This is a supported release.  It fixes several errors in v2.2.0 and adds several features.

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.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

All of our PowerShell scripts have switched from the legacy SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline module, which stopped being maintained two years ago, to the new PnP.PowerShell module.  This may require global admin consent.

New Features

• Language selection in "To" and "From" parameter in the web interface is now a datalist dropdown, with values retrieved from the site. You can select or type a language code.
• The Azure Document Translator config should only be available if tenant and site are not configured for PointFire Translator Server, unless Azure Document Translator config was already added
• The more detailed Microsoft Identity Extensions error message, with the useful link to the installation, will appear even if the user is translating from the app.
• Several improvements to behaviour and error messages when the authentication wishes to open a pop-up while PointFire Translator is running as a service, where pop-ups are not allowed. MFA credentials cannot be refreshed in service mode.
• After doing set credentials for MFA user, in future uses of Set Credentials, default will be MFA="Yes" and erase any stored userID/password information.
• App version is shown even if PointFire Translator server is not reachable
• New PowerShell script 'UserAuthentication.ps1' to set the Environment variable to know whether scripts should use "Interactive" or "UseWebLogin" authentication method.
• SetLanguagePreferenceInSiteLevel.ps1 script added to override mapping of SharePoint to Translator language codes, for example "fr:fr-CA"
• NEW Alternative authentication method for the Server using app registration and MSAL

Resolved Issues

• Error for some users, and for some languages including Dari: Abnormal termination (Object reference not set to an instance of an object.).
• While translating through PointFire Translator app, it sometimes opened unnecessary authentication pop up.
• Error message "please provide valid username" at the time of pressing Submit, when MFA changes the value of the username wildcard(s)
• Multiple errors after entering wrong site url. For MFA user, it is asking for the credential repeatedly. Otherwise, 401 error. It also changes default URL for Set Credentials to subsite URL
• Multiple possible errors when the language is entered in upper case in Web Interface: Document failed to translate. Other error if MLP enabled or Item Language value is blank
• Various errors and incorrect messages when translating mix of correct and incorrect file names, or mix of modern and classic pages
• When sending one correct file name and one incorrect file name for translation, wrong message is showing "MESSAGE: Document Home.aspx already has a translation into fr-fr; skipping."
• While translating multiple pages which contain both modern and classic pages, modern pages did not translate
• If a user sets their language preference to a non-SharePoint language variant (not using PointFire 365) like en-CA, then Translator may try to use that language code and fail
• Message giving the count of translated items is sometimes showing twice. Other duplicate messages
• We are not storing the latest URL used in the SiteURL section in Translate documents/Translate SharePoint list/Translate SharePoint library
• If we change the SiteUrl in Translate Document, then it is changing the SiteUrl in setcredential.
• While translating a blank .xlsx file, it showed errors: "ERROR: Error while processing file: {file}.xlsx to language {lang} with error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object." "ERROR: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."
• "Please enable custom scripting" message has not been localized.
• In PointFire Translator app page, after clicking on the save setting button, it is not showing any success or failure mark. In the console it is showing error "l is not defined"
• While translating the Document.docx inside a folder: "ERROR: File Document.docx cannot be found in library Documents."
• While sending older Word format ".doc" file for translation, it showed "Error while processing the source file. The specified package is invalid. The main part is missing."
• Classic page did not translate when Multilingual Page Publishing is enabled, but no appropriate message
• While running SetCredential.ps1 script, found error "Unable to find type [TXFIRE.TXLIB]."
• While doing set credential kept space after comma in user name, causing "ERROR: User name in stored credentials must match one of the authorized users in Usernames."
• When the user name stored in Set Credentials contains a space, subsequent document translations did not succeed
• Show blank value in the configuration parameters rather than "undefined".
• When the service is running in Services mode, sent a document for translation to "fr" language through PointFire Translator app. It is translating to all activated language.
• 'Error: The File does not have any content.' should be in red .
• When the sub site URL contains a space (in tbe name), it is changing the URL in Translate Document tab, after doing translation in web interface.
• Entering "docu" as a document name translates "Document Test.docx" which is present in the Document library.

PointFire Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online.  It includes the PointFire Translator App which will use PointFire Translator Server as a default translation service, and fall back to Azure Translation Service if configured and 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 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 2024.

Release Notes – March 15, 2023

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

• Digital signing and timestamping improvements

• "All properties" page of a document set have blank values, and missing translation of column names

• The people picker is not returning any results and keeps spinning

• Translation in Hyperlinks not working if item value matches column name

• Some list items were blank rather than translated 

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 supported release.  It fixes several errors in v2.1.2 and adds several features.

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.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

All of our PowerShell scripts have switched from the legacy SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline module, which stopped being maintained two years ago, to the new PnP.PowerShell module.  This may require global admin consent.

