This is a recommended update release for PointFire 365 for SharePoint Online, part of Office 365. It is a minor release with some new functionality, and corrects a number of issues in previous versions.

New and Changed Features

• Overrides SharePoint's Hub caching: Hub navigation language changes when user changes language and navigates to another multilingual site associated with a different hub
• Clearer "Multilingual Setting" user interface when user does not have right to change the list/library multilingual settings
• When making list/library multilingual, better indication that processing is continuing when setting existing items to the default language
• Various significant performance improvements. Tradeoff is that other users may not see new translations for up to 2 hours
• More consistent support for Multi Factor Authentication or non-MFA login in scripts. Requires PnP PowerShell module
• Show tenant license expiry even if the site collection license is valid.

Resolved Issues

• When changing language on some sites with multilingual hub navigation, possibility of a page reload loop
• Translate Interface step 2 could leave temporary popup window open when tenant has no hub sites.
• Site root URL sometimes did not redirect correctly
• Support a new version of the "me control" that certain preview users have encountered.
• Avoid duplicate Multilingual Translations Lists when renaming or translating list or re-activating PointFire using a different language.
• Manage Variations dialog was not localized in modern mode
• Update PowerShell scripts so that the functionality using the script more closely matches current functionality of PointFire 365

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.

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.

This is a recommended update release for PointFire 365 for SharePoint Online, part of Office 365. It is a major release with new functionality, and corrects a number of issues in previous versions.

New and Changed Features

• Fast language change extended to subsequent visit to a different site collection later in the session, often with a popup to warn of page reload.
• When PointFire 365 is re-activated on a site but with more languages than before, existing columns are changed to support additional languages
• Added script to update item language field choice options of multilingual list.
• Popup window that shouldn't be closed renamed to "Please do not close this window"
• If a site is associated with a Hub, the 1,2,3 translation will re-use translations stored on the hub site.
• When a tenant license is added to a site, it will suggest adding it to the tenant instead
• SetTenantLicense asks for tenant name rather than full tenant-admin URL
• Modern Webpart language selector no longer requires a Save button, more consistent with Modern experience
• "Unfiltered" option is now within the language submenu, for clarity.
• Improved performance for language change
• Detects when SharePoint renders the Hub menu in the wrong language and refreshes it correctly

Resolved Issues

• When a site is created in a recently-supported language such as Welsh, activation sometimes didn't allow deactivating English
• Incorrect identification of the Irish language at activation
• Corrected the language name for Welsh
• Manage Variations is sometimes missing parts of the page.
• Redirection of newly created pages sometimes didn't kick in right away
• Migration script for PointFire 2016 to PointFire 365 didn't correctly map language Variation columns to Source Item
• Increased the speed of checking number of users for tenant licenses with a large number of users
• Corrected filtering on layouts pages
• Removed unnecessary functionality for hiding new modern title blocks
• Changed the symbol used for Chevron in language menu
• Hide modern webparts more quickly
• Uncaught ReferenceError: MSOWebPartPageFormName is not defined
• Corrects previous localized view names when PointFire 365 is re-activated with different languages
• Translate navigation menu in 123 MUI translation up to third level. Previously it was translating only up to level 2.
• Improvements to localization

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.

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 v2.3 reproduces the most important functionality of PointFire 2016 in the cloud.

This is the initial v1.0 release of PointFire 2019.  Thank you to all the beta testers who made this possible.  It supports SharePoint classic pages as well as Modern ones.  If you received a beta release from IceFire support for testing, it must be updated with this release.  This release is a major release, but one with minor functionality changes.

The installation package and documentation are available here.  

The next update release is expected in August 2019.

Release Notes – June 27, 2019

Deploying PointFire 2019

It is recommended that you run the installation on the server where Central Administration is located. Once PointFire 2019 is installed on the target server you can deploy the feature by running the PFConfiguration tool:
Start ->PointFire 2019 ->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\PointFire2019

• 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.
PointFire 2019 also includes an optional app for modern sites.

Updating PointFire 2019
If you are updating an existing PointFire 2019 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 2016

Upgrading from a PointFire 2016 is not yet fully supported. Contact support for availability. The scripts PF2019Migration.ps1, SetWebPartLangSetting.ps1 and CallSetWebPartLangSetting.ps1 are included, but additional work is needed to complete the migration. Please note that Item Language and language variations columns have changed, so any customizations based on them will also have to be revised.

