After nearly a year in Beta, PointFire Power Translator (formerly called Batch Translator) is available.

PointFire Power Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online.  It handles modern pages as well as classic ones.  It also handles several other file types.  It differs from PointFire Translator in several respects

• It is command line, using CMD or PowerShell, not a SharePoint add-in
• It uses the Microsoft Cognitive Services Translator Text API, not the now-deprecated SharePoint Translator Service
• It requires a Translator Text API key
• It defaults to using the latest neural network translation models, but can use a variety of machine translation engines, including ones that you train using your own documents.
• It translates modern pages and many modern webparts, including Hero webparts
• It translates Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files, anong others
• It can translate entire libraries and lists
• It is not free, and neither is the translation engine
• It is much faster and the accuracy of translation is much greater.

A graphical interface that is integrated with the SharePoint Online user interface will be added in a few weeks.  If you are using PointFire Translator, we recommend that you plan to migrate in the next year, since it relies on an API that has been partly deprecated.

Many thanks to the beta testers who helped us get the product to this state.

For more information, contact sales@icefire.ca

This is a recommended update release for PointFire 365 for SharePoint Online, part of Office 365. 

This release add significant new functionality and corrects a number of issues in version 2.1.0 - 2.1.4.

New and Changed Features

• The file names of the two apps have been changed to make installation simpler. See installation manual for instructions when upgrading from a previous version.
• Added functionality to change the region setting of the user while changing language. This means the user’s regional settings, which control date, number, and currency formatting, can change when the language changes. Where a language has several different regional variants, the variant can be chosen. 
• “Online manual (English)” is now more prominent when first installing, before PointFire is first activated. It appears as a button above all the buttons in app page if user has added the app and is coming to the page for the first time. Once they activate the app it will revert to showing the usual manual link on top right corner of the page.
• Added message if user Activates PF365 classic app but PF365 modern app is not installed on the site. Both must be installed.
• Previously when you Activate the app, if you wanted to add/remove all the languages then you needed to check/uncheck all checkboxes one by one. Now added new checkbox Select/Unselect All to make it easier.
• While performing one operation in app page, other buttons will be locked/disabled. For example if you are Activating the app all the other buttons like Deactivate, License, Translate the interface including Activate button itself will be disabled until activation is finished.
• While saving the webpart language in modern pages, new feature shows feedback if user clicks on "Save" button.
• In Manage Variations page, user is now able to see all the items/document in all the folders and sub-folders.
• In Manage Variations page, it will not only set the variations it will also publish the pages so that the changes can be seen by other users.
• In Manage Variations page now you can drag and drop an item that you want to set for a particular language.
• PowerShell scripts are now signed. This will allow them to be run with the default PowerShell execution policy.
• A tenant level license can be set only once in the tenant using a PowerShell command. Then users don’t need to apply the license in each site collection level. App can only write to the site collection license, but will use the tenant level license if the site collection license is missing or expired.
• Various performance improvements

Resolved Issues

• In the mobile SharePoint app, some PointFire functionality was not working when you switched to PC view.
• In modern view while navigating to a list/library with a custom view, page kept refreshing a few times.
• Modern webpart was not hiding in a page while navigating from modern page to modern page using a navigation menu.
• User interface translation broke after about 200 items.
• For sub menus in structural navigation MUI was not working.
• For external links, url is replaced correctly with its destination language url but clicking on that it was navigating to the original url instead of replaced url.
• Following link to a list view page in navigation menu on modern pages loads unfiltered view first and then it reloads the filtered query. 

PointFire makes SharePoint truly multilingual and lets your users collaborate in their language.  Two different users going to the same page on the same site will each see it almost entirely in their language, both UI and content, without using Variations.  And when used in combination with PointFire 2016, the hybrid cloud is here!

To get your copy, go to http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/List/Index/1/pointfire-installation-packages and log in or create an account.

The fully-featured trial version can be downloaded for free and can be used for development and testing, with some pre-sale support.

We thank everyone in many countries who provided feedback on the previous releases for their valuable input.

PointFire 365 v2.2 reproduces the most important functionality of PointFire 2016 in the cloud.

This release corrects certain issues.  If you received an interim release from IceFire support for testing, it must be updated with this release.  This release is a bug fix release, with minor functionality changes.  It is recommended that you update if you have encountered the issues that are discussed.

Documentation is available here.  

The next update release is expected in November 2018.

Release Notes – May 17, 2018

Deploying PointFire 2016

It is recommended that you run the installation on the server where Central Administration is located. Once PointFire 2016 is installed on the target server you can deploy the feature by running the PFConfiguration tool:

Start ->PointFire 2016 ->PFConfig

Note: If you experience issues running the configuration tool from the shortcut, you can navigate to the PointFire directory and run PFConfig or one of the installation scripts directly.

