Now that Google Translate's API has been deprecated[1], what is the future of the i18n Auto Translate module? Will it basically stop working[2] on December 1, 2011? Google mentioned that they may come out with a paid version (after outcries from the dev community). It would be nice to have the response on the module's d.o. page as well as the readme. I looked at GTranslate's site[3] and couldn't find any mention of the deprecation.

[1] http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2011/05/spring-cleaning-for-some-of-our-a...
[2] http://code.google.com/apis/language/translate/overview.html
[3] http://code.google.com/p/gtranslate-api-php/

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Comments

greg.harvey’s picture

Wow, I was not aware of that. I think it will be the end of this module. I will note this on the project page immediately!

greg.harvey’s picture

Updated the project page, pending more info and suggestions. Also raised this in #957278: i18n auto translate port to D7

greg.harvey’s picture

Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Sorry, marking postponed.

dkingofpa’s picture

The Google Translate Element is probably the best solution for the foreseeable future if you want automatic translations. http://www.google.com/webelements/translate

Sharique’s picture

Can we use any other translation service like Yahoo Babel Fish(http://babelfish.yahoo.com/) or Bing translator??

greg.harvey’s picture

For Yahoo! no - there's no API - they just want you to do this:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/free_trans_service

This might be worth pursuing, but I don't know if there is or will ever be a cost implied:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff512435.aspx
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/dev/

Looks like Microsoft might be the way to go...

greg.harvey’s picture

Some background reading:
http://blog.gts-translation.com/2011/05/30/why-larry-page-killed-google-...

Importantly, for anyone who depends on this module, consider this point:

But if there is anything that Google’s shutdown of Translate API has taught us, it is not to build a product plan around a free API which may not be free or may even be gone in the near future.

In other words, this module is entirely dependent on services beyond our control, whatever we choose to go with. So anyone who really *needs* this service should make proper arrangements with a commercial provider, not rely on this (potentially temporary) free service.

And some possible services:
http://www.tauyou.com/
http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium_web_service

LouisStAmour’s picture

http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2011/08/paid-version-of-google-translate-...

Um, c'mon now guys. Google has two translate offerings now -- one's the same API, for pay (and long-term stability) while the other's a free translator tool that lets you save your translation tweaks and optionally share your manually translated text back to Google to improve their engine. The first is far from dead, but requires a Google Account and billing, or other arrangements, to be made, while the second is import/export driven through Google's own website, but both sound quite awesome.

Which isn't to say we shouldn't branch out to Yahoo or Google -- why not? But Google doesn't kill winning products, it just tries to build more new business models where it can.

greg.harvey’s picture

Title: How does Google Translate's API deprecation affect i18n Auto Translate? » Google Translate API no longer free - replacement required - please make suggestions
greg.harvey’s picture

I think everyone hopes for a free solution, so this issue remains open and a blocker for D7, still looking for a killer *free* API to replace GTranslate.

That said, making the whole thing 'pluggable' would probably be smart. One of the options could be a paid Google Translate v2 module. I don't want that to be the first option though, because that is *not* a replacement for D6 version of this module. Still, the pluggable architecture is something that work could start on in a 7.x-3.x branch.

@LouisStAmour

Um, c'mon now guys. Google has two translate offerings now

The original announcement deprecated the v1 API without making any reference to a v2 or pointing people at it. So it's hardly surprising no one joined up the dots. That and...

Um, dude, v2 was launched, oh, LAST WEEK!

I've half a mind to assign the D7 port to you, since you're so smart. =P

lolandese’s picture

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tiborg’s picture

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FatherShawn’s picture

An plus to Apertium is that they were a Google Summer of Code project: http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code/Report_2011

Language pairs are still more limited...

FatherShawn’s picture

This looks like a promising way to build one's own translation server: http://www.statmt.org/moses/ as promoted here in 2006: http://events.ccc.de/congress/2006/Fahrplan/events/1701.en.html I would imagine it's better software today!

