WWL For Language Service Providers

We have developed an open API for professional translation service bureaus. If you are an LSP, and would like to join the Worldwide Lexicon system, all you need to do is to build a few simple web scripts to receive translation requests from the system. WWL is a hybrid system that combines human translators with machine translation services such as Google Translate. It is also highly automated. Human translators work behind the scenes to improve or to replace machine translations.

Benefits

Joining the WWL network is easy, and delivers many benefits for your professional translation services company:

Automatic inclusion in TransKit : software developers who use the TransKit libraries to build translatable programs and web applications will be able to send professional translation requests to you, just as easily as they can submit a query to Google Translate. You will be accessible via all of our SDKs for major programming languages, including PHP, Python, C and Java.
CMS Plugins : people using our CMS plugins, such as WWL for Drupal will be able to have their sites automatically translated by your professional translators if they choose to.
Translation Proxy Server : people using our open source translation proxy server can have their website partially or fully translated by your workers.
More interfaces coming soon : we are building a broad range of translation tools, with the goal of providing open tools for all major publishing and application development environments this year. For example, we are working on an Apache translator that will enable best effort human/machine translation on any Apache web server (Apache is one of the most widely used web servers). By joining WWL, you can focus on providing professional translation services, while we focus on building tools for software developers and web content producers.

Qualifying Requirements

This program is available to professional translation service bureaus only, with either accredited translators, or a system for screening translators and peer reviewing translations. WWL does not sell professional translation services directly, but works with service bureaus as an affiliate. We provide tools that make it easy for customers to build multilingual websites, and to work with a variety of professional translation bureaus based on their specific needs.

Implementation

Joining the network is easy. Just follow these steps:

Request an API key. This is a secret code you will send when you submit translations or scores to the system. Contact bsmcconnell at gmail to request your key.
Build a simple web script that mimics the /t web service on WWL. WWL will call this service to request translations from your system (and if it is a new request, your system will send this request to your translators). See below for details.
(Optional) Build a simple web script that posts a form to www.worldwidelexicon.org/lsp/submit to submit recently completed or edited translations to WWL.

Web Script Details (/t Web Service)

WWL will call a URL on your server that processes a simple HTML form. The form will contain the following fields:

sl – source language code
tl – target language code
st – original text (utf-8 encoding only)
domain – source domin
url – URL or original page if it is a public web page
lspusername – username for person or account on your system
lsppw – password or API key for person or account on your system
priority – priority level (optional)
price - per word price (optional, used in "name your price" transactions)
output - output format (text or JSON, for structured response).

Your script will process this form, and will reply with one of the following responses (plain text, utf-8 encoding, unless output=json):

The completed or most recent approved translation for the source text
A blank text, if the request was valid, but no translation has been completed yet (WWL will assume the translation is in progress, and use a placeholder or machine translation for a while)
An HTTP error code (e.g. if the login credentials are invalid)

If the requester specifies output=json, you should respond with a single JSON record with the following parameters:

guid : globally unique identifier for the translation, in your system (blank if no translation is available yet
sl : source language code
tl : target language code
st : source text
tt : translated text
domain : optional domain
url : optional url of source document
username : optional username/email of the translator
remote_addr : optional IP address of the translator

NOTE: if the request is invalid, you return an HTTP error in the case of either plain text or JSON response.

The WWL server will cache this response and store it in the global translation memory, with a time to live of 1 to 2 hours. Once the cache expires, it will call you again to request the translation, so if it has been edited in that time, you can update your response. If not, you return the same translation as before from your translation memory. This is a simple way to keep WWL in sync with your system, and is also a very easy API to implement.

Submitting A Completed Translation Or Updating The Cache

Normally, you can just wait for WWL to call your system with requests to the /t web service. If you do not update translations frequently once they are completed, the first web script is all you usually need. Any changes will be picked up within an hour or so. If you want to support instant updates to the global translation memory, all you need to do is build a script that posts a form to www.worldwidelexicon.org/lsp/submit with the following fields:

apikey – your secret API key
sl – source language code
tl – target language code
st – source text (utf8)
tt – translated text (utf8)
domain – optional domain text is from (e.g. foo.com)
url – optional url text is from

The system will validate your API key. It replies with ok or error, and will update the data store and cache immediately so the updated translation is visible to other applications almost immediately.

Accepting Scores and Comments From End Users

You can optionally accept quality scores and comments about translations. To support this functionality, you should implement JSON output for the /t webservice (so WWL obtains a unique record locator for translations and can track scores and comments when they are submitted to the system). All you need to so is to implement two simple APIs that receive scores and comments as follows.

To accept scores, you should build a form that answers as baseurl/scores/vote, and expects these parameters:

guid : unique record locator in your system
score : score from 0..5 (0=spam, 5=native speaker quality)
comment : optional comment for translator
remote_addr : IP address of person submitting the score

To accept comments from users, you should build a form that answers as baseurl/comments/submit and expects these parameters:

guid : unique record locator
cl : comment language (ISO code)
comment : comment text
username : optional user name or email address of commenter
remote_addr : IP address of commenter

About

The Worldwide Lexicon is an open source collaborative translation platform. It is similar to systems like Wikipedia, and combines machine translation with submissions from volunteers and professional translators. WWL is a translation memory, essentially a giant database of translations, which can be embedded in almost any website or web application. Our mission is to eliminate the language barrier for interesting websites and articles, by enabling people to create translation communities around their favorite webites, topics or groups.

Services

In addition to publishing free, open source software for translation, we offer a wide variety of hosting and consulting services to customers including:

Turnkey, hosted translation solutions for business websites
Translation community solutions, where your own readers translate your website
Custom software development services

Visit our services page to learn more.