Usage of the memoQ web service API by LSP – a case study

Outline About think global What is a WS-API? Usage of WS-API through the engineering department Embedding memoQ into automated workflows Common problems and limitations

About think global think global is a medium size, multilingual LSP Customers are from different branches Software companies are a big and important customer group This leads to rather big and complex projects many files many languages different, complex formats frequent updates

About think global think global has different departments The engineering department prepares content for translation develops tools for preparation uses mainly Java as a programming language

What is a WS-API? API – application programming interface It provides programming access to software functionality In memoQ: Create projects, add users, ... Advantage: Repetitive tasks can be implemented once but used several times

What is a WS-API? A web service is a service that can be accessed through a network The content is packed in XML files It is a standard that is supported by most programming languages Feels like local programming

What is a WS-API? Web Service Java C++ PHP ... Because we have complex projects with automated workflows and use Java anyway, it’s only a small step to the usage of the ws-api.

Usage of WS-API Through Engineering Simple tasks used by the engineering department: Creation of resources (e.g. TMs for multilingual projects) Cloning of resources with slightly different settings Multi-step tasks (e.g. clearing TMs) Import of huge projects with different filters Export to different formats Backup of projects / resources Control tasks (resource settings, user groups, ...)

Embedding memoQ Workflow example: machine translation Projects are prepared in memoQ Bilingual export + conversion to machine friendly format Machine translation Conversion + import tg has an own translation machine that is already trained to match our needs.

Embedding memoQ Analysis of memoQ projects advantage: all needed analysis are done at once memoQ client is still available Assign translators to documents very time consuming has to be done twice (in the project management system and in memoQ)

Embedding memoQ

Problems and Limitations API complexity and design The API is complex; understanding it is time consuming The design is not always consistent

Problems and Limitations API functions sometimes differ from GUI functions TM settings are not used in analysis Some project settings cannot be read Setting of import / export path is not possible ... For me the worst point. Make it clear for kilgray staff !!!!!!

Problems and Limitations Updates Good news! API is updated automatically with memoQ server Very few changes in API functions Only MBDs have been replaced with MQXLZ recently

Problems and Limitations Bugs There are not many bugs, but ... WS-API has few users, bugs are not reported and resolved as fast as ‘normal’ memoQ bugs Installation of older versions is not possible When problems occur, finding workarounds is difficult Combination with missing features can lead to severe problems

Problems and Limitations Example: Export bug Bug description: Some documents cannot be exported Change to older version impossible No workaround via API possible Missing functionality setExportPath() => ‘Export to stored path’ via GUI is not possible Every document has to be exported manually to the correct subfolder

Conclusion The usage through the engineering department saves time and costs (and can be fun!) It avoids human mistakes and raises quality Automated usage through third parties (like project managers) can be a huge benefit, but has to be introduced with care Carefully define the functionality you want to implement Think about performance

Thank you!