The talk is archived here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnOrCnSh7z8 Discussion of Moses begins at about 25:00

spookypld’s picture

Does this module still works for You? I've recently updated my Drupal to newest version and translations stopped working. I'm worried it's over now!

vasrush’s picture

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tiborg’s picture

What's the matter? Why not continuing the developing? The google reopened the API and the users recommended the another translation solution. How to accelerate the developing and the porting to d7? thank you

greg.harvey’s picture

Why not continuing the developing? The google reopened the API and the users recommended the another translation solution.

Google API is not free, so not a direct replacement. So scratch that.

Microsoft looks promising, but not decided if this is a good route or not yet. *ONE PERSON* (me, actually) suggested *ONE OTHER* potential drop-in solution. One which I'm not convinced about. No one "recommended" anything.

How to accelerate the developing and the porting to d7?

Post a patch or pay someone else to write a patch if you don't know how. If there's a patch for me to review that uses an API I'm comfortable with using for this (only one identified to date is the Microsoft one, links above) then we can resolve this fast. So in short, help out, with either your time or with your money, or wait patiently.

thank you

You're welcome.

tiborg’s picture

Thank you the detailed answer. Based on these is clear now. I'm waiting :)

anlop’s picture

I need to make a module with the funtionality of Auto Translate but using the apertium translation service. What is better ¿make a fork of auto translate or continue the develop of this module? Thanks a lot.

greg.harvey’s picture

Continue to develop this would be awesome! See #10:

That said, making the whole thing 'pluggable' would probably be smart. One of the options could be a paid Google Translate v2 module. I don't want that to be the first option though, because that is *not* a replacement for D6 version of this module. Still, the pluggable architecture is something that work could start on in a 7.x-3.x branch.

I'm happy to expedite this and help you create a pluggable architecture for the D7 version. I would be absolutely delighted if we agreed on a hook system for this module and you contributed an i18n_auto_apertium module that we made a part of the package. Drop me an email via the contact form if you want to do this. =)

anlop’s picture

I need some time to evaluate different architecture options to develop the module and learn about this "pluggable" architecture.

If this "pluggable" architecture isn't available in Drupal 6 I think choose them difficult very much the develop of compatible code with drupal 6 and 7.

dromansab’s picture

Can I use the module if i will pay for the api?

greg.harvey’s picture

Don't know, haven't tried. If the API hasn't changed and you're using Drupal 6 then the answer should be yes.

mortician’s picture

How much does it cost?

dromansab’s picture

1 million word - 20$

quiller’s picture

Are there active plans for updating this module to use the new API v2, or is the maintainer waiting for a patch to implement that functionality? Even if the API has not changed (which it has, Google has been pretty clear about that) we would still need a way to provide authentication (e.g. API key) for each site when using the paid version of the API.

Not trying to complain, just wondering if there are plans to move in that direction or if we should start looking for a different solution/module entirely?

greg.harvey’s picture

The plan is to make this module an API for translating services and *then* someone can build an API v2 module for Google on top of that API. But if you need anything urgently, my advice would be by all means look for another module. Hopefully we can port stuff in as this module gets nearer to readiness (e.g. the Bing module donated in #957278: i18n auto translate port to D7 - comment 36).

dromansab’s picture

I've tried the module with the API v2 and it doesn't work... Somebody else have tried it?

vidichannel’s picture

GTranslate also appears dead, unless you shift it back to direct Google mode, instead of on-the-fly. No errors, it just does nothing when you request it to translate.

greg.harvey’s picture

If quiller's comment in #28 is correct (and I'm sure it is) the GTranslate will be broken, because no one is maintaining it. I'll have to figure something else out (like using the API properly ... *horror*) for the D7 module, as and when I get to Google support. Bing comes first cos it's still free.

vidichannel’s picture

There is a working solution with GTranslate if you update to the latest 1.8 version of the plugin on the developers site (latest on Drupal is only 1.7). It does work with the 2.0 API, but with far less Google transparency and when clicked, the pages are now redirected using an additional toolbar that is rather awkward (basic GTranslate 1.8 FREE version).

