On-The-Fly Translation

On-the-fly translation is one of four possible approaches to translation.

For extremely small volumes of text, you may wish to translate just individual objects in transaction SE63.
At the other end of the scale, you can set up the translation environment fully. Features such as statistics, standard worklists, top texts, and automatic distribution provide the greatest possible support for your translation project. Most of this documentation explains how to set up the translation environment, generate standard worklists, and then make the most of features such as top texts and automatic distribution that enable you to translate as quickly, efficiently, and consistently as possible.
If you would prefer to export texts, so that they can be translated with third-party software outside the system, then you can use the externalization functions in transaction LXE_MASTER.
On-the-fly translation allows you to create a worklist in the system on the basis of an object list, transport request, transport object, collection (ABAP package), or local list without setting up the translation environment first. See Constraints for a list of advantages and disadvantages of translating this way as opposed to setting up the translation environment fully.

Prerequisites

On-the-fly translation uses dialog processes. This makes the function very performance-intensive, so you should only use it if you have a small number of objects to translate into a few languages.
To use an object list as the basis for on-the-fly translation, you need to create an object list.
To use a transport request as the basis for on-the-fly translation, you need to identify the transport request that contains the objects you want to translate, or create a transport request that contains the objects you want to translate.
To use a collection as the basis for on-the-fly translation, you need to identify the collection that contains the objects you want to translate. To avoid unnecessary translation work, you must ensure that the collection is not full of objects for which no translation is required.
To use a local list as the basis for on-the-fly translation, you need to create a local list.
You are defined in transaction LXE_MASTER as a translator for the target language into which you want to translate.
Your translator profile in transaction LXE_MASTER must include the correct TRW authorization object with the appropriate value:
- To create an on-the-fly worklist on the basis of an object list, your translator profile must include authorization object TRW2 with the value 01, 02, or 03.
- To create an on-the-fly worklist on the basis of a transport request or transport object, your translator profile must include authorization object TRW4 with the value 01, 02, or 03.
- To create an on-the-fly worklist on the basis of collections in the system, your translator profile must include authorization object TRW5 with the value 01.
- To create an on-the-fly worklist on the basis of a local list, your translator profile must include authorization object TRW6 with the value 01, 02, or 03.
To refresh the translation status of objects in your on-the-fly worklist, your translator profile must include authorization object AVUP with the value 01.
To deactivate the original language check when creating an on-the-fly worklist, your translator profile must include authorization object TRF1 with the value 01.
To deactivate the language settings when creating an on-the-fly worklist, your translator profile must include authorization object TRF2 with the value 01.
To deactivate the language settings and exceptions when creating an on-the-fly worklist, your translator profile must include authorization object TRF2 with the value 02.

Constraints

If you are considering translating via on-the-fly worklists, note that there are certain constraints to be taken into consideration when compared with translation via standard worklists after setting up the translation environment fully. The table below outlines the main differences between these two approaches to translation:

Standard Worklist After Full System Setup	On-The-Fly Worklist With No System Setup
You have to set up the translation environment fully before you can generate a standard worklist.	You do not have to set up the translation environment before creating an on-the-fly worklist.
There is a lot to learn when setting up the translation environment fully.	Learning how to create an on-the-fly worklist is relatively quick and easy. You only have to learn some of the basic concepts of online translation such as object lists, proposal pools, and working in the short and long text editors.
If your translation project is under high time pressure, you may not have time to set up the translation environment fully.	On-the-fly translation can help you translate more quickly than via a standard worklist, but only if you need to translate a relatively small number of objects into very few target languages.
You can take full advantage of various cost-effective and time-saving functions, such as DEMS Objects for Productivity Improvement (Top Texts), DEMS Objects for Quality Assurance, and Automatic Distribution.	You cannot take full advantage of such cost-effective and time-saving functions when translating via an on-the-fly worklist.
You can distribute the translation workload by assigning collections to translators in transaction LXE_MASTER.	You cannot distribute the translation workload by assigning collections to translators in transaction LXE_MASTER.
Translation statistics enable individual translators to monitor their own translation workloads, and translation coordinators to monitor the overall translation workload for one or more target languages.	There are no translation statistics.
You reserve objects in a standard worklist. Once you have reserved objects in your standard worklist, for example for target language Thai, no other translator into this target language can reserve the objects in his or her standard worklist.	You load objects in an on-the-fly worklist. This does not prevent another translator into the same target language from loading the same objects in another on-the-fly worklist, or from reserving the same objects in his or her standard worklist.
Standard worklists can deal with huge translation volumes into a very high number of target languages.	On-the-fly worklists are not suitable for large translation volumes. It can take a very long time to create an on-the-fly worklist and if you try to create one for too many objects, the program may exceed the maximum permitted runtime and terminate.

Note

Standard worklists and on-the-fly worklists are not mutually exclusive. In certain situations, creating an on-the-fly worklist can be useful even though most translation work is still being done via a standard worklist.

For example, standard worklist 0001 contains all of the translation-relevant objects in the system, but a developer needs specific objects to be translated immediately, that is, several weeks before the translation deadline. The developer’s objects are in worklist 0001 already, but the translators have no way of identifying them. The developer can name the transport request that contains the objects requiring immediate translation.

To solve the problem, one translator creates an on-the-fly worklist via the transport request while all other translators continue to work via the standard worklist.