Starting with the 2016 release of Language I/O Response, this article explains some of the new features in each release of Response in chronological order.

2016: Vedauwoo Release 1.0

The basis for this release was to allow support agents to decide whether they would request a human translation or machine translation of their response to a customer. Previously, the type of translation service selected by Language I/O for a support agent's response email – whether a machine translation engine or human linguists - was dictated by a profile-level setting. The agent responses would always be translated with a machine or human translation service based upon that setting. With the release of Vedauwoo, the translation service type will still default to the profile-level setting, but it can then be changed at the last minute by the support agent once the agent has authored their response to the customer.

Language I/O Response customers had also asked that they be given the ability to decide which of their support agents saw this translation type option. With Vedauwoo, an organization is able to grant certain agent profiles the freedom to select translation type, and others not.

Agent Translation Type Selection

Profile-Level Permissions

To enable translation type selection for specific agent profiles, you must be logged into Oracle Service Cloud with Admin-level privileges. Once logged in, navigate to Configuration => Site Configuration => Add-In Manager. Select the LN_Response_XXX.zip add-in and click on the Profile Access button in the navigation ribbon. You will see a list of all system profiles on the left. Select the profile for which you want to grant access. If this profile does not already have access to the Language I/O Response Add-In you must grant that first by selecting one or more interfaces to the right. You will then see the Server Configuration Properties displayed, as shown below.

The first property in the list is called AgentCanChangeTranslationType. If it is set to “yes” (all lowercase and without quotes as shown below), all users in this profile will have the ability to change the translation type of the agent’s response. If it is set to “no” (all lowercase and without quotes), no user in this profile will have the ability to manually select translation type. Whether human or machine translation is used will always be determined by the TranslationType property, also shown below. Note that the settings below also dictate the default translation type setting for users that do have AgentCanChangeTranslationType enabled. 

The possible values in the TranslationType property are:

• hybrid –A machine translation engine will be used for incoming customer questions and human translation for outgoing agent responses.
• machine – A machine translation engine will be used to translate both incoming customer questions and outgoing agent responses.
• human – Human translation services will be used to translate both incoming customer questions and outgoing agent responses.

image 0

Agent Translation Type Selector

 The mechanism for translation type selection within the Language I/O Agent Response Editor is a set of radio buttons at the bottom of the window. The editor is launched when the agent clicks on the Respond button next to a thread in the Language I/O tab (image 1). The Agent Response Editor can also be launched by clicking on the new icon at the top of the Language I/O tab (image 2).

image 1

image 2

As shown in image 3a below, the Translation Type box will provide two radio-button options. Only one option can be selected at a time. If you click on one, the other is deselected.

image 3a

The two translation type options are labeled Machine and Human. When the editor is opened, the option that is selected by default will depend upon the add-in-level configuration that is set in the Server Configuration Properties under Profile Access for the Language I/O Response add-in in Add-In Manager. 

If your user profile is not granted the AgentCanChangeTranslationType as explained in the previous section, your editor window will look as shown in image 3b below, without the Translation Type area.

image 3b

If the TranslationType property in Server Configuration Properties (SCP) is set to machine, the Translation Type radio button in the editor will also default to Machine. If, as shown in image 4 below, the SCP property is set to hybrid, the Translation Type property in the Agent Response Editor will default to Human.

image 4

Lastly, you will know that the correct (machine or human) translation request has been sent based upon the status that is returned from the Language I/O server. The Language I/O server status will show up in one of two places: the LinguistNow Status custom field that is displayed independently of the add-in somewhere in your Incident Workspace (image 5) or on the Language I/O tab in the status field above the Agent Untranslated Response thread (image 6). 

image 5 

image 6

Agent-Initiated Responses Displayed at the Top of Language I/O Table

The Language I/O thread display functionality has been updated so that agent-initiated responses (i.e. agent responses initiated by clicking the new response button shown in image 7 below) are displayed at the top of the thread list instead of at the bottom of the thread list on the Language I/O tab.

Background

The Language I/O thread display algorithm first looks for a system thread (i.e. thread that is displayed on the Messages tab in the Incident Workspace) and then lists all Language I/O threads (translation back-and-forth threads that are not displayed on the Messages tab) in chronological order on top of the anchor/system thread with which they are associated. The reason that Language I/O threads are grouped with their anchor/system threads, as opposed to just listing all threads chronologically, is that the Language I/O threads are more useful to agents when they are grouped next to the system thread with which they are associated, regardless of date.

In previous versions, any agent response thread initiated by clicking on the new response button (image 7) and NOT associated with a system thread were listed below all other threads, at the bottom of the table view. With release 2016 Version C, the agent-initiated threads are now displayed at the top of the Language I/O tab.

image 7

Dialog Box Centering

In release 2016 Version C, the starting display position of all Language I/O add-in dialog boxes (such as those displayed in image 8 below) has been moved to the center of the screen. In previous versions, the dialog box starting position was the upper-left-hand corner. 

image 8

2017: Medicine Bow 1.0-1.2

This release includes various visual improvements: text resizing, docking/un-docking, custom colors, and reduced flickering. It also adds the ability to enable/disable re-translation by profile and partially translate messages, as requested by customers, and under-the-hood performance improvements.

Medicine Bow 1.0
Profile-Level Re-Translation Permissions
To enable or disable re-translation for specific agent profiles, log in to Oracle Service Cloud with admin-level privileges. Then, navigate to Configuration -> Site Configuration -> Add-In Manager. Select the LN_Response.zip add-in and click on the Profile Access button in the navigation ribbon. Select the profile whose access you want to change. By default, all agents are allowed to request re-translations. To modify permissions for a profile, select it and enable the desired interfaces if necessary. Then set AgentCanRequestRetranslation to "yes" or "no".

If the TranslationType variable for the profile is set to "machine", re-translation will always be disabled to prevent repeat translations.


Explanations for each server configuration property can be found at the bottom of this article.

Docking and Un-Docking
The add-in can now be un-docked to a separate window. This allows agents to view the add-in on a separate monitor, resize the add-in to utilize the full screen, or view the Language I/O tab at the same time as another tab.

Text Resizing and Color Customization
The agent can now increase or decrease the font size for better readability. They can also change the status-bar color for all types of status - customer messages, agent responses, automatic messages, and other messages. The colors can be set in the Add-In manager using the same steps described above for changing re-translation permissions. Here is a list of all valid color names.

Updated Message Display
The underlying control displaying all messages in the add-in has been updated. All messages will display text and HTML the same as before, but reloads will now occur more quickly with less flickering.


Medicine Bow 1.2

Partial Translations
Sometimes a customer message will contain content that does not need to be translated. Simply highlight the important text before clicking "Translate" and only that text will be sent for translation. This feature is currently not available for re-translations.

Plain Text and Raw Text Display
Customer messages can include HTML formatting, for example if they paste part of a webpage or spreadsheet into their messages. Occasionally this added HTML can cause issues. If Response runs into problematic HTML, it will first try to strip all HTML from the message and display the plain text. If there are still issues (for example if half of an HTML tag is entered into the add-in), an error will be displayed. In this case, the "Aa" button in the upper right can be used to display the raw content including all HTML tags. This option can be used to aid in debugging.