764462 - machine translation for addon reviews

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Dave Garrett]

It would make it a lot easier to read through the reviews for certain addons if there was a built in feature to automatically translate it into the user's language using Google Translate or Microsoft Translator (formerly Babel Fish).

Comment 1

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

This sounds like a fun bug to do.  If you need help with UI recommendations just ask.

Comment 2

[Vincent Agnano [:vinyll]]

It does sound fun! I guess we would have a "translate" link next to the "parmalink"?
Is there any better service than another (Mozilla Policy concerns or else)?
Google has gone for paid service API. Same for Microsoft Translator (first 2 millions characters are free).
There's http://mymemory.translated.net/ and a bunch of others.
We could also inspire from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-translator-for-firefox/ but it read content from web interface.

Any opinion?

Comment 3

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Tell me which one is the best and I'll run it by the privacy group.

Comment 4

[Vincent Agnano [:vinyll]]

(In reply to Wil Clouser [:clouserw] from comment #3)
> Tell me which one is the best and I'll run it by the privacy group.

After trying a few actual reviews and read translation, each of them have their flaws and are barely readable.
I guess I'd suggest Google Translate API for the sake of popularity, though any other suggestion is very welcome.

Comment 5

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Google's API has no free level so we can't actually try this before we start paying for it.  Lisa & Andrew - can you give the thumbs up that this would be useful before I pursue it further?

Comment 6

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

It sounds kinda useful in theory yes.  Both Google and Microsoft produce fairly readable results between languages with a common history (and laughably bad with others).  Obviously if its going to cost mega bucks someone will need to sign off on it.

Comment 7

[Vincent Agnano [:vinyll]]

Added in https://github.com/mozilla/zamboni/commit/5685a3017fd337e846f8b7dd5902f7dccd718b99

Comment 8

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Hey Vincent,

This is good stuff.  I like that you can click through to the google translate page (in a new tab or whatever).  I enabled the flag on -dev so people could try it out.  Two things I'm doing to reopen:

1) The ajaxy part doesn't work for me.  The link just doesn't do anything.

2) It wasn't clear from the bug, but the place we need this is actually in the flagged reviews queue (https://addons-dev.allizom.org/en-US/editors/queue/reviews) - not on the public pages.  I think leaving it open to everyone might get more expensive than we want it to be, although, I think if we don't have the AJAX part on the public side it would be free, since we're just linking to google, right?  

Let me know if this isn't clear, happy to chat more on IRC.

Comment 9

[Vincent Agnano [:vinyll]]

Replies:

1) we get an error 400. That's most probably due to a API key error. Maybe the API on the dev site is not activated for Translate.

2) I can obviously activate translations on that admin page.
If we don't have the ajax and we keep the external link ot won't imply any cost.

What I'd suggest then is:
- we implement the current translations on the admin
- we deactivate the ajax on the public pages.

Comment 10

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

(In reply to Vincent Agnano [:vinyll] from comment #9)

> What I'd suggest then is:
> - we implement the current translations on the admin
> - we deactivate the ajax on the public pages.

perfect, thanks.  I'm pretty sure the API keys are correct on -dev but I'm not sure how to confirm it.  Is there something I can run on the CLI to test?

Comment 11

[Vincent Agnano [:vinyll]]

> Is there something I can run on the CLI to test?

You can check the response with (replacing GOOGLE_key with what's on the server):
curl "https://www.googleapis.com/language/translate/v2?key=GOOGLE_KEY&q=hello%20world&source=en&target=de"

Comment 12

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

I think you're right, Vincent.  I talked to Rob earlier in the week and it sounds like our GA credentials are in monolith and not in zamboni.  I'll get it sorted out and get one added to zamboni.  Thanks!

Comment 13

[Vincent Agnano [:vinyll]]

Fixed in https://github.com/mozilla/zamboni/commit/7baa40c0e29bdb78bb75ad5c23bcb089b38f7a3a