Translation Workflows

When to Use

When implementing translation processes beyond basic UI — professional translation services, translation jobs, external translators, automated workflows.

Decision: Workflow Tool

If you need...	Use...	Why
Manual translation by site editors	Core Content Translation UI	Simple, built-in, no extra modules
Translation jobs and tracking	TMGMT module	Job management, translator assignments, status tracking
Integration with translation services	TMGMT + translator plugins	DeepL, Google Translate, professional services APIs
Automated translation on publish	TMGMT Auto Translate (contrib)	Trigger translations on moderation state changes
Translation memory (TM)	TMGMT + external TM services	Reuse previous translations, consistency

Pattern: TMGMT Workflow Overview

TMGMT (Translation Management Tool) provides: - Translation jobs (group content for translation) - Translation sources (what to translate) - Translators (who/what translates) - Job items (individual pieces in a job)

Basic workflow: 1. Create translation job 2. Add content to job (nodes, terms, config) 3. Assign to translator (human or machine) 4. Translator completes job 5. Review and accept translations 6. Translations published

Pattern: TMGMT Installation and Setup

Install TMGMT:

composer require drupal/tmgmt
drush en tmgmt tmgmt_content tmgmt_locale tmgmt_config

Modules: - tmgmt — core job management - tmgmt_content — translate content entities - tmgmt_locale — translate interface strings - tmgmt_config — translate configuration - tmgmt_ui — UI for managing jobs

Configure translator (/admin/tmgmt/translators): - Add translator (Local, Google, DeepL, etc.) - Configure API keys if using service - Set default translator

Pattern: Creating Translation Job via UI

Go to /admin/tmgmt/sources or content list
Select content to translate
Click "Request translation"
Choose target languages
Choose translator
Submit job

Job states: - Active — being translated - Needs review — translation complete, awaiting review - Reviewed — accepted by reviewer - Finished — all items accepted, translations saved - Rejected — translator rejected job - Aborted — job cancelled

Pattern: Programmatic TMGMT Job

use Drupal\tmgmt\Entity\Job;
use Drupal\tmgmt\Entity\JobItem;

// Create job
$job = Job::create([
  'source_language' => 'en',
  'target_language' => 'es',
  'translator' => 'local', // Translator plugin ID
  'label' => 'Article translations to Spanish',
]);
$job->save();

// Add job item (node to translate)
$node = \Drupal\node\Entity\Node::load(1);
$job->addItem('content', 'node', $node->id());

// Submit job
$job->requestTranslation();

// Check job state
if ($job->isFinished()) {
  // Translations saved
}

Job item workflow:

// Get job items
foreach ($job->getItems() as $item) {
  // Get translation data
  $data = $item->getData();

  // Update translation
  $item->addTranslatedData([
    'title' => ['#text' => 'Título traducido'],
    'body' => ['#text' => 'Cuerpo traducido'],
  ]);

  // Accept translation
  $item->acceptTranslation();
}

Pattern: TMGMT with External Services

Google Translate plugin:

composer require drupal/tmgmt_google
drush en tmgmt_google

Configure (/admin/tmgmt/translators/add): - Translator type: Google Translator - API key: [your Google Cloud API key] - Save

DeepL plugin:

composer require drupal/tmgmt_deepl
drush en tmgmt_deepl

Jobs automatically sent to API, translations retrieved and imported.

Pattern: Translation Permissions

Permissions (/admin/people/permissions): - "Submit translation jobs" — create jobs - "Accept translation jobs" — review and accept - "Administer translation jobs" — manage all jobs - "Translate [entity_type]" — per entity type

Roles: - Content editor — submit jobs - Translator — accept jobs, translate - Translation manager — administer jobs

Common Mistakes

Not installing correct TMGMT submodules → tmgmt alone doesn't enable content translation. Need tmgmt_content for nodes/entities
Forgetting API keys for translation services → Google/DeepL translators fail without valid API credentials
Not reviewing machine translations → Auto-translated content needs human review for quality and context
Mixing TMGMT workflow with manual Content Translation → Use one workflow consistently. Mixing causes confusion about translation status
Not configuring permissions → Users need specific TMGMT permissions separate from Content Translation permissions