Google Translator

• Download source code - 13 Kb

Note:
GoogleTranslator was originally written when screen scraping was the only way to access Google's online translation tools. As has been rightly pointed out in this article's forum, a more modern approach would be to use Google's AJAX APIs. See this link for more information. This screen scraper version of GoogleTranslator continues to be maintained at the request of CP readers.

What is it?

GoogleTranslator is an object that allows you to translate text using the power of Google's online language tools. GoogleTranslator is an example of a WebResourceProvider and makes use of the StringParser utility class, both of which are published elsewhere at CodeProject. The demo app also performs a reverse translation, which can often appear amusing when compared to the original text. The app can be used as a poor man's resource translator for simple phrases, but you'd be wise to confirm the translation with a native speaker before using the results.

How do I use it?

You use GoogleTranslator by initializing it and calling its Translate() method.

// Initialize the translator
using RavSoft.GoogleTranslator;
Translator t = new GoogleTranslator();
t.SourceLanguage = "English";
t.TargetLanguage = "French";
t.SourceText = "Hello, how are you?";

// Translate the text
t.Translate();
Console.WriteLine (t.Translation);

How it works

GoogleTranslator works by posting a request to Google's online translation form and parsing the results. All the "heavy lifting" is done by the WebResourceProvider class, described elsewhere at CodeProject. WebResourceProvider fetches the content from Google and offers GoogleTranslator an opportunity to parse it.

  /// <summary>
  /// Parses the fetched content.
  /// </summary>
  protected override void parseContent()
  {
      // Initialize the scraper
      this.Translation = string.Empty;
      string strContent = this.Content;
      RavSoft.StringParser parser = new RavSoft.StringParser (strContent);

      // Scrape the translation
      string strTranslation = string.Empty;
      if (parser.skipToEndOf ("<span id=result_box")) {
          while (parser.skipToEndOf (" önmouseout=\"this.style.backgroundColor='#fff'\">")) {
              string translatedSegment = string.Empty;
              if (parser.extractTo("</span>", ref translatedSegment)) {
                 strTranslation += " " + StringParser.removeHtml (translatedSegment);
              }
          }
      }
  }

As you can see, the parsing logic is very simple! GoogleTranslator uses the the StringParser class to extract the translated text.

Revision History

• 13 Jan 2013
  Added support for current full language set.
  Refixed bug that limited translation to first sentence.
  Fixed a bug that caused reverse translation to fail when accented characters were present.
   
• 10 Mar 2010
  Added support for current full language set.
  Fixed bug that limited translation to first sentence.
   
• 15 Feb 2010
  Even more parsing tweakage.
   
• 28 Mar 2009
  More parsing tweakage.
   
• 20 Mar 2007
  Tweaked parsing logic to conform to changes at Google's website.
   
• 15 Jan 2006
  Initial version.