Umbraco is a free CMS that has been growing in popularity around the world. It gained considerable market share thanks to its power, easy installation and management, and incorporation of new technologies. Since Version 8, Umbraco has introduced many improvements in terms of localization. This enables users of Umbraco to build multilingual websites more professionally.

As part of our continuous commitment to support new versions of content management systems, GPI is constantly updating its Translation Services Connector for Umbraco to support the newest versions.

In this blog, I will describe the features and benefits of the GPI Umbraco Translation Connector.

Easy Installation

The connector is distributed as an installation package that can be easily installed in your Umbraco instance with just a few clicks. Depending on your Umbraco version, it can be installed either as a local package or through the Umbraco Marketplace. Once installed, you will need to follow a few steps to configure the security settings. Then, you’ll be ready to start using it!

Seamless Integration

The connector follows Umbraco’s best practices and uses the same Umbraco templates and designs. As a result, this maximizes user experience by making the connector look like just an extension of the platform.

Friendly User Interface

The connector simplifies the translation by allowing you to have your entire site translated by filling out a single form.

Also, the connector will allow you to import translated content with a single click. The translations will be imported in their corresponding Language Variants for each translated page.

Support for Dictionary

The connector supports exporting Dictionary entries for translation, all within the same Dictionary page. Also, the GPI connector provides a table that gives you a quick picture of what dictionary items are already translated, and which ones need translation, depending on the cultures enabled on your Umbraco back end.

Dashboard for Tracking Translation Workflows

The connector provides you with a dashboard screen to quickly see an overview of the status of all your localization projects. Additionally, you can access the secure Translation Portal provided by GPI, where you can find more details about the status of your quotes and projects.

Conclusion

The GPI Umbraco Translation Connector, with its straightforward installation and setup, helps you easily translate and update your multilingual Umbraco website.. With one click, you can easily send content for translation and upload that content back. Lastly, you can view the status of all your translation projects and access your global language teams when needed.

Click here to request a demo for GPI Translation Connector for Umbraco or here to read more about GPI’s Translation Services Connector for Umbraco.

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Since August 2021, Episerver officially rebranded and the entire organization adopted the Optimizely name. However, this was not the only change; within the CMS, the entire system was restructured and became Optimizely CMS 12. Now, if you want to have your CMS up to date (strongly recommended) you should consider not just installing the latest update, but be aware that the CMS has a new architecture in the background which is a big change for your development team.

Why should I upgrade my website to Optimizely CMS 12?

To understand how you can benefit from upgrading to Optimizely CMS 12, you should know that the most important change is the platform on which Optimizely CMS is developed. The product is now using .NET 5, which is faster and has better performance than the older versions of ASP .NET 4 stack. Additionally, Microsoft is no longer supporting older versions of the framework, which since that includes security enhancements, upgrading makes sense.

.NET 5 is more popular because of its support of headless-style deployments. This customizable feature for headless deployment allows you to integrate your Optimizely CMS 12 website with numerous applications such as eCommerce, translations connector, and more. REST APIs were built to facilitate compatibility between applications that have been built in a different technology than ASP.NET. With .NET 5 you can use applications not developed in .NET 5, effortlessly.

What happens if I don’t upgrade?

There is no problem if you do not want to upgrade your site to the latest version, but it is highly recommended. You will experience better performance, security enhancements, efficient use of resources, and compatibility with many applications that you can install on your system. If you are convinced that upgrading is the better option for you, there are many blogs, forums, and guides on the web that can help you have a successful migration. You can also use the Upgrading Assistant from Microsoft. We recommend reading the ebook Porting existing ASP.NET apps to .NET Core.

Which versions can I use for translating my site with GPI connector?

Globalization Partners International has already built a connector for Episerver CMS (Optimizely CMS prior to version 12), based on ASP.NET Webforms, as well as the latest version, that’s built in .NET 5. GPI connector is compatible with Optimizely CMS from version 12 onwards. This connector supports eCommerce and is a complete and simple tool that will help you in the maintenance of your multilingual website with just a few clicks.

You can ask for a demo, and install our connector into your website for free.

For more information, go to Translationplugin.com.

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Authoring, launching and maintaining an Optimizely-based website in multiple languages can have its challenges if you don’t follow best practices. One of those best practices is to use GPI’s Translation Connector to streamline translation workflows.

Adding GPI NuGet Repository

GPI’s Translation Services Connector for Optimizely has been verified through Optimizely’s technology verification program. GPI’s Translation Services Connector passed strict design, quality, verification, compliance and support standards to ensure impeccable integrations for customers. You can install it from the Optimizely Nuget repository or by adding our GPI NuGet repository to the Nuget Package Manager from Visual Studio.

To add the NuGet repository, open Visual studio, and select Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Settings, as shown in the image below:

In the Options windows, select “Package Sources” from the left pane, and click on the button that has the green plus sign. Then enter “GPI  Source” in the Name field, and “http://nuget.globalizationpartners.com/nuget” in the Source field, then click Update.

Installation

To get the GPI Translation Services Connector installed in your Optimizely instance, you need to follow these steps:

1. In Visual Studio, open Package Administrator.
2. Search for “TSC.Client.Optimizely”.
3. Install by clicking on “Install”, as shown in the image below.
4. Visual Studio will ask for confirmation. Click on OK.

For security reasons, there is one more step to set up the connector, but it should be done using the Optimizely Administration Panel.

To give permissions to users or user groups, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Admin panel, switch to Config tab, and click on “Access Rights”. Then on the left pane, click “Permissions For Functions”. Look for “GPI_TSC_Administrators” under “GPI TSC Permissions” and click on the name.

2. There you will see the users and groups that are granted this permission. If you are using the connector for the first time, the list will be empty, and no user will be able to use the connector. To assign permissions for users or user groups, click on “Add Users/Groups” as shown on the image below:

3. A pop-up will then be displayed. Look for users or groups to be allowed to use the connector by selecting the checkbox to the left of the user or group. All users and groups in this box will have GPI_TSC_Administrators permissions. Once all desired users and groups are selected, click Add Users/Groups.

You can repeat this step with the Translators permissions if you want to give any user or group access to the connector but restrict editing settings.

4. Once the popup is closed, check that all users and groups were properly added to the list, and click Save.

Once the security is set up, you can now open the connector from the Optimizely menu.
But, there is still one more step needed to start using the connector:

Connecting to our translation services server

Now that you have the GPI Translation Services Connector installed, the next step will be to enter the authentication settings:

1. Add the following Endpoint URL: https://tsc.globalizationpartners.com
2. Enter the Authorization Token provided by GPI. If you don’t have one, please contact support@globalizationpartners.com.
3. Check that the Publish setting is selected. You can check which elements will be published or uncheck to save the translated versions as a draft.
4. Click the Save button.

5. You will then be redirected to the dashboard screen of the connector. If this is your first installation, you will see a screen like the one displayed below:

That’s all! Now you can start sending content for translation to GPI and import it directly back to your Optimizely site once the translation is ready.

For questions, further details, or request a demo visit Episerver (Optimizely) Translation Services Connector Overview, https://www.translationplugin.com/index.php/optimizely-translation/, or contact info@globalizationpartners.com.

You can also check our Connectors Library for other CMS’ or our Quick Quote Calculator!

The post Optimizely: How to Install the GPI Connector Using NuGet? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

After the recent acquisition of Optimizely in October 2020, Episerver announced that as a result of the combination of products and solutions from the two companies, the company brand will be renewed and will be just Optimizely.

About Episerver

Episerver is an advanced content management system that provides a strong platform for users to manage website content and eCommerce, with efficient marketing strategic tools that help marketers and merchandisers create digital experiences with AI-based personalization.

About Optimizely

Optimizely is a digital experience optimization platform that provides digital solutions for marketing strategies, product building, engineering, and data analysis. The platform offers experiment tools, testing programs, delivers personalized customer experiences, messaging and marketing campaigns validation.

Justin Anovick, Chief Product Officer for Optimizely has written a great blog series detailing the reasons for the acquisition, rebranding and product roadmap which are well worth the read. Check out the first in the series here: A new era of digital experience for Episerver and Optimizely

The team here at GPI has always been big fans of the Episerver platform and has built a Translation Services Connector for the advanced CMS. GPI’s Translation Services Connector for Episerver (Optimizely) CMS 11 is verified and qualified for release for both on premise and cloud environment.

GPI’s Translation Services Connector for Episerver (Optimizely) enables users of Episerver (Optimizely)-based websites to launch and manage multi-language websites allowing for the initiation of web content translation workflows with a single click. Web content contributors and managers will also gain access to a range of translation project reports allowing users to track and manage global translation web projects through GPI’s Translation Portal.

Episerver (Optimizely) has great language support out of the box to design, develop and deploy multilingual websites including:

• Multi-language support for sites and character sets
• Language versions of sites are saved using unique id’s -No duplication of websites or web pages
• Compare content side-by-side and track different versions of websites
• Built-in customizable translation workflows to manage notifications between editing, QA and publishing steps
• Built over Microsoft Technology and supports all .NET Framework localization and globalization features
• Provides fallback language approach to manage nontranslatable content across language sites
• All static content like warnings, validation, etc… are also localized using a sample way through Episerver (Optimizely) Lang folder where all content is externalized to XML
• Episerver (Optimizely) handles Left-to-Right (LTR) and Right-to-Left (RTL) for languages like Arabic and Hebrew

Conclusion

A brand name change is not as easy as just replacing a name. We look forward to seeing Episerver and Optimizely integrate the combined entities and platforms.  As a technology partner to Episerver for many years, we look forward to evolving and helping clients author and publish multilingual content across the globe using this new powerful platform.

Episerver (Optimizely) and the Episerver (Optimizely) logo are trademarks of Episerver (Optimizely).

The post Episerver Name Change to Optimizely Is Underway! appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Model View Controller (MVC) Design Pattern

A Model View Controller is a software design pattern that’s commonly used for developing user interfaces. This architectural pattern helps to separate concerns and layers. It divides the program logic into three interconnected elements:

1. Model – Provides data and associated logic to the view as the database table definition
2. View – Renders the model to the view with HTML tags or elements
3. Controller – Interacts with the model and views, and acts as a server-side method defining with input and output that will appear with a page as view

Using the MVC pattern for websites, requests are routed to a controller, which is responsible for working with the model to perform actions and/or retrieve data. The controller chooses the view to display and provides it with the model. The view renders the final page based on the data in the model. The authentication system includes libraries, a database, and template pages for handling logins, including multi-factor authentication and external authentication, or OAuth with Facebook, Google, and more.

Model Responsibilities

The model in an MVC application represents the state of the application and any business logic or operations that should be performed by it. Business logic should be encapsulated in the model, along with any implementation logic for persisting the state of the application. Strongly typed views typically use view model types designed to contain the data to display on that view. The controller creates and populates these view model instances from the model.

The following code demonstrates an example of how a model class can look like.

View Responsibilities

Views are responsible for presenting and displaying the content through the user interface. They use the Razor view engine to embed .NET code in HTML markup language. There should be minimal logic within views, and any logic in them should relate to presenting content. If you need to perform a great deal of logic in view files in order to display data from a complex model, consider using a view component, view model or view template to simplify the view.

The following code demonstrates an example of how a view class can look like.

Controller Responsibilities

Controllers are the components that handle user interactions, work with the models, and at the end, select a view to render to display it. In an MVC application, the view only displays information or data values. The controller handles and responds to user input and interactions. In the MVC pattern, the controller is the initial entry point and is responsible for selecting which data model types to work with and which view to render in the HTML page.

The following code demonstrates an example of how a controller class can look like.

ASP.NET MVC Application In Summary

The Model View Controller software design pattern is commonly used for developing user interfaces. For more information about MVC, refer to https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/aspnet/mvc.

Resource:

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/aspnet/mvc

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Episerver (Optimizely) is a content management system (CMS) that allows users to easily manage website content and provides a user-friendly way to manage multiple websites in the same application. In this blog, I will discuss how Episerver (Optimizely) can reduce the time spent on editing websites and copying content if you use a page that is already created as a base for the addition of new content instead of creating a page from scratch.

Copying Content in Episerver (Optimizely)

There are two different ways to copy pages to another part of a website or even to another website.

Episerver (Optimizely) allows users to easily copy and paste directly from the tree view and, in an advanced way, export and import content from the admin panel.

For demo purposes, we will use an instance of Episerver (Optimizely) with the Alloy demo website, which has several languages and a second website that is empty and only has the Chinese language available. All content translated has “_zh-Hans_” at the beginning.

Copying & Pasting

In the edit screen, go to the tree where the desired content to be copied is, set the mouse over the name of the page in the content tree and a three lined icon will appear. By clicking this icon, it will expand a menu with different options. Click copy.

This process should be repeated for the destination item but click on the paste option. In this case, we want to reproduce the same website, and the destination will be the “Chinese Start Page”.

There is a disadvantage from following this approach when copying to another website because if the media is not copied properly in the destination, the page will not display the images correctly, as can be seen in the image below:

This is an issue that happens when the item is copied using the source website URL instead of the destination website URL to copy the content.

Exporting & Importing

On the CMS admin page, in the left menu, there is an option for exporting and importing data under the tools section.

By clicking Export Data, Episerver (Optimizely) will show the exportation screen to the user and allow the selection of the desired content to be exported. In this example, the same page as the first example will be used. Be sure to check “Automatically export dependent content types” and “Export property settings”, to ensure the content will be able to be imported on the destination website.

Next, click the export button and a file will be downloaded.

In the destination website, go to the Import Data area, select the downloaded file and select the content destination. Make sure to uncheck “Update existing content items with matching ID” otherwise, if the destination website is in the same instance that the destination is, the content will not be imported and will override the existing one that was recently exported.

When exporting and importing the content, you can select if want to import all languages or to import just one language.

This process will be easier for duplicating the content in another website than copying all properties one by one and will save you valuable time.

The post How to Copy Content in Episerver (Optimizely) appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

HubSpot introduced some great new features so far this year and we can expect even more exciting upgrades in their pipeline. Below gives a brief overview of their newest features.

Partner Application Integrations

In 2018, HubSpot had the highest growth with their platform partner ecosystem. This allowed them to grow their interactions with partners by 70%. The growth in HubSpot’s capabilities gives their partners the ability to access more desirable products and application integrations. It is expected that the platform partner ecosystem will continue growing this year.

New Record Design

One of the most visible changes and enhancements that HubSpot implemented this year was the new record design format. It gives greater visibility for information, locating all information in a new three-column layout that removes unproductive scrolling when extracting requested data.

The new pop-up communicator window is a very useful and user-friendly enhancement, which allows the user to scroll up or down the records while keeping the communicator window at the front of the page. This results in an increased and satisfied user experience when interacting with their customers.

Another feature provided, is the navigation tool between records to look up specific information. The record shows a quick information panel on the right-hand side in the new layout.

Business Card Scanning

HubSpot added a tool to their app for mobile users (both Android and iOS) to allow users to scan business cards and import the information directly into contact records. This service has both free and paid licenses.

Multiple Scores

When managing contact records, HubSpot offers a new feature to give more precise prioritization and qualifications. You can now use multiple scoring to categorize contacts based on a customized criteria.

LinkedIn Ads

HubSpot now advertises on LinkedIn’s platform. This allows HubSpot to have a presence on the leading professional social network.

Activity Feeds

The activity feed is now organized by users, such as group feeds. It allows the sales team to focus on the contact’s activity and provide details for the full activities feed of the contact in one click.

Summary

Throughout the year, the HubSpot team works hard on improving functionalities for users. The above features reflect the impressive developments that have been implemented so far this year. I am anxious to see what other improvements are planned for the rest of 2019 and 2020!

The post HubSpot: What’s New in 2019? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Magento continues to grow and improve and maintain its position as a leading ecommerce platform. As part of Adobe’s Magento acquisition, Adobe recently announced the launch of its Commerce Cloud, which is a fully managed cloud-based version of the Magento platform that is fully integrated with the rest of Adobe’s tools.

In this blog, I will highlight a few of the recent enhancements to Magento.

Security Improvements

Magento now offers Composer packages that add an option for Google reCAPTCHA and CAPTCHA to the Payflow Pro checkout form. It is strongly recommended to install those packages to enhance the security of your ecommerce store.

There was a critical SQL injection vulnerability that was identified in previous versions that is now fixed in the latest release. This vulnerability also can be solved in previous versions by applying a patch.

Enhancements

In the latest release, Magento introduced Page Builder, which is a tool that allows merchants to customize content page layout using a friendly drag and drop visual content editor. Users don’t need to have any knowledge of HTML or CSS to be able to use the tool.

Order creation workflows were also improved to avoid delays on editing billing and shipping addresses.

