Day: November 7, 2011

As most know, changes to the Google translation services are coming. The v1 service was depreciated in May of this year while free access to v2 service was discontinued for “new” application requests on the 24th August (access switching over to their paid service), with all existing access to the free service started prior to the 24th August due to be discontinued from December 1st.

The Lag – via Oz Linden mulled over alternatives for a time, via JIRA, and this has resulted in two options for continuing to use an in-built translator in the future, by using either the paid-for Google Translate API, or by using the Microsoft Bing translation API.

The new translation options are not live as yet, but can be seen in the latest Development Viewer (3.2.2 (224260) or above or the latest Beta Viewer (3.2.1 244227 or above and which also has the new Viewer UI incorporated in it).

Accessing the Translate Options

To access the translation options, go to PREFERENCES -> CHAT and click on CHAT TRANSLATION SETTINGS. This will open a further floater:

As can be seen, the Google translate option is retained – but you’ll have to sign-up and pay for the service yourself.

The Bing option provides a means to continue with a free translation service, but will require you register for a WindowsLive ID, if you don’t already have one.

Using the Bing Translator Service

To obtain a Bing AppID:

• Click on the Bing AppID link in the floater. If you have a WindowsLive account and are logged in, you’ll be taken to the application registration page
• If you don’t have a WindowsLive account or are not logged in, you’ll be taken to the sign-in registration page
• Once you are signed-in or have gone through the registration / verification process, you’ll be taken to the application registration page. This isn’t a terribly helpful page, but essentially:
  • In Application Name type “bing” or “bing translator” (although I get the impression just about anything will work)
  • Fill-out the rest of the required fields and accept the terms & conditions
• Clicking SAVE takes you to your Applications page – this may take a while to load, (and may even time-out – did on me the first time) – but it should eventually display the application name you gave, and an ID – highlight and COPY this
• In the Viewer Chat Translations Settings floater:
  • Check ENABLE MACHINE TRANSLATION WHEN CHATTING
  • Click the Bing Translator API radio button
  • Paste your copied AppID into the Bing AppID field.
  • Click OK
• Close the floaters and away you go!

Note that as this is a Development Viewer, as such details on the Chat Translation floater may change between now and it reaching a formal release (work was still on-going last week).

I actually missed this at the start of the month (blame it on my birthday and work…). The new Viewer UI has taken a step closer – it’s now at Beta (3.2.1 244227), and includes all the latest revisions, including:

• The Destination Guide bar open by default
• The new chat translation options

Interestingly, the Direct Delivery Received Items section of Inventory, that was present in the Development Viewer is not present in the Beta release (nor is it visible in the latest Development Viewer release (3.2.2 (224260)). Is this an indication that LL are heed calls from merchants not to release DD before the New Year, or that the code slipped into the earlier Development releases in error?

I’ve taken it for a quick spin, and found performance to be equitable to earlier releases, and other than the translation and Destination Guide tweaks, I’ve not come across any significant changes – but it was a quick spin.

Given the UI is now in Beta and caveating the DD situation and – more importantly – the progression of the OpenGL fixes, this could be taken to mean the UI will be in a release update sooner rather than later – although admittedly not as soon as part of me thought LL might shunt it out.