Certified Translation Agency Ektron Partner – GPI
Globalization Partners International (GPI) is a certified Ektron technology and implementation partner. GPI has been an Ektron partner for over 7 years with certified developers on staff to support clients and interactive agency partners who need assistance with the Ektron CMS’ multilingual capabilities. GPI provides consultation on content management system best practices for proper multi-language design, development and deployment.
This in-house expertise is unusual for a localization vendor. We have found that many interactive agencies know quite well how to develop English language sites using the Ektron CMS, but when they have a client that requires a multilingual site they may not be familiar with best practices to follow.
Multilanguage and locale issues such as:
- Expansion of translated content: When English content is translated into other languages, it may require as much as 35% additional space for the overall text length. In your original website design we suggest your web templates be coded to respond to text expansion or reduction as needed.
- Hard coded text: In your original design you should avoid hard coded text. When a site is expected to be localized into multiple languages, the source content must be exported. Hard coded text will not be automatically included in your export and therefore will not be sent to the translator or agency who will do the localization. Upon re-import you will see English/source language content in your language version sites as it was never exported. Often this is seen in messages, labels, and other non-main page text items.
Certified Ektron Developers on Staff
Being a part of the Ektron partner program means more than just posting a name on their partner site. Ektron requires that each partner has at least two certified developers on staff who have passed a certification test to assure Ektron that they have staff that understands and can properly deploy their system.
Ektron Multilanguage Support
The Ektron Content Management System was one of the early CMS platforms to support multiple language websites. They continue to add language related features. As of the v8.5 release in 2011, the system allows clients the capability to perform a pseudo-localization. This is a way to test your website prior to performing the actual translation task to verify the system will properly support your language requirements. Any issues can be addressed early in your website deployment planning rather than at the time you may be planning to go live with a localized website. Essentially the process is to import files under the language code in your system and see if any content either does not appear or if any corruption of the character occurs. The sample file is made up of a collection of random characters in many languages/scripts. The test provides the ability to check for such issues as text expansion, character encoding, potential text clipping issues with Asian character sets, as well as Right to Left (RTL) and Bi-directional (BiDi) languages.
GPI’s Translation Services Connector for the Ektron CMS
GPI developed a translation services connector for the Ektron CMS. We maintain the connector for all versions, including the current version 9.1. GPI’s Translation Services Connector for Ektron enables users of Ektron-based websites to launch and manage multi-language websites. The Translation Services Connector removes the manual tasks for exporting content and importing the localized content with only a few simple clicks. You can read all about our Ektron Connector by visiting www.translationplugin.com.
