page:

    Figure 1. Fluenta DITA Translation Addon Preferences Page
  3. Configure options as needed. You can set the folders where projects and translation memories will be saved. Both absolute paths and paths that contain editor variables can be used. Also, you can set some target languages ​​that will be pre-filled when a Fluenta project is created. Click OK or Apply when finished.

Resources

For more information about Fluenta translations, see the following resources: