Documentation Center

Asset Concepts

Use the WorldServer Explorer to work with assets and folders, scope assets, and create projects. In addition, if you need to edit, translate, or export an asset without creating a workflow and a project, you can do so in the Explorer.

The Explorer presents a familiar two-pane view of available content. When you first visit the Explorer, it displays in the left pane one or more AIS (Asset Interface System) Mounts, each of which represents a connection that your WorldServer administrator has established between WorldServer and a content repository. When you double-click a Mount, WorldServer displays its contents as folders and files in the right pane. You can navigate through the content structure to locate folders and assets upon which you want to work.

Add, Delete, Copy, Download, and Upload Assets

You can manipulate assets using the Asset menu in WorldServer Explorer. Adding and copying folders allows you to set up target folders directly in WorldServer. Uploading assets allows you to add assets into WorldServer for globalization. Downloading assets allows you to work with and store assets offline.

Lock and Unlock Assets

From the Asset menu in Explorer, you can lock assets or folders that you do not want other users to modify. Assets are automatically locked when you save changes in the WorldServer translation workbenches or Freeform Editor, or when you export the asset.

Conversely, you can unlock assets to allow other users to modify them. Assets are automatically unlocked upon import or task completion.

Edit and Translate Assets

You can edit source and target assets from the Explorer with options on the Edit menu. Use this menu to open an editor specific to your work.

Asset Viewer

The Viewer allows you to see the contents of assets. This is helpful if you want to see an interim preview of an asset you are working with. For certain file types, you can edit the assets from the Viewer.

To use the Viewer, select an asset and click Asset > View. You can also start the Viewer from the WorldServer translation workbenches or Freeform Editor.

Search for Assets

You can search for assets in Explorer by selecting a mount or folder, selecting Edit > Find, and specifying the text to search for (optionally case-sensitive). The search returns a link to each asset that contains the search string.

A search within an XML repository mount provides additional options, including a search and replace capability. Refer to the online help for details.

Select Multiple Assets

You can select one or more assets from the same folder by pressing Shift or Ctrl while clicking on the assets to select. To select assets from multiple folders, select the assets from the first folder as usual, right-click the selection, and choose Remember Selection. The selection appears in the Current Selection window that appears. You can then navigate to another folder, and do the same. When you have finished selecting assets, you can choose an action.

Submit Assets for Approval

You can submit for approval content that you have created or edited from the Tools > Submit option in the Explorer. This creates a project using the default workflow.

Export and Import Assets

With theTools > Export/Import option in the Explorer, you can export assets to work with them offline in SDL Trados Studio 2019 or in other desktop translation tools. When you export an asset, the corresponding target asset is locked automatically (regardless of whether it already exists).

Exporting an asset generates a translation kit that can be given to a translator. A translation kit contains the following things:
  • The segmented asset
  • The relevant pieces of the translation memory
  • The relevant pieces of the terminology database
These pieces of information are all stored in a ZIP file that a translator can open in a translation workbench. The translator can work in the translation workbench to provide translations for one or more of the segments in the translation kit and save a new version of the translation kit.

When the translator is complete with her or his work, someone with access to WorldServer (this could be the translator) can import the translation kit back into WorldServer.

When you import an asset, WorldServer checks if the asset is still locked by you. If the asset is no longer locked by you, WorldServer does not import it, because there may have been changes made to it. The source and target segments of the translated document populate the translation memory if you select that option upon import. The translation memory from the offline tool is not imported into WorldServer translation memory, because the offline translation memory may contain irrelevant or incorrect matches. However, you can import offline translation memory (TMX format) into a WorldServer translation memory. See WorldServer Linguistic Tools for more information.

For more information about working with offline translation tools, see the "Translating" chapter.

Asset Versions

Use the Versioning menu in the Explorer to check assets in and out, to compare versions, and to see versioning history for an asset.

WorldServer allows you to compare the differences between two versions of a text document so you can see the changes.

Asset Scoping

One of the central advantages of a translation memory is that it can decrease the amount of work that you need to do for future translations; work from one translation can be leveraged in another translation.

WorldServer provides the ability to scope the work required to translate an asset. Scoping takes the given asset and breaks the asset down into segments. These segments are then looked up in the translation memory to see if there is any previous work that can be leveraged. Based on this, the segments are flagged as having various levels of matches.

The highest levels of matches (ICE Match and 100% Match) indicate that little to no translation may be required. Fuzzy matches indicate that some previous work may be leveraged, but additional translation may be required. In addition, WorldServer provides the ability to then estimate the actual cost of this work through a cost model.

This entire process can be performed through the Explorer by selecting the assets that you want to scope and choosing Project > Scope.

For more information about creating cost models, see the "Cost Models" section of the "Linguistic Tools Setup" chapter in the SDL WorldServer Administrator Guide.

SDL Knowledge Center Connector

If your WorldServer system includes an AIS Mount that connects to an SDL Knowledge Center™ server, the root level of your mount (in WorldServer Explorer) shows a folder for each version of every publication object in the SDL Knowledge Center server. Within each publication object's folder, WorldServer displays a subfolder for each language defined in the SDL Knowledge Center server. If a language is not specified in the SDL Trados AIS Mount, WorldServer displays a red circle with a white bar on the language folder, indicating that the language is not available. Within each language folder, the structure reflects the structure defined for the publication in the SDL Knowledge Center server.

The WorldServer integration does not necessarily show every component in your SDL Knowledge Center server. It limits visibility to components that are ready for translation. In order to see in WorldServer assets that are in your SDL Knowledge Center server
  • The publication object must exist in your SDL Knowledge Center server
  • The publication object properties must specify at least one requested (target) language
  • The working language (source) content in your SDL Knowledge Center server must be released, and the requested languages of this content must be generated
  • The source and target locales must be mapped in the SDL Knowledge Center AIS Mount configuration
  • The status of the target content must match one of the values of Allowed Target Status in the SDL Knowledge Center AIS Mount configuration

If a change is made in the SDL Knowledge Center server, such as adding a new requested language to a publication object, to see the change in WorldServer you must refresh the WorldServer Explorer page. WorldServer does not automatically refresh the page when objects or metadata change in the SDL Knowledge Center server.