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License Agreement

The article presents the features available in the Premium plan of XTRF Language Business Platform. Please keep in mind that your access to the described options might be limited due to your license agreement. If you would like to change your plan of XTRF Language Business Platform and gain access to the additional features, contact your XTRF Customer Success Manager.

 

Target audience: Administrators, Project Managers

 

 

     

 

 

A task workflow is a step-by-step procedure which constitutes of workflow jobs performed by the vendors. A Project Manager makes a decision which files uploaded as the input files for a given project should be addressed to which vendor and if the files should be edited by the vendors or not. In XTRF Platform, the files are grouped in packages called bundles. You can manage the files included in the bundles giving your vendors different rights to them depending on the project requirements. For example, you might want to send some additional description only to the translator but the proofreader does not need it. Because of that, XTRF Platform introduces statuses of bundles. You can find that there are three statuses of the bundles:

  • Read/Write: The vendors can edit and modify the files in the bundle.
  • Read Only: The vendors can only read the content of the files in the bundle.
  • Not Assigned: The bundle is unavailable for the vendors. It gives a Project Manager an opportunity to adjust the flow of files through the workflow. For example, this status is especially useful when a Project Manager wants to distribute the files in a project only to the selected vendors but not to all of them. 

There are two main steps in the bundles management process in XTRF Platform:

I. Adding bundles to the workflow.

II. Distributing the created bundle correctly so that each vendor can get the files which they expect to perform their jobs.

In this tutorial you can find a task workflow where two workflow jobs are defined: translation and proofreading. The files which should be processed by a translator and a proofreader are in the files bundle, and the files where the vendors can find only some references for given activities are in the reference files bundle. The reference files should be only available to read them but the vendors cannot modify them.

 

 

Before Reading a Tutorial

  • The steps without any marking are mandatory to perform because they ensure carrying on a proper function of the Home Portal.
  • The steps marked with the (Optional) label give you information about settings useful for you in terms of fulfilling specific requirements for your projects, but if you skip them it will have no negative effect on the function of the Home Portal.

 

 

Distributing Files in the Task Workflow Definition

This section presents you how to set up bundles in the Workflow Definition so that the vendors, translator and proofreader can access the files to perform their jobs and can get additional information in the reference files. 

Before Performing the Steps

Before performing the below steps, make sure that you have already created the Workflow Definition for your project. You might create:

In this tutorial you can find an example of how to distribute files for a task workflow.

 

 

I. Add the Bundles to the Workflow

First of all you need to create the packages with the files to distribute them properly. In other words, you need to create the bundles where each bundle should contain files of the selected categories. The best practice is to create the bundles according to the categories defined in XTRF Platform, for example the work files should be available in the bundle with the Work File category specified; or the reference files bundle should contain the files with additional information for the vendors or terminology files. To add the bundle, follow the steps:

 Sign in to the Home Portal of XTRF Platform.
 Click the icon.
 Go to the Workflows > Workflow Definitions.
 Select the workflow where you want to manage your bundles from the Workflow Definition entries.
 

Click the icon. You are redirected to your workflow definition display. Below there is a sample of Workflow Definition declared as a task workflow type. The Workflow Defintion includes the workflow jobs: translation and proofreading.

 

 Go to the Bundles tab. You can see a list of all your bundles created for a given Workflow Definition. In the example only files bundle is available. The files bundle is always created while you are creating a Workflow Definition.

 

The files Bundle

The files bundle is always created while you are creating a Workflow Definition. By default, the files bundle is a package which is distributed to and included in the output files. In the files bundle you can find that all files categories can be processed such as work files, Translation Memories, or terminologies.

  • You can always edit the default settings of the files bundle: To do so, click the  icon.
  • You can remove a bundle by clicking the icon.
 

If you want to have a reference files bundle, you need to add it to your bundles. Click the +Add button. The Bundle pop-up window appears.

    1. Provide a name for your bundle. The name should be concise and clear for the Project Managers or vendors, for example reference files.
    2. Uncheck the Include in Task Output checkbox. If the Include in Task Output checkbox is selected, it means that your files in the bundle are processed through the workflow jobs you assign a bundle to, all the way to your output files package; the files are included in the output files package in a project. The concept of this tutorial is that the reference files should be used by the vendors, so there is no need to transfer them to the output files.
    3. In the Supported File Categories  in Task Input multi-selection field add the categories of your files. Double-click on a category in the Available Items list in order to add it to the Selected Items list.  For example, Log File, Reference Files, Terminology, and TM are selected.
    4. (Optional) Provide an expression using the appropriate matching pattern in the Supported Files in Task Input (Regular Expression) field. This option is used when you want to restrict the files types or filenames uploaded to the Task Input. For example, you need to allow for uploading only .doc  files or files with a specified phrase in the filenames.

 

Regular Expressions in the Task Input

You can decide which files should be uploaded to the Task Input. To do that, you need to provide a regular expression, regex or regexp, in the Supported Files in Task Input (Regular Expression) field.

 

 Click here to find out more...

The files might be restricted regarding:

  • File format. You can find some examples of regular expressions below:

    • .*\.doc: A Project Manager can upload only .doc files.
    • .*\.(doc|xls)x?: A Project Manager can upload only .doc or .docx or .xls or .xlsx files.
    • .*\.(doc|pdf): A Project Manager can upload only .doc or .pdf  files.

  • Common phrase in the filename. For example, if you provide the ^text.* phrase, a Project Manager can upload only files containing the text phrase in a filename.

 Click the Save button. The Bundle pop-up window closes.
 

Your newly added reference files bundle is displayed in the Bundle display. Click the Save button at the bottom of the Bundle display.

II. Distribute the Bundles in the Workflow

When you have added all the bundles you need, you can decide on the flow of the bundles in the workflow and what kind of access rights the vendors should get. To do so, perform the following steps:

 Go to the Workflow Graph tab. Below the diagram you can see the Assignment of Bundles Transferred from Previous Job section. 
 

Click once the Read/Write link for the translation job. The status changes to Read Only. Note that the curved connector which ends with arrow in the graph represents the idea of the files flow. It changes each time when you click the link.

 

Assigning Files in the Bundle

 When you create a bundle in the Workflow Definition all files are set to the default status Read/Write. If you leave this default value, the vendors can change the files where they get assigned to a project.

  • If the status is Read/Write and you click once the Read/Write link, the status changes to Read Only.
  • If the status is Read Only and you click once the Read Only link, the status changes to Not Assigned. 
  • If the status is Not Assigned and you click once the Not Assigned link, the status changes to Read/Write.

 

 

 Click once the Read/Write link for a proofreading job. The status changes to Read Only. Mind that in the graph the connectors with arrows show how the files flow has changed.
 

You have added the reference files bundle to the Workflow Definition. Moreover, you have defined which vendor can get the files and access rights to them.

  • If you click the files bundle in the Task Input graph box in the Workflow Graph tab you can see the flow of the files bundle. The files flow, connectors and workflow jobs, is highlighted in blue because it presents the flow of files which can be modified by the vendors.


  • If you click the reference files bundle in the Task Input graph box in the Workflow Graph tab you can see the flow of the reference files bundle. Only the workflow jobs where the vendors can read the files are highlighted in blue. Note that the reference files bundle is not transferred to the output files.

 

 

 

Tips and Tricks

To find some hints how to adjust a workflow to your needs, go to the FAQ page:  Can I Customize a Workflow?