How to use the Cloudwords API for Automation

First things first: what is an API?

Here’s a great snippet from a HowThingsWork article:  “An application-programming interface (API) is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing a Web-based software application or Web tool. A software company releases its API to the public so that other software developers can design products that are powered by its service.”

This week we did a short survey with Appthority – the Authority in App Risk Management – about their usage of the Cloudwords API as a way to further automate their translation process.  As a startup, they knew from the beginning that they wanted to go global – fast. After doing some translations internally with native speakers, they decided they need a solution to help them really scale and automate this process.

The survey is below, and if you would like to watch a quick video of why Appthority picked Cloudwords, click here. 

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Cloudwords API Survey with Appthority

Respondents: Anthony Bettini (Appthority CEO and Co-founder) & Sasan Padidar (Developer)

1) Why was the Cloudwords’ API important to you?

“Using the Cloudwords API speeds up our translation turnaround time so we can keep all of our global content up to date for our Appthority App Risk Management service.” – Anthony Bettini (CEO)

Anthony:  Appthority produces additional incremental content on a very regular basis, much like a newspaper. A week after translations complete, we’re already out of date. So we’re using the Cloudwords’ API to speed up translation turnaround to minimize the # of un-translated items in our content. Given that we have large multinational organizations subscribing to the Appthority App Risk Management service, it’s important that all Appthority content is up to date at all times.

2) Describe how you are using the Cloudwords’ API?

Sasan: Appthority uses continuous integration, so we have set up a process that runs daily and collects all the new additions/changes to our English files and uploads them to Cloudwords for translation into our preferred languages. We automate as much of our translation process as possible. We also use a single preferred vendor and have automated all the bidding as well.  Given that the Appthority service is fully automated, this means a great deal to us.

3) How long did it take to build against it?

“It took me less than one day to set up all the Cloudwords API calls that we needed to get up and running” –  Sasan Padidar (Developer)

Sasan: It took me less than a day to set up all the calls I needed. The API was fairly straightforward to use, the documentation is quite accurate (it’d be nice if there were sample API calls for each method). I had difficulty with the “PUT” method in Ruby that’s used for uploading files (not really related to the Cloudwords’ API). Also we had to talk to the vendor to make sure all returned files were in UTF-8 format. Our process was breaking when the translated files weren’t following a uniform character encoding. It’d be nice if the API could require a particular character encoding from the vendors.

4) How much time does your integration save you?

Anthony: It saves quite a bit of time because now we do not have to think about the logistics for getting our files translated. Now we have complete control over the entire process. Once the translations are in, the tool automatically downloads them and checks them into our version control system exactly the way we want.

5) On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being fully automated) how automated does your integration make your translation process using Cloudwords?

Sasan: I’d say 8. The review process is not as straightforward for us to automate and also downloading and applying the translations to our files is another step that is not completely automated due to conflicts that might happen. Cloudwords was helpful in giving us some options to automate the review process but because of the way our system is set up it is not as easy to build that process.

6)  Would you recommend using the Cloudwords API to others for automating their translation process?

Anthony: Definitely
Sasan: Yes

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Appthority is a fantastic company who has been committed to using cloud technology to grow and enhance their business from the start. They were founded in 2011 and after nearly a year of stealth-mode development, following continuous “Lean Startup” Build-Measure-Learn cycles, Appthority made its public debut. Appthority launched The Appthority Platform at one of Information Security’s largest stages: The 2012 RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox. The Appthority Platform was well received, earning Appthority top honors, and the company was named “The Most Innovative Company of RSA Conference 2012“.

Learn more about Appthority at https://www.appthority.com/.