Help with URL Scheme for Google Translate (Mobile)

[MeSue]

Can anyone help with the URL scheme to launch the Google Translate app? I know the URL scheme is googletranslate:// but I don't know what to put after it to have the selection pasted in as "detect language" and translate to English.

[Faterson]

Here goes:

http://translate.google.com/?vi=c#auto/en/{define}

It's offered among Marvin's custom menu button presets; I just swapped "ru" inside there for "en".

I also swapped "text" for "define". If you leave "text" there, then Marvin will launch Google Translate, but will not put the word you are translating, into your Vocabulary list. If you use "define" instead of "text", it will add it to your Vocabulary list.

I was testing this on my iPhone, and once again, I was struck by how easy it is to overlook the option to set up custom menu buttons in Marvin for iPhone. I wish at least the text on that settings screen explicitly said something like: "Scroll below, you can set up 4 custom menu buttons there!" I bet 75% or 80% (or even more?) of Marvin users have no idea that any custom menu buttons are there, hidden below the lower edge of the settings pane. Yes, you may notice the blinking scrolling hint arrow the first time around, or the first few times around, but after a while, you mind stops registering it. (See GitHub #116).

[Faterson]

PS: If you specifically insist on using the app, you could try the same code (or its variaton) there following the two slashes. However, the usefulness of launching the app instead of Marvin's internal browser escapes me; both services rely on an active Internet connection, while launching the app would transfer you away from Marvin to the app every time, forcing you to return to Marvin manually every time -- which seems more time-consuming than simply pressing the "Book" button in the top-left corner of Marvin's internal browser pane. It is particularly time-consuming on the iPhone where you do not have the 4-finger swipe gesture available for easily swapping back and forth between two open iOS apps.

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by Faterson

PS: If you specifically insist on using the app, you could try the same code (or its variaton) there following the two slashes. However, the usefulness of launching the app instead of Marvin's internal browser escapes me...

I tried that code after the URL scheme for the app and it doesn't fill in the selected text. I want to use the app (only on the iPhone) because it is formatted better for the small screen. If I could get Marvin's browser to use the mobile version of the site, it would be fine, but I can't get that working either.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by MeSue

If I could get Marvin's browser to use the mobile version of the site, it would be fine, but I can't get that working either.

Use this; it works:

http://translate.google.com/m?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&ie=UTF-8&prev=_m&q={define}

It really is a hassle to switch between two apps on the iPhone... There are 2 reasons why I've been seriously considering an iPhone jailbreak: enabling custom keyboard layouts; and enabling the 4-finger iOS gestures on the iPhone, too....

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Use this; it works:

http://translate.google.com/m?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&ie=UTF-8&prev=_m&q={define}

It really is a hassle to switch between two apps on the iPhone...

That doesn't launch the mobile version of Google Translate for me, and when I switch the view to mobile from the link at the bottom of the page it erases the text I was looking up. The screen shot shows what I get using the code above:


Not even readable.

I don't find switching apps that much of a hassle. Especially since iOS 7 (I know you hate it) because it puts the last used app in the center for easy switching.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by MeSue

I don't find switching apps that much of a hassle.

I see you have a (slightly) newer iPhone than I do. On my 2010 iPhone 4, the central hardware home button is no longer as responsive as it should be. I think it reacts better to the double-press in iOS 7 than it used to in iOS 6 (maybe because everything is "slowed down" in iOS 7), but it still is a hassle to have to double-press, and then tap, just to switch to a different app; and, sometimes that double-press is interpreted by my iPhone as a single press, returning me to the home screen instead of popping up the multi-tasking carousel, and at other times, it is interpreted as a triple-press, switching me to the "white on black" mode... It would really help if that iOS 4-finger swipe gesture were available on the iPhone, too, and I may well decide to jailbreak my iPhone later on, if only because of that.

Originally Posted by MeSue

That doesn't launch the mobile version of Google Translate for me

That is very weird. That code definitely launches the mobile version of Google Translate in Marvin for me, see below:

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by Faterson

That is very weird. That code definitely launches the mobile version of Google Translate in Marvin for me, see below:

Weird indeed! I tried switching to mobile and trying again, making sure I was signed in, etc. Even when I switch over to mobile view, it looks different for me compared to your screen shot:

[Faterson]

Google can be rather unpredictable in offering various versions of its webpages to various users, sometimes depending on the users' geographical location, at other times depending on the specific computer/device/browser they use, on the logged-in versus logged-out status, etc. There can also be different versions of the logged-in status! (Say, a logged-in regular Google user compared to a "corporate" or academic logged-in Google Apps user.)

I don't normally use Safari in iOS, but I have just checked it out on my iPhone and I am signed in to Google there (regular Google, not Google Apps). I don't understand why you are seeing a completely different mobile version of Google Translate on your iPhone, compared to my version of it. In my mobile version of Google Translate, there does not even appear to be a way to sign in/out of Google's site.

That we are getting to see such wildly different results while employing the same "trigger code" in Marvin, is mind-boggling.

[Faterson]

PS: I have now discovered I was not signed in to Google inside Marvin's browser (which surprised me: I thought Marvin uses Safari, where I had been signed in to Google).

Anyway, even signing in to Google's pages (after tapping "Google Home") in Marvin makes no difference... I still get to see the same Google Translate version of the mobile site as captured in the screenshot above.

[MeSue]

FYI, I moved these posts out of the other thread so it would not be cluttered with non-working URL scheme discussion.

Still seeking help for the working URL scheme that will give me the mobile version (or app) for Google Translate if anyone has suggestions...

[At_Libitum]

Hi MeSue

I revisited this today and after some 'fiddling' I finally found a working url format.

Faterson was close. In its simplest form with all the extraneous noise from Google removed it gave me directly the page you saw after switching Faterson's page to mobile

http://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&q={define}

it really does not need any other parameter as these are purely to satisfy Google's curiosity.

[Faterson]

I wonder, At_Libitum... could be just your particular browser's settings that make it work. My link even explicitly requests the mobile site, and it still doesn't work for Sue. For me, both my and your version works, but there's no guaranteeing (I'm afraid) what will happen on Sue's (or anyone else's) devices, is there? Your link does not request the mobile site; it's the standard link to Google Translate, and on your (and my) device, this gets redirected to the mobile site version as desired, but...

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

Hi MeSue

I revisited this today and after some 'fiddling' I finally found a working url format.

http://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&q={define}

it really does not need any other parameter as these are purely to satisfy Google's curiosity.

Thank you for your efforts but this still gives me the desktop site in Marvin. When I use the "open in safari" shortcut from Marvin, however, it opens the mobile site in Safari. So I guess it is something that has my Marvin browser locked into the desktop site…? A cookie, maybe, but I don't know what to look for or how to change it. I also get the desktop site when I use the Wikipedia custom menu item (preset), but when I use the search web button from the built-in action menu, then I get a mobile version of Google.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by MeSue

A cookie, maybe, but I don't know what to look for or how to change it.

It's a chaotic situation. I thought Marvin was simply using an embedded Safari window? Yet the browser within Marvin behaves differently for me compared to the ("same") Safari browser outside Marvin. (Which is a browser I don't use at all.) Even when I log in to Google in "both Safaris", I can still see different results within and outside of Marvin.

This could be chaos (co-)created by Google and Apple, or just one of them. I administer a bunch of domains via Google Apps, and let me tell you, chaos is the order of the day there. Totally inconsistent and self-contradictory interface, etc. And it's not a temporary phenomenon -- it's been like that for years, ever since Google Apps first launched. Google's services are great, but transparency or clarity of their organisation/functionality is not among their traits. It's as if Google just kept improvising all the time, as they move along. Remember how Gmail used to be in the "Beta" stage for something like 5 years?