PointFire Translator version 2.0.1.0 is now available. 

This is a supported release.  It fixes several errors in v2.0.0 and is easier to install.

It makes it simple to translate Modern pages such as the ones in Communication and Teams sites and those produced by the Multilingual Page Publishing feature, as well as classic pages, documents, lists, and metadata.  It has several interfaces, including via a SharePoint App, a web interface, scripting, and Power Automate.

If you were using version 1.2, the major change is that you do not need to install it on the workstation of the person carrying out the translation (although that is still supported), but it can be on a shared physical or virtual server.  It runs under the identity of the person who called it via the app, it can also be called by Power Automate, and it supports the SharePoint Multilingual Page Publishing feature.
 

New Features

• ⦁ Many improvements to AppReg.ps1 to make it easier and clearer to use, and difficult to enter incorrect parameters
  ⦁ Support many new languages, including Inuktitut, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Oriya Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, Kannada, Maori
  ⦁ Improved support for Khmer, Lao, Burmese, Nepali, Armenian, Amharic, Albanian, Tigrinya
  ⦁ Ability to use a specific Azure region
  ⦁ Support sites where MLP was implemented then turned off

Resolved Issues

• App
  ⦁ Error with Multilingual Page Publishing - error translating original when some pages but not all pages translated
  ⦁ App localization in Chinese (simplified)
  ⦁ Better messages when PointFire Translator Server is not found and using Machine Translation Service instead
  ⦁ Warn that Machine Translation Service does not support multi-select
  ⦁ Disabled translation of folder types
  ⦁ More consistent handling of localized list/library names
  ⦁ Better messages when document does not require re-translation
  ⦁ Some missing localizations in Irish, Kazakh, Azeri, Bosnian, Macedonian, Dari

• Server
  ⦁ Error in auto-detect of language
  ⦁ Better handling of incorrect ClientID/secret
  ⦁ Error with Multilingual Page Publishing - error translating original when some pages but not all pages translated
  ⦁ Better error handling for incorrect list item translation requests
  ⦁ Issues with filtering news webparts with hyphenated language codes like pt-br, pt-br, zh-cn, zh-tw, sr-cyrl-rs, sr-latn-cs
  ⦁ Changes to the code signing certificate autority
  ⦁ Changes to the service to avoid error on startup
  ⦁ Translation for image webpart's overlay text and alternative text.
  ⦁ Changes to support Stream webpart, Quick Chart webpart, Countdown Timer webpart
  ⦁ Improved error when Microsoft IdentityModel Extensions are missing
  ⦁ Better support for documents in folders
  ⦁ Better support for Bosnian
  ⦁ Better support for pt-pt and pt-br
  ⦁ Better support for languages that are not SharePoint languages
  ⦁ Problem when the re-translated name of a file is different from the previously translated name

   

• Many other small fixes and performance enhancements

PointFire Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online.  It includes the PoinFire Translator App which will use PointFire Translator Server as a default translation service, and fall back to SharePoint's Machine Translation Service if PointFire Translator is not available.

It can be downloaded here (login required)

http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/146/30/pointfire-translator-server

For more information, contact sales@icefire.ca

This is a recommended update release for PointFire 365 for SharePoint Online

This release adds support for new and changed Microsoft functionality and corrects a number of issues in version 2.4.1.  It also corrects some significant issues that are currently only found in the Targeted Release version of SharePoint Online, and that may appear in the General Availability version at an unknown date.  If you were provided with an interim release numbered v2.4.1.x, you should update to this release.

New and Changed Features

• Supports the fast localization of the new App Bar and Global Navigation features when the user language changes.

Note: Microsoft's current release contains what we consider to be a bug: in order for the language of the Global Navigation to change, not only must the language be present on the "Home site" which contains the navigation, it must also be present on the root site, which otherwise plays no role. The workaround is that you must ensure that the root site has at least all of the languages that the Home site supports.

• Added PowerShell script to add/upgrade both PointFire365 modern and classic app in hub site as well as in associated sites : UpgradeAppHubAndAssociateSites.ps1

Resolved Issues

• When clicking "remove multilingual" from a library, the page would sometimes reload in a loop.
• When executing "Clear Cache" for one site, other sites would sometimes show webparts that should display only in another language.
• Refresh loop on some screens that filter by language code "pt-br" and possibly other language codes that contain a hyphen.
• Hub navigation language did not immediately change when language was changed, due to a recent change in SharePoint's caching of hub navigation.
• Additional messages in console to assist with diagnosing issues.

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.

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 July 2021.

Release Notes – January 14, 2021

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

• Values in the Display form of a list do not translate

• No translation in the People Picker dialog box

• The title of the People Picker dialog box (usually "Select People" in English) is not translated

• The term "Active Directory" is not translated in the People Picker dialog box

• In search drop down at the top right of a page, the term "Everything" does not translate

• Values in the "View All Properties" page of a document set do not translate

• Performance issue on Document Set page, from too many calls to PFAPI.aspx

   

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

For those who have been using PointFire Power Translator v1.2 or above and have reasons why they cannot upgrade to PointFire Translator v2.0, then PointFire Power Translator v1.2.2.0 is the latest release.

It adds certain features and bug fixes that are already available in v2.0, without the major changes to architecture that v2.0 requires.  Contact sales or support to see which version you should be using.

It can be downloaded here: http://community.icefire.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/141/12/pointfire-power-translator-v12

Although it is not a PointFire issue, we wish to inform users of SharePoint 2019 that Microsoft has confirmed a serious issue in non-English modern sites after applying the September Cumulative Update of SharePoint 2019.  Several site components will have their text replaced with blanks.

The release notes for the September Cumulative Update have been updated to show this as a "known issue".

We recommend not installing this cumulative update, but waiting for one in which the issue is corrected.  More details can be found in this blog post from Microsoft Senior Escalation Enginee Stefan Gossner.

Update: You can download a fix for this problem https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4461512/september-21-2020-update-for-sharepoint-server-2019-kb4461512

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

This release adds minor new functionality and corrects a number of issues in version 2.4.0.  It also corrects some significant issues that are currently only found in the Targeted Release version of SharePoint Online, and that may appear in the General Availability version at an unknown date.  If you were provided with an interim release since August 13, 2020, you should update to this release.

New and Changed Features

• Microsoft Lists support: Show "Make List Multilingual" option in ribbon and "Manage Variations" option in ECB menu
• Improve design of Manage Variations to make the save/cancel icons and spacing similar to edit form

Resolved Issues

• For some classic pages, page content is blank until a button in the ribbon is clicked
• Language menu was not appearing for some users in targeted release program
• Webparts were showing in all languages despite setting the language of the webparts, users in targeted release program and some others
• On a filtered modern list/library, changing language or navigating to a list on another site resulted in three page reloads. Now down to 1 or 2.
• For some users, the browser would occasionally download a JavaScript file rather than executing it while loading a SharePoint page
• When a page is copied, changing the language of a webpart on one page would change it on the other one.
• Me Control (personal menu) did not always close if the language menu had been expanded/collapsed depending on the location of the click
• Navigation loaded in the wrong language after selecting Unfiltered
• Other instances where the navigation or list filtering was in the wrong language
• Clear the Cache button in PF365 app page was not working properly for Microsoft Edge browser
• List/library setting page had superfluous parameters
• Event list sometimes did not filter by language on Internet Explorer
• Manage Variations not working for event list views
• In edit mode on a new page, webpart filtering sometimes hid a webpart when it should be visible.
• Some instances where the language menu selection spins but does not reload the page.

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.