New Features

• Can configure to use Azure Document Translation API if PointFire Translator Server is not configured. This requires creating Azure Blob Storage folders
• Improved error message "Failed to translate, please check the values of app config setting." to say what had failed when known, for example 403 or wrong API key
• Additional validity check when configuring to use Custom Translator
• Major scripts now can support either "useWebLogin" or "Interactive" authentication. "UserAuthentication.ps1" can set an environment variable to override default.
• When some translations successful and others failed, it says how many.

Resolved Issues

• set credentials with wrong site Url causes a reload loop
• set credentials with wrong site url Web interface page is blank
• Site url is has wrong entities when the url contains "%20"
• PointFire Translator sometimes translates twice when MLP is enabled
• While using mstrans.dic file terms in a page, the webparts are blank in translated page.
• While translating classic page in which large number of contents and webparts are added, it was showing error "ERROR: Error while translating field "WikiField".
• When the page is present inside the folder in subsite and the MLP is activated then it is showing error "Document failed to translate"
• For a document that has been copied, the translation is working properly but the source item of the source file is not getting changed (If the Copy to file already has source item).
• Sometimes while translating a document, the status is showing Failed and the spinner is spinning.
• If item language of the source file is blank then after translation, it is not setting the item language
• Retranslation of updated file is sometimes not working
• Retranslation to French when a copy of the source is present, it is not showing any proper message
• If the translated files are checked in and we are retranslating the source file after updating it. Then it is showing the error "Error running executeAsync" message in browser console.
• Translated document name does not follow conventions after changing the source Item and Item language column.
• For a new tenant where configuration is not set, it showed two messages "Please have the SiteAdmin check the PointFire configuration." and "Please save the configuration setting."
• After clicking on "Start Translation" button, the input buttons (Source language, Target language and Start Translation) did not disable.
• After translating a document, the source item and item language did not always set properly.
• Create a document with same name inside and outside of the folder. Then send the document for translation outside the folder through app. It translated both the documents
• people webpart was partly not translated.
• Error depending on whether PnP.PowerShell had been installed in "Program Files" vs "Program Files (x86)"
• If forceCheckout and enableVersioning is false in the library then the sourceItem value did not set for the source item.
• Errors when list has more than 5000 items
• Did not correctly detect if user is an admin if language is not English

PointFire Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online.  It includes the PointFire Translator App which will use PointFire Translator Server as a default translation service, and fall back to Azure Translation Service if configured and 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

PointFire 365 v2.6.0.0, December 30, 2022

This release introduces new features, including translation of Choice columns, translation of modern page titles and webpart titles using the Single Page Method.  It also allows MUI translation and Clear Cache to work if scripting is off

This is a supported official release. It can be used for production.  If you were using an earlier supported release, the upgrade requires no change to data or licenses, however you must press the "Activate" button on each site after upgrade or use the ActivateApp script. Some JavaScript from the previous version will remain cached until the next session unless you press Ctrl-F5 or equivalent on your browser.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Starting in March 2022, all of our PowerShell scripts have switched from the legacy SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline module, which stopped being maintained in 2020, to the PnP.PowerShell module.

The PF365 installation script will uninstall the old module and install the new one on the workstation if that has not already been done. If no one has yet run the command "Register-PnPManagementShellAccess", you must get a global admin to consent for the Tenant. This only has to be done once for the entire tenant.

Details here

https://pnp.github.io/powershell/cmdlets/Register-PnPManagementShellAccess.html

New and Changed Features

• Translate the view of Choice columns by injecting JSON column formatting
• Translate modern page titles and webpart titles if SinglePageMethod is set
• Added new script for setting the SinglePageMethod in web property.
• Translating the Interface, which requires full control to the site, now also requires at least read access to the root site in the case of subsites
• Changes to MUI translation and to Clear Cache so that it works if scripting is off