Also, the dev's (edo888) "pro" version is purported to avoid "Google branding" and forward compatibility with 2.0 API. With 1,700 sites using this module I think this may require elaboration. Most, have probably not found that it stopped functioning on Dec. 1st.

I apologize if this is a cross-post. Just trying to serve the best interest of the community.

alpp’s picture

using only gtranslate for translation, causes giant cache problems and works very slow. anyway, the case is auto translating the "contents" before they are published. bing is the best solution for now it seems.

j0rd’s picture

I'm in need of this module to use with Paid Google Translate service. I'm creating a site for a client with user generated content. Most of the articles and such will be translated manually by the site owners, but they'd like to use google translate for user generated content into the 4 languages they provide. The users will be sending in properties for a real-estate site, so the amount of auto-translation needed is really only for the property descriptions. Better to have it poorly translated into a language the readers will understand, instead of leaving it in the language only users from that region will understand.

Anyways, from what I'm reading here, it seems that this module currently doesn't work with Google Translate (paid version) is this true?

Also since my nodes are mostly checkboxes / numbers / address (things that don't need to get translated) I'm using i18n_sync + a module I've created to hide all fields in translations which are sync'd. Essentially a sync'd field is something that should be the same for all translated versions of the node.... does this module avoid translating those fields? And if not, could it be expanded to not translate them.

Actually after looking deeper into the code, it appears this module only translates the body, which makes it fairly useless for my needs. I'll most likely have to write something for myself.

mortician’s picture

Priority: Major » Critical

Any update on this? How I can use google api paid version with this module?

spookypld’s picture

Google changed it's API so this module is actually NOT WORKING.

Problem with API is there are two versions: free and paid.

From what I understood author of this module want figure out how free API changed, implement it and THAN upgrade it to work with paid version.

Marko B’s picture

Category: support » feature

Pricing isn't expensive, think this module should be supported in future
https://developers.google.com/translate/v2/pricing

$20 for millions of letters is not much and rather cheap, hope maintainer realises this and continues.

vojnar’s picture

Hi,

I just wondering if there is any news for this module?

I tried to use it with the paid google api, and it does not work.

I'm not even sure, if it is not suppose to work by reading the forum posts, and since last mentioned version there were new releases.

In my personal opinion, this would still serve the best way for supporting automated translations and
there are many many people would use it, even though they have to pay for it.

At this point I would even appreciate any suggestion to make it work.

Thanks

vojnar’s picture

GOOD NEWS!

Hi,
I made the modification for the script, and now it works with Google API 2 (paid version: 1M characters for $20)!
I working on to create a patch to make it available for everybody.
Send me a message if you need this script right away, until the patch is up!

Best regards,
Gabor

vojnar’s picture

Component: Documentation » Code
Category: feature » bug
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Needs review
FileSize
4.31 KB

Patch for i18n auto 6.x Google Translate API - Automatically Generates Translated Versions of your newly created nodes, in all your activated languages via Google Translate Services.

This patch will make your module to work with Google Translate API 2 (paid version)!

Here is what you have to do:

1. Apply this patch to your i18n_auto.module file (accordance with standard Drupal patch applying method)
2. Go to your Google API console: https://code.google.com/apis/console/ and activate the service and get a API code
3. Download the latest Google API PHP Client here: https://code.google.com/p/google-api-php-client/
4. After extracting it, modify the src/config.php file by setting Developers key variable with your BROWSER version of your Google API key
5. Upload the google api php client directory to modules/i18n_auto/google-api-php-client. (Make sure that you delete the older version of gtranslate-api-php from your module/i18n_auto library!)
6. Enjoy it!

Best regards,
Gabor Vojnar
weboldal.biz

greg.harvey’s picture

Status: Needs review » Closed (won't fix)