Translate text

The Vertex AI Translation service lets you translate text written in a language into any of the other supported languages.

This page shows you how to translate a sample text using the Vertex AI Translation API on Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped.

Before you begin

Before you can start using the Vertex AI Translation API, you must have a project with the Vertex AI Translation API enabled, and you must have the appropriate credentials. You can also install client libraries to help you make calls to the API. For more information, see Set up a translation project.

Translate text

The translateText method takes input text in a particular language and returns the translated text into another language. You can enter plain or HTML text as input.

If you enter HTML text, the translateText method translates only the text between the HTML tags without translating the tags. However, it translates attributes in HTML5 tags, such as alt attributes. An example of using HTML5 tags and attributes is used in the syntax to exclude text from translation. The output retains the untranslated HTML tags and includes the translated text between them.

Make a curl request to the Vertex AI Translation pre-trained API. Otherwise, interact with the Vertex AI Translation pre-trained API from a Python script to translate text from one language to another.

The following examples show how to translate an input text from one language to another:

curl

Follow these steps to make a curl request:

  1. Get an authentication token.

  2. Make the request:

curl -vv -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID:translateText -d '{"parent": "projects/PROJECT_ID", "source_language_code": "SOURCE_LANGUAGE", "target_language_code": "TARGET_LANGUAGE", "contents": ["INPUT_TEXT"]}'

Replace the following:

  • TOKEN: the authentication token you obtained.
  • ENDPOINT: the Vertex AI Translation endpoint that you use for your organization. For more information, view service status and endpoints.
  • PROJECT_ID: your project ID.
  • SOURCE_LANGUAGE: the language code of your input text. See the list of supported languages and their respective language codes.
  • TARGET_LANGUAGE: the language code you want to translate your text into. See the list of supported languages and their respective language codes.
  • INPUT_TEXT: your input text in the source language.

Use the mime_type field to specify a type of file. Set the mime_type field to one of the following values:

  • text/plain: your input is plain text.
  • text/html: your input is HTML text.

If the mime_type field is empty, text/html is the default value.

The following example uses the mime_type field:

curl -vv -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID:translateText -d '{"mime_type": "text/html", "parent": "projects/PROJECT_ID", "source_language_code": "SOURCE_LANGUAGE", "target_language_code": "TARGET_LANGUAGE", "contents": ["INPUT_TEXT"]}'

The output returns the translated text.

Python

Follow these steps to use the Vertex AI Translation service from a Python script:

  1. Install the latest version of the Vertex AI Translation client library.

  2. Set the required environment variables on a Python script.

  3. Authenticate your API request.

  4. Add the following code to the Python script you created:

    from google.cloud import translate
import google.auth
from google.auth.transport import requests
from google.api_core.client_options import ClientOptions

audience = "https://ENDPOINT:443"
api_endpoint="ENDPOINT:443"

def translate_client(creds):
  opts = ClientOptions(api_endpoint=api_endpoint)
  return translate.TranslationServiceClient(credentials=creds, client_options=opts)

def main():
  creds = None
  try:
    creds, project_id = google.auth.default()
    creds = creds.with_gdch_audience(audience)
    req = requests.Request()
    creds.refresh(req)
    print("Got token: ")
    print(creds.token)
  except Exception as e:
    print("Caught exception" + str(e))
    raise e
  return creds

def translate_func(creds):
  tc = translate_client(creds)
  req = {
    "parent": "projects/PROJECT_ID",
    "source_language_code": "SOURCE_LANGUAGE",
    "target_language_code": "TARGET_LANGUAGE",
    "mime_type": "text/plain",
    "contents": ["INPUT_TEXT"]
  }

  resp = tc.translate_text(req)
  print(resp)

if __name__=="__main__":
  creds = main()
  translate_func(creds)

    Replace the following:

    • ENDPOINT: the Vertex AI Translation endpoint that you use for your organization. For more information, view service status and endpoints.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project ID.
    • SOURCE_LANGUAGE: the language code of your input text. See the list of supported languages and their respective language codes.
    • TARGET_LANGUAGE: the language code you want to translate your text into. See the list of supported languages and their respective language codes.
    • INPUT_TEXT: your input text in the source language.

    Use the mime_type field to specify a type of file. Set the mime_type field to one of the following values:

    • text/plain: your input is plain text.
    • text/html: your input is HTML text.

    If the mime_type field is empty, text/html is the default value.

  5. Save the Python script.

  6. Run the Python script to translate the text:

    python SCRIPT_NAME

    Replace SCRIPT_NAME with the name you gave to your Python script, such as translation.py.

For more information on the translateText method, see the Python client library.

Exclude text from translation

Use one of the following HTML tags on the contents field of requests to exclude parts of your text from translation:

  • <span translate="no">"TEXT"</span>
  • <span class="notranslate">"TEXT"</span>

Replace TEXT with the portion of text you want to exclude from translation.

For example, if you have the following input text in Spanish:

Hola, esto es una prueba.

Then, that text translates in English to the following sentence:

Hello, this is a test.

Suppose you only want to translate the following part of the text, excluding Hola, from the input text:

esto es una prueba.

That part of the text translates in English to the following sentence:

this is a test.

Use the HTML tags to exclude text from the translation. For example, the following curl request uses the <span class="notranslate">"TEXT"</span> tag to exclude Hola, from the previous input text in Spanish when translating the text to English:

curl -vv -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID:translateText -d '{"parent": "projects/PROJECT_ID", "source_language_code": "es", "target_language_code": "en", "contents": [<span class="notranslate">"Hola,"</span>"esto es una prueba."]}'

Detect language

The detectLanguage method returns the language of a text string by sending an HTTP request.

For example, the following request detects English as the language from the input text Hello, this is a test:

curl

curl -vv -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID:detectLanguage -d '{"parent": "projects/PROJECT_ID", "contents": ["Hello, this is a test"]}'

Get an operation

The getOperation method returns the latest state of a long-running operation. Use this method to retrieve the operation result generated by the Vertex AI Translation API service. To use this method, specify your project ID and the Vertex AI Translation endpoint.

For example, the following request returns the state of a long-running operation, such as creating a glossary, that is running in your project:

curl

curl -vv -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID/operations/PROJECT_ID

List operations

The listOperations method returns a list of the long-running operations that match a specified filter in the request. To use this method, specify your project ID and the Vertex AI Translation endpoint.

For example, the following request returns the list of operations running in your project and limit the page size to ten results per page:

curl

curl -vv -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID/operations?page_size=10

Get supported languages

The getSupportedLanguages method returns the list of languages that the Vertex AI Translation API supports.

For example, the following request returns the supported languages by specifying the Vertex AI Translation endpoint:

curl

curl -vv -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer TOKEN" https://ENDPOINT/v3/projects/PROJECT_ID:getSupportedLanguages -d "{}"

For the complete list of the supported languages, see Supported languages for Vertex AI Translation.