Features

The Inventory Management tool has multiple new features thanks to the community members who developed the enhancements. They were included in the latest Magento release. The most notable features are the optimization of the bulk transfer of inventory, the Elasticsearch support and the Distance Priority Source Selection Algorithm (SSA), which helps to calculate the shortest distance for deliveries, resulting in reducing costs by shipping orders from the closest inventory locations.

Magento Imagine

On Sunday, the 9th annual Magento Imagine conference began. This premiere ecommerce event focuses on connecting the global ecommerce community. It is a great opportunity to be inspired by experts who will be presenting topics to share knowledge, tips and use cases of the advantages Magento offers. Imagine 2019 runs from May 12th-15th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The post Magento: What’s New for 2019? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Kentico is a content management system (CMS) based on .Net that offers several features for managing multilingual content. Below is a simple guide to enable Kentico to work with different languages along with a few best practices for preparing Kentico for localization.

CMS Configuration for Multilingual Support

The Kentico CMS is shipped with U.S. English as the default culture. Here are the steps for enabling multilingual capabilities.

1. Login as Administrator > Select Sites tab > From Actions select Edit > Select cultures > Add Cultures.

2. Once the cultures are set, the CMS toolbar will display all of the enabled languages in the toolbar.

3. From the CMS desktop, select the target language (German for example). All pages with an “x” need content to be copied from the source (English). Select “copy content for another language” and click “create document”.

Best Practices

Properly Select Fonts, Encoding and Styles

For several languages, it is necessary to change the encoding or fonts to have a better experience for users. This is the case for languages like Arabic and Russian. Ensure that your site is prepared for the language that you want your content to be translated into.

Test and Review

After performing a translation, review all pages in your Kentico application. Sometimes the content is correctly translated, but it does not appear on the page correctly. To avoid this, QA and testing should be a part of every translation project.

XLIFF File Format

Most translators use XLIFF files for translation. So, you should use XLIFF file format to export translatable content from Kentico to be compatible with the translators’ files.

At GPI, we developed a connector to avoid file manipulation and conversions, which simplifies the translation process for users. For more information about our Kentico connector, please see GPI Translation Services Connector for Kentico.

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Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a complete web content management system (WCMS), which allows clients to export content for translation and import back in through its interface. For Adobe Experience Manager translation projects, when users start the translation process, a copy of the root of the content to be translated is created in the target language root, which will be updated after the translation process has finished. Users can also add more content to be translated or update a specific group of assets that were previously translated. Additionally, users can work on content without creating a translation project, but for this blog, we will focus on the creation and workflow of translation projects.

Steps to Adobe Experience Manager Translation

Copying Assets to New Languages

When you are creating a copy of content in a new language, you will have three options:

• Create structure only. (Create a copy for the new language but not a translation project.)
• Create a new translation project.
• Add to an existing translation project.

Adding Assets by Creating a New Translation Project

1. In the Assets UI, select the source folder for which you want to create a language copy.

2. Open the References panel and click Language Copies under Copies.

3. Click Create & Translate at the bottom.

4. From the Target Languages list, select the language(s) for which you want to create a folder structure.

5. From the Project list:

a. If you are adding a new translation project:

i. Select Create a new translation project.

ii. In the Project Title field enter a title for the project.

iii. Click Create. Assets from the source folder are copied to the target folders for the locales you selected in step 4.

b. If you are adding assets to a previously created translation project, select Add to existing translation project, then select the project where you need to add those assets.

6. To navigate to the folder, select the language copy and click Reveal in Assets.

7. Navigate to the Projects console. The translation folder is copied to the Projects console.

8. Open the folder to view the translation project.

9. Click the project to open the details page.

10. To view the status of the translation job, click the ellipsis at the bottom of the Translation Job tile.

Exporting Translations

When you need translations for Adobe Experience Manager, export the translations by clicking the Export button under the drop-down menu in the Translation Job tile from the Translation Project. There can be many Translation Jobs for the same Translation Project.

Importing Translations

You can import translated content that is sent by a translation provider but is not integrated with AEM via a connector. To do this, import the file by clicking on the Import button under the drop-down menu in the Translation Job tile from the Translation Project.

Summary

In summary, this blog covered steps for importing and exporting content for Adobe Experience Manager translation projects. The process for creating multilingual web pages using AEM is simple and straightforward.

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