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firestore-translate-tex

Using the Translate Text in Firestore extension​

The Translate Text in Firestore extension (firestore-translate-text) lets you translate strings written to a Cloud Firestore collection into multiple languages using the Cloud Translation API. Adding a document to the collection triggers this extension to translate the contents of a field within a document to one or more languages. The extension supports either translating a single string or multiple strings at once.

Here’s a basic example document write that would trigger this extension:

admin.firestore().collection("translations").add({
  input: "Hello from Firebase!",
});

When the extension triggers, the input text would update the document with translations:

{
  input: 'Hello from Firebase!',
  translations: {
    'fr': 'Bonjour de Firebase!',
    'de': 'Hallo von Firebase!',
  },
}

If the original non-translated field of the document is updated, then the translations will be automatically updated, as well.

Pre-installation setup​

Before installing this extension, make sure that you've set up a Cloud Firestore database  in your Firebase project.

Install the extension​

To install the extension, follow the steps on the Install Firebase Extension page. In summary, do one of the following:

When you install the extension, you will be prompted to specify the collection to target, the document input field and the list of country codes to be translated.

  • Cloud Functions location: Select the location of where you want to deploy the functions created for this extension. You usually want a location close to your database. For help selecting a location, refer to the location selection guide.
  • Target languages for translations, as a comma-separated list: Into which target languages do you want to translate new strings? The languages are identified using ISO-639-1 codes in a comma-separated list, for example: en,es,de,fr. For these codes, visit the list of the supported languages.
  • Collection path: What is the path to the collection that contains the strings that you want to translate?
  • Input field name: What is the name of the field that contains the string that you want to translate?
  • Translations output field name: What is the name of the field where you want to store your translations?

Multiple collections for translations​

To translate multiple collections, install this extension multiple times, specifying a different collection path each time. There is currently no limit on how many instances of an extension you can install.

**Multiple field translations**​

To translate multiple fields, store a map of input strings in the input field:

admin.firestore().collection("translations").add({
  first: "My name is Bob",
  second: "Hello, friend",
});