Understanding translation jobs

The brief overview of the translation job terminology.

Translation Job
A background job that can perform all the necessary tasks to extract translatable content from the repository, submit it to a translation management system, retrieve the translation and submit it back to the repository.
Translation Job Definition
The complete description of how the job should be processed. It is a set of properties defined by user before sending a job to translation. It consists of Translation Job Metadata, Translation Job Containers and Translation Job Workflows.
Translation Job Metadata
A set of basic properties of the job, like name or source language. It is stored in as a TranslationJob Card.
Translation Job Container
A logical container grouping the items to be translated. Example is a publication, which groups topics that have to be translated. When you define a job, you do not add every individual items one by one, instead you add a container, and all the inner items that can be translated get translated. Individual items like topics can also be added, in that case they can be considered degenerate containers.
Translation Job Workflow
A workflow - target language pair. It defines what language the item should be translated to and what workflow should be used.
Translation Job Item
An individual item that goes into translation. Resolving containers into items is a first step that is performed by Translation Builder after user sends the job to translation.
Translation Template
A description of the translation job in the translation system. In case of SDL WorldServer Translation Template corresponds to a Project Type. In case of SDL TMS Translation Template corresponds to a Configuration.
External Translation Job
Contains all the details that are necessary to identify the job in the translation management system. In case of SDL WorldServer, it holds the reference to a Project. In case of SDL TMS, it holds the reference to a Job.
Translation Builder
A service that prepares the job so the content can be sent to the translation management system. It is responsible for:
  • starting push translations
  • resolving containers into items
  • monitoring the jobs and initiating the recovery process for the jobs that got stuck
  • deleting completed and cancelled jobs after the configured period of time
Translation Organizer
a service that sends the content to translation management system and back. It is responsible for:
  • synchronizing translation templates
  • sending the content to translation management system
  • updating the translated content
  • cancellation of the jobs in translation management system