Bots are automated services you can add to your projects
Wherever you see the :robot icon: you can view and manage your bots.
The general approach to adding a new bot is as follows:
- Click "New bot" from the Bots tab on your dashboard;
- Configure and share it with your team;
- Run it manually on your projects as needed;
- Assign it tasks so it can run in background. (Requires Pro account).
Bot types
Machine translation providers are currently the only type of bot. See supported APIs.
More types of bot are coming soon...
Sharing your bots
You can create bots for your own private use, or share them with your colleagues. This is done from the individual bot's settings, where you see the :cog icon:.
Sharing a bot doesn't provide elevated access to Loco. Running a bot on your project can only be done with the privileges you already have.
Shared bots don't expose any secret credentials to their operator. However, bot usage can result in charges from their service provider, so we recommend you don't share a bot with anyone who you wouldn't also give your API key.
Running bots on your project
There are several ways to run a bot, depending on its type:
- Manually running from the project dashboard.
- Scheduling a task to run in the background.
- Batch processing selected assets from the project manage view (translation bots only).
- Using the "suggest" feature (translation bots only).
1. Running manually
You can find your bots listed under the Bots tab of your team and project dashboards; look for the :robot icon:. The list will include your own bots, plus any shared bots that are accessible to you within the current team, or project.
Clicking the list entry will bring up a dialogue for running the bot manually. Configure as appropriate and run when ready.
2. Running in the background
Members of Pro account teams can configure bots to run whenever changes are made to a project; for example whenever there are new untranslated items in a particular locale. This is done by adding a "Project task".
- From the "Run bot" dialogue (explained above) switch to the Project tasks tab.
- Click the :add icon: where it says "New task".
- Choose a project and a running schedule, plus any settings specific to the bot. e.g. Restrict locales.
- Click "Create task" and the bot will be queued to run on your schedule.
Schedule:
The "Schedule" is the minimum time between runs. Background tasks are only triggered to run when changes are made to a project, so a continuous task doesn't mean it's continuously doing work.
Tasks are queued, so a continuous schedule will probably run a minute or two after changes are detected. You'll be notified via the relevant project alerts when a bot has made changes.
Filtering:
With respect to automated translation services, we recommend you configure tasks to translate only what hasn't been translated. Requesting repeated translation of the same text may still result in charges from the provider.
3. Batch processing
Selecting assets in the "Manage" tab reveals a menu of batch processing actions. This now includes the :robot icon:. It works similarly to above, except only on the selected assets. This is useful for translating a more specific selection of items that may not be filterable via the task runners described above.
4. Suggestions
Pressing Ctrl J from the translation editor (or clicking the :robot button: by the text field) opens a modal window with suggestions for translating the current item.
All automatic translation services available in the current scope will be queried for suggestions, so be aware that using this feature may result in charges from multiple providers.
Clicking a suggestion will copy it into the editor without saving it. If you see multiple suggestions, you can press 1, 2, etc.. as a keyboard shortcut for selecting your preferred suggestion.