Help with URL Scheme for Google Translate (Mobile)

[kguil]

@mesue - this works for me:

http://translate.google.com/m?sl=auto&tl=it&hl=en&q={text}

(it's translating from auto to Italian)

[Faterson]

That's just a variation of the code I gave earlier. This part:

/m?

requests for the mobile site to be displayed, but Sue is still getting the regular site instead.

Please note that if you use {text} instead of {define}, the translated word will not be entered into your Vocabulary list in Marvin, but you probably want to have it there, so I recommend using {define}.

[kguil]

I tested the URL I provided on both my iPad and iPhone. In all cases it brought up the mobile site. It could be that the extra query parameters in the first version are causing Google to send the full version.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by kguil

I tested the URL I provided on both my iPad and iPhone. In all cases it brought up the mobile site.

Yes, same here, for both your and my code. Still, Sue was getting different results.

Originally Posted by kguil

It could be that the extra query parameters in the first version are causing Google to send the full version.

There are only 2 extra parameters in the earlier code version compared to the later one:

&ie=UTF-8

This is about the webpage's encoding and seems auto-inserted whenever you search for a word that contains a diacritic letter. It can't possibly have anything to do with the mobile vs. regular site version -- or if it does, it's a severe Google bug.

&prev=_m

I was unable to determine what this particular search parameter means. "Prev" as in "previous [search page]"? Or is it Preview? In any case, it contains an m, too, which I optimistically interpreted as referring to "mobile" as well, just like the first m.

If simply removing the &prev=_m parameter (and/or the UTF-8 parameter) will make the code work for Sue suddenly, I'll be ecstatic.

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by kguil

@mesue - this works for me:

http://translate.google.com/m?sl=auto&tl=it&hl=en&q={text}

(it's translating from auto to Italian)

So, this does bring up a mobile version, but, in typical Google fashion, it sucks as a mobile version. I have to zoom in just to read it, and if it is more than a few words, I have to scroll side to side.


Is this what your mobile version looks like? I can't remember what the desktop site looked like now, but it had to be better than this!

[Faterson]

Yeah, that's the mobile version alright. (The versions selector at the bottom confirms it.)

I don't mind the small font myself -- but then, I don't typically use Google Translate for translations, which are mostly pseudo-translations, anyway, typically way off the mark. I prefer to use professional dictionaries in the Lingvo app instead. Of course, those only translate words, not sentences.

[kguil]

Yes. I see the same thing. I'm afraid that's just what Google's mobile version looks like.

[At_Libitum]

Further trials as this is getting weirder by the minute


ok, here's what I did, I tried both Firefox on my Desktop and Safari on the iPhone and just went to the base address without specifying a translation query

1. Firefox using

http://translate.google.com/m?

-----------------------------------
2. Firefox using

http://translate.google.com/?

without the m

-----------------------------------
3. Safari using

http://translate.google.com/m?

-----------------------------------
4. Safari using

http://translate.google.com/?

again without the m

-----------------------------------
So for me the presence of the m before the question mark clearly directs me to the 'light' version and leaving off the m redirects me to the 'iPhone' version.

Also, when trying out actual translation queries I get to see the 'light version when using

http://translate.google.com/m?sl=auto&tl=en&q=gecompliceerd

on both browser platforms
-----------------------------------
and when using this one

http://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&q=gecompliceerd

on both browser platforms, I get to see the 'iPhone' version again (on a desktop browser this will most likely produce the full version page)

[Faterson]

Like I said, chaos and inconsistency has been my standard experience with Google. Please note that what site version you get to see may also depend on the particular cookies cached in your particular browser at any particular time, your logged-in or logged-out status, etc.

In other words: using the same trigger code in Marvin is likely to produce different results for various users on Google's pages (not just the "Translate" service).

[slayda]

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

This one worked for me too.

[MeSue]

And this is why I wish I could get the app to work. I can get it to launch but not fill in the selection. Of course I can just paste it in, so that is what I might end up doing for the iPhone. It's not like I need translations that often.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by MeSue

And this is why I wish I could get the app to work. I can get it to launch but not fill in the selection.

Yeah... you get stuck there in the same place as Slayda with his preferred Merriam-Webster app.

I wish there was a way to request these URL schemes from app developers. Slayda basically got told off by Merriam-Webster app support, "No URL scheme for ya, we still love ya, bye!" Google, as a rule, does not even make it possible for their users to get in touch with them.

For Lingvo, Kris more or less "guessed" their URL scheme based on dissecting the plist file, but he also wrote to Lingvo developers directly. ABBYY ignored him for many months, but they eventually published the URL scheme on their webpages. Perhaps Merriam-Webster and Google will also come to their senses one day.

I have found Google's enterprise support (for Google Apps) to be excellent, even over-anxious. When I submit a support ticket through that channel, on no matter how trivial an issue, they give me a return phone call within an hour or two, even though an email reply would actually have been perfectly enough. (You don't always have time for a phone call.) Unfortunately, Google Translate is not considered a "core app" within Google Apps, so I can't submit a query related to Google Translate to Google's enterprise support -- and I'm afraid no other efficient support channel from Google is available.

[Faterson]

I have just visited the terse support webpage for Google Translate:

https://support.google.com/translate/?hl=en

and used the general Help site feedback form at the bottom of the page to let them know we were searching for the URL scheme to launch the Google Translate app in iOS.

The response I got upon pushing the Submit button was:

Thanks for contacting us. We'll follow up with you only if we need more information or have additional information to share.

To me, that sounds like, "Don't call us, we'll call you." Or in other words, we're unlikely to hear back from them on that issue. But, miracles happen from time to time.

[At_Libitum]

I wouldn't hold my breath, it's most likely a strategy to force you from iOS to Android

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

I wouldn't hold my breath, it's most likely a strategy to force you from iOS to Android

... or as a Slovak proverb has it, "from the puddle to the mudhole".