C:\Program Files\IceFire\PointFire2016

⦁ PFConfig.exe – PointFire Deployment Manager
⦁ InstallPointFire.ps1 - to install PointFire using PowerShell.
⦁ UpgradePointFire.ps1 - Upgrade PointFire using PowerShell.
⦁ RemovePointFire.ps1 - To retract the solution using PowerShell

Note: Deploying using the scripts requires additional configuration steps. Please see the install guide for detailed information.
Updating PointFire 2016 
If you are updating an existing PointFire 2016 deployment, launch the PointFire Deployment Manager and follow through the upgrade process, or retract then re-deploy PointFire, or navigate to the installation directory to run the upgrade script.
Note: If configuration keys in the web.config files have been edited manually after PFConfig initially set them, using PFConfig to update the PointFire may erase or overwrite some of those keys. For safety, note the values of the keys currently in web.config prior to updating.

Upgrading from PointFire 2013

If you are upgrading from a PointFire 2013 deployment, please consult the PointFire 2013 v1.0 to 2016 v1.0 Upgrade Guide.

New Features

• New class of licenses for farms where PointFire is unable to count the web front ends because of permissions or configuration

Resolved Issues

• License request code generation is less likely to generate an error, and has better error logging
• License code entry is less likely to generate an error, and has better error logging
• Adding custom properties in advanced search page drop down and its corresponding translation into the Multilingual Translations List does not translate
• Using NewForms.aspx to add new items to lists that have look up columns display the form where everything is greyed out (disabled) and the fields are missing
• Images of a picture library are not displayed in Thumbnail view when alternate language is selected
• Cannot make a list multilingual in Danish. When Group By is set in the view, items are not displayed in document library
• Entries within Multilingual Translations list containing single quotes can disable the ribbon or breaks Javascript
• On large farms, PointFire Deployment Manager PFConfig.exe is sometimes not able to update all respective web.config files on all servers for all applications.

Documentation
Documentation for PointFire 2016 is available to be downloaded from the following links:

PointFire 2016 Installation Guide: 
http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/134/0/pointfire-2016-documentation

PointFire 2016 Administrators Guide:

http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/134/0/pointfire-2016-documentation

PointFire 2016 Users Guide: 

http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/134/0/pointfire-2016-documentation

PointFire 2013 v1.0 to 2016 v1.0 Upgrade Guide: 

http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/134/0/pointfire-2016-documentation

Support
We recommend that you, or whoever you designate for support, register an account on the support site http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Base/UserRegistration/Register . Support can be obtained by clicking on New Ticket on the site after you login or by sending an e-mail to icefire@wssplus.ca

This is a recommended update release for PointFire 365 for SharePoint Online, part of Office 365. 

This release add major new functionality and corrects a number of issues in version 2.1.0 - 2.1.3.

New and Changed Features

• Added a check in the App to warn admin if the PointFire-365-Modern app is not also installed
• Format of license expiry date now follows user's regional settings, and is more prominent when expiry date approaches
• Hero webpart adds extra parameters to the URL that was entered, making it not match with the URL that is set up for redirection. Added intelligent handling of additional URL parameters
• When navigation contains a link to an external page and the link item is multilingual, clicking will redirect to the language-specific external page
• Various performance improvements

Resolved Issues

• The presence of languages where machine translation is unsupported could interfere with Interface Translation of languages that are supported
• When navigating to a modern page via a translated navigation menu, some functionality did not work
• Some items in navigation did not show the correct URL for the destination page when hovering over the link, when the destination link is different in different languages
• Some news pages that included parameters were loading twice
• On language change, when redirecting from a page with parameters to the corresponding page in the other language, parameters were sometimes dropped
• Inherited navigation submenu in classic publishing sites wasn't translating
• On certain tenants, language menu options in the personal menu didn't highlight the current language.
   

PointFire makes SharePoint truly multilingual and lets your users collaborate in their language.  Two different users going to the same page on the same site will each see it almost entirely in their language, both UI and content, without using Variations.  And when used in combination with PointFire 2016, the hybrid cloud is here!

To get your copy, go to http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/List/Index/1/pointfire-installation-packages and log in or create an account.

The fully-featured trial version can be downloaded for free and can be used for development and testing, with some pre-sale support.

We thank everyone in many countries who provided feedback on the previous release for their valuable input.

PointFire 365 v2.1.4 reproduces the most important functionality of PointFire 2016 in the cloud.

This release corrects several issues. If you received an interim release from IceFire support for testing, it must be updated with this release. This release is a bug fix release. It is recommended that you update only if you have encountered the resolved issues below.

Documentation is available here.  

The next update release is expected in September 2018.