New Features

• When making a list or library multilingual, Item Language will have a default value of the language of the user at the time of making it multilingual
•  PowerShell scripts for migration from PointFire 2016 to 2019

Resolved Issues

• Manage Variations on a list that is not multilingual disables actions that cause errors
• Item Language choice field displays short language code consistently
• Show Manage Variations in classic ECB menu
• Translate the Interface localization works on all browsers
• When calling Translate document and machine translation service is unavailable, the copy operation did not have the right values for all columns
• Redirection did not always follow the settings of PFForcePageView
• Localizations for submenus when in Modern mode
• "SiteId mismatch" errors in ULS logs

Known Issues

• Functionality related to machine translation is not fully tested at the moment, the Machine Translation Service in the current version of SharePoint 2019 is still not working (confirmed by Microsoft).  If you need translation features, we will provide a free copy of PointFire Power Translator, which works on this version, in the meantime.
• More details as available

Documentation
Documentation for PointFire 2019 is available to be downloaded from the following links:
PointFire 2019 Installation Guide
PointFire 2019 Administrators Guide
PointFire 2019 Users Guide:
http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/142/0/pointfire-2019

PointFire 2016 v1.0 to 2019 v1.0 Upgrade Guide:
coming soon

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

PointFire Power Translator version 1.2.0.0 is now available.

It makes it simple to translate Modern pages such as the ones in Communication and Teams sites, as well as classic pages, documents, lists, and metadata.  

New Features

• Added functionality to support translation of the languages which SharePoint does not supports but Text Translator API does.
• Added functionality to show error message if Api key quota limit is reached.
• Allow differences between the list of languages on a site and the list of languages in the Item Language dropdown.
• Allow incorrect but unambiguous language codes for different versions of Chinese. Also for Portuguese, Serbian, Bosnian, and Norwegian
• Added functionality to translate subfolder documents/items.
• Allow re-translation of documents and pages if the source version is more recent than the translation
• Allow translation of file name that contains a comma. Comma must be escaped as "\,"
• Translate description column in site pages, as well as custom text metadata in libraries

Bug fixes and enhancements

• Handle null and blank values in single line text fields
• Modify error reporting from PDF conversion in case Windows service is running without access to the console
• Modify error catching to resolve issues with modern pages having invalid layout and various file types having minor errors
• Better support for translation of single custom list item.
• Fix for the unnecessary error message "Input string was not in a correct format" during successful translation.
• Error in translating certain .xls files and metadata containing a lookup column
• When comma-delimited language codes are listed, tolerate spaces even though they are not delimiters
• Error log gives more information about authentication failure reasons.
• Improved error when an invalid language is specified
• Translation of document names and handling of duplicate document names improved
• Removed all Translator API V2 calls or endpoints from the code. Previously reverted to V2 if V3 call failed.
• Eliminate error when a richtext field contains plain text only
• Correct for various errors found mostly in English to Chinese translation engine, where extraneous characters are added to text fields
• PointFire Translator indicates more clearly whether it is using PointFire Power Translator or the SharePoint Translation Service
• "Go back to site" was sometimes not going back to the site
• PointFire Translator page is sometimes not opening in IE browser.

PointFire Power Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online, using its command line interface.  It now includes PointFire Translator which will use PointFire Power Translator as a default translation service, and fall back to SharePoint's Machine Translation Service if Power Translator is not available.

It can be downloaded here (login required)

http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/141/0/pointfire-power-translator-v11

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

For more information, contact sales@icefire.ca

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 2019.

Release Notes – May 7, 2019

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

• none

Resolved Issues

• SharePoint Designer throws SOAP exception and unable to edit pages in advanced mode
• Users are unable to "like" content in some cases. An alert is displayed, “Access is denied”.
• The server event log gets many "Invalid URL argument" entries
• List column names containing parentheses () are not being translated
• Conflict between PointFire and Lightning Conductor web part
• Incompatibility between PointFire and (AGA by OpenText)
• The data in the content type column are not translated.
• Refinement items are translated intially but changes back to English when a refiner item is clicked
• Item names on a web part page where Calendar list view has been added
• A lot of PreRequestHandler errors in Event logs

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

PointFire Power Translator version 1.1.0.0 is now available.

It makes it simple to translate Modern pages such as the ones in Communication and Teams sites, as well as classic pages, documents, lists, and metadata.  It differs from version 1.0 in that it has a web interface and can use the PointFire Translator app 

PointFire Power Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online, using its command line interface.  It differs from PointFire Translator in several respects

• It is command line, using CMD or PowerShell, in addition to working with a SharePoint add-in
• It uses the Microsoft Cognitive Services Translator Text API, not the now-deprecated SharePoint Translator Service
• 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 requires a Translator Text API key
• It requires a license key
• It translates modern pages and many modern webparts, including Hero webparts
• It translates Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files, among 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.

It can be downloaded here (login required)

http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/141/0/pointfire-power-translator-v11

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

For more information, contact sales@icefire.ca