Resolved Issues

• Date and month not translating in a calendar list when no locale has been selected
• Custom Site column and Content type were sometimes not translated properly.
• Speed up MUI step3, add incremental retry if it times out, avoid the error "the operation has timed out"
• MUI step 3 is showing "Error in loading "Multilingual Translation" list items." when more than 5000 terms are present.
• Show alert message while performing MUI step 3 if the Multilingual page publishing feature is enabled.
• Column Translation Issue with Title and other out-of-the-box columns when two lists have the same column titles
• The "Comments" column was not translating.
• PointFire 365 issues after migration from on premise
• The Custom Site column and Content type were not translated properly
• Several performance improvements
• On install, skip asking about Azure Translator API key if it is already there
• Reduce the number of logins required during PowerShell install script upgrade of existing apps.
• Error when navigating from document library on site 1 to library on site 2 that does not have the site 1 current language
• While editing a page sometimes the option "Display this webpart in" is showing multiple times.
• In site 1 navigation, add the url of a document library of Site 2. Navigate using the navigation link, and sometimes filtering is not applied properly.
• In site 1 navigation, add the url of a document library of Site 2. Navigate using the navigation link, and sometimes page reloads 3 times.
• Navigate from one list to another on the same site, the navigation language on the other page is sometimes not the current one.
• Several changes to stop supporting the old Serbian (Latin) codes and better support the new one
• "Display this Webpart In" shows consistent messages if scripting is off.
• After a page has been copied, change the language. It should redirect immediately, but it does not redirect unless I go to the page library first.
• Clearer messages to translation footer functionality if Pointfire Translator is not installed, to understand that the page is copied for site languages (languages) and how to edit them.
• Pages copied by the translation footer now have a clearer title.
• After doing Clear cache using the clear cache button, it was not deleting all keys properly. Page
• Page translation footer would sometime overwrite the Item language of the source page with the current site language.
• While running EnableScripting.ps1 for subsite, it is showing an error.
• After activating the PF 365 app through the script, the "Clear cache" is not working and shows a error pop up window "It looks like the webpage at [https://...] might be having issues, or it may have moved permanently to a new web address."
• While running the script "ActivateApp.ps1" for subsite, it is showing the below error while enabling the custom scripting. "Error : Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) Site might have NoScript enabled, this prevents setting some property bag values."
• Fix license activation errors for license categories between 125,000 and 2,000,000 users
• When activating the license on a site, if scripting is off it sometimes did not offer to download the script to turn scripting on
• When performing MUI step 2, it was sometimes not applying translated terms from the Hub site.
• When performing MUI step 2 from a subsite, it was sometimes not applying translated terms from the root site.
• Footer navigation was sometimes not localized
• When re-activating PointFire with fewer languages, the languages that are no longer required were not being deleted from the multilingual translations list

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 is a supported release.  It fixes several errors in v2.1.1 and adds several features.

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.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

All of our PowerShell scripts are switching from the legacy SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline module, which stopped being maintained over a year ago, to the new PnP.PowerShell module.  This may require global admin consent.

New Features

• Overcomes the recent changes to AAD by forcing the use of TLS 1.2
• Web interface Translation tabs are visible only after valid credentials have been entered
• Web interface remembers URLs of most recently used sites
• Web interface shows all available Library/list names

Resolved Issues

• ERROR: Item does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user. After editing and translating a previously translated page.
• Duplicate translations when re-translating the same document
• Duplicate translations when re-translating the same page in the root site
• Wiki page item language of the source item was not set
• When a file in the folder has the same name as one in the root, they both get translated
• MSTrans.dic file not found depending on current directory when calling executable
• When updating from version prior to 2.1.0.0, Application registration certificate is not preserved
• Error when the library has more than 5000 pages
• various small issues

PointFire Translator can translate individual items or entire libraries or lists in SharePoint Online.  It includes the PointFire 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.  Note: MTS has been deprecated by Microsoft.  This will not affect you unless your configuration is incorrect.

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

The major purpose of this release is to introduce a change in machine translation of the user interface. Previous versions of PointFire 365 used the SharePoint Online Machine Translation Service. Microsoft is deprecating this service at the beginning of August 2022. This release replaces it with the Azure Translator API. This will require entering an Azure Translator API key. The free tier of this service is often sufficient. If you are legally required to use a particular Azure region, contact us to determine what region code to use, otherwise use "Global", meaning closest available datacenter. You can find or create your Azure Translator service here:

https://portal.azure.com/#view/Microsoft_Azure_ProjectOxford/CognitiveServicesHub/~/TextTranslation

This is a supported official release. It can be used for production. It must be installed by July 31, 2022 to prevent an issue that will be caused by a Microsoft change scheduled for early August.

If you were using an earlier supported release, the upgrade requires no change to data or licenses, however you must press the "Activate" button on each site after upgrade or use the ActivateApp script. Some JavaScript from the previous version will remain cached until the next session unless you press Ctrl-F5 or equivalent on your browser.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Starting in March 2022, all of our PowerShell scripts have switched from the legacy SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline module, which stopped being maintained in 2020, to the PnP.PowerShell module.

The PF365 installation script will uninstall the old module and install the new one on the workstation if that has not already been done. If no one has yet run the command "Register-PnPManagementShellAccess", you must get a global admin to consent for the Tenant. This only has to be done once for the entire tenant.

Details here

https://pnp.github.io/powershell/cmdlets/Register-PnPManagementShellAccess.html

New and Changed Features

• For MUI step 2, use Azure Translator API if it is configured
• New script SetAzureTranslationProperty.ps1 to set the Azure Translator API key and optional region
• "Activate" scripts will let you select languages the first time a site is activated, but keep languages the same when re-activating.
• Turn off SharePoint Multilingual Page Publishing feature at first activation of PointFire 365, so that users are not confused, preserving data
• Migrate existing page library items from Multilingual Page Publishing to PointFire 365 when the library is made multilingual.

Resolved Issues

• Constant refresh issues on list items for users set to certain languages

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.