Release Notes – March 30, 2018

Deploying PointFire 2013

It is recommended that you run the installation on the server where Central Administration is located, that "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application" is started on all application and all web servers before installingans that in Central Administration -> System Settings -> Manage services on server -> Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application is started. Once PointFire 2013 is installed on the target server you can deploy the feature by running the PFConfiguration tool:

Start ->PointFire 2013 ->PFConfig

Note: If you experience issues running the configuration tool from the shortcut, you can navigate to the PointFire directory and run PFConfig or one of the installation scripts directly. 
C:\Program Files\IceFire\PointFire2013
⦁ PFConfig.exe – PointFire Deployment Manager
⦁ InstallPointFire.ps1 - to install PointFire using PowerShell.
⦁ UpgradePointFire.ps1 - Upgrade PointFire using PowerShell.
⦁ RemovePointFire.ps1 - To retract the solution using PowerShell

Note: Deploying using the scripts requires additional configuration steps. Please see the install guide for detailed information.

Updating PointFire 2013

If you are updating an existing PointFire 2013 deployment, launch the PointFire Deployment Manager and follow through the upgrade process, or retract then re-deploy PointFire, or navigate to the installation directory to run the upgrade script.

Note: If configuration keys in the web.config files have been edited manually after PFConfig initially set them, using PFConfig to update the PointFire may erase or overwrite some of those keys. For safety, note the values of the keys currently in web.config prior to updating.

Upgrading from PointFire 2010

If you are upgrading from a PointFire 2010 deployment, please consult the PointFire 2010 v1.0 to 2013 v1.0 Upgrade Guide.

New Features

⦁ (none)

Resolved Issues

⦁ Some characters like "<", ">", ":" separated by spaces appear in encoded form on language change if EnableDST is false (recommended setting)
⦁ On web part pages, view names displayed inside list view webparts do not translate
⦁ Some column names starting with a special character such as "%" do not translate
⦁ On malformed list templates, some drop down fields and people fields contain character sequences like ";;#" with data from another field
⦁ Errors like "Invalid URL argument" being logged into the event viewer

Known Issues
⦁ There are known combinations of settings where creation of a Document Set that includes a date can cause an error when saving. Contact support for a workaround if you encounter this.
⦁ Undocumented feature, sorting on column headers, in Manage Variations is disabled.
⦁ No “Add Un-translated Terms” and “Multilingual Site settings” popup on Site Settings and on Manage Site Features pages.

Documentation

Documentation for PointFire 2013 is available to be downloaded from the following links:
PointFire 2013 Installation Guide: 
http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/116/18/pointfire-2013

PointFire 2013 Administrators Guide: 
http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/116/18/pointfire-2013

PointFire 2013 Users Guide: 
http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/116/18/pointfire-2013

PointFire 2010 v1.0 to 2013 v1.0 Upgrade Guide: 
http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/116/18/pointfire-2013

Support
We recommend that you, or whoever you designate for support, register an account on the support site http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Base/UserRegistration/Register . Support can be obtained by clicking on New Ticket on the site after you login or by sending an e-mail to icefire@wssplus.ca

This is a recommended update release for PointFire 365 for SharePoint Online, part of Office 365. 

This release add major new functionality and corrects a number of issues in the version 2.1.

New and Changed Features

• Improved support for "unsupported" languages such as Welsh, Irish, and Azerbaijani.
• When activating, if scripting is not allowed, it will provide a custom PowerShell script to turn it on.
• Faster page load after language toggle
• On all pages, top level <html> tag always has correct lang and dir attributes, for automatic right-to-left layout for right-to-left languages and allowing the use of :lang() CSS pseudo-class selector
• Improved UI for low-privilege users for whom language toggle can take a few minutes.

Resolved Issues

• In some cases when going from one modern page to another, language menu does not load
• licensing issue when user never applied trial license in a site collection and applies full license to site.
• Language toggle issue for users having contribute permission (some browsers)
• Language toggle issue for some "smart" caching proxies
• Fixed page redirection for users having contribute permission
• Redirection issue when logging out of one account and logging into another with different permissions
• More reliable detection of when language change has completed.
• More consistently ensure that fresh user starts out with language filtering on
• Office 365 UI text in personal and site menus sometimes does not change with language change
• SharePoint Online Machine Translation Service works again. This is a fix by Microsoft, not us. It means that machine translation of the User Interface is more complete. 

PointFire makes SharePoint truly multilingual and lets your users collaborate in their language.  Two different users going to the same page on the same site will each see it almost entirely in their language, both UI and content, without using Variations.  And when used in combination with PointFire 2016, the hybrid cloud is here!

To get your copy, go to http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/List/Index/1/pointfire-installation-packages and log in or create an account.

The fully-featured trial version can be downloaded for free and can be used for development and testing, with some pre-sale support.

We thank everyone in many countries who provided feedback on the previous release for their valuable input.

PointFire 365 v2.121 reproduces the most important functionality of PointFire 2016 in the cloud.