Sitecore Integration

How to connect

Install the plugin

1. Download the connector zip archive that matches your Sitecore version (10.1, 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4)

2. At the Launchpad, go to Control Panel → Desktop

   

3. Open Development Tools → Installation Wizard

   

4. Click Upload package

   

5. Add the Smartcat plugin zip archive

   

6. Select Override existing files and upload the plugin

   

   

7. Choose the uploaded package and click Next

   

8. Click Install to install the plugin

   

9. Restart the Sitecore client when prompted

The Smartcat tab appears in the Content Editor, confirming the plugin is installed.

Connect to Smartcat

1. In Smartcat, go to Settings → API and click Create New Key. Copy the API key and your account ID

   

2. In the Sitecore Content Editor, open the Smartcat tab and click Connect workspace

3. Paste your account ID and API key, then confirm

The plugin is connected to your Smartcat workspace and ready to translate.

Core workflow

Translating pages

1. Ensure your Sitecore instance has multiple languages enabled. Verify that several languages have been added under System → Languages in Sitecore.

2. On the Smartcat tab, click Create project

   

3. Select one or several items for translation

   

4. Configure the translation scope

To exclude specific fields, select the field to exclude from the template associated with the page you want to translate.

If a page has linked items, for example, a banner stored as a separate item in Core, select Include Linked Items to add them to the translation scope automatically. If a linked item has its own linked items, specify how deep the plugin should go into the inheritance structure.

1. Set up target languages. Smartcat uses Sitecore's default system language as the source language

💡 You can set up custom locale mappings to align your Sitecore locales with Smartcat locales (see Configuration options)

1. Specify the translation project details:

   • Translation project title

   • Project deadline (optional)

   • Translation workflow — the default Smartcat workflow or a custom one

   • (Optional) Import existing translations for these locales into Smartcat

   

2. Confirm project creation

   

3. On the Smartcat tab, click View projects. Select the project and click the pencil icon to open it in Smartcat, or open the Smartcat dashboard and navigate to the project directly. Complete the translations in Smartcat

   

   

4. To complete the review process, click Done to confirm all segments in the CAT editor, then return to Sitecore.

5. Pull the translations back to Sitecore. You can pull for a specific language version, a selected translation project, or all translation projects

When a page's translation is pulled, Smartcat creates a new page version in that language in Sitecore. Fields excluded from the translation scope keep their source value. Complex items such as images and links with their own text fields (alt text, descriptions) are extracted and sent to Smartcat automatically.

Your Sitecore pages are translated and the language versions are available in the CMS.

Updating translations

When source content changes, you can target the translation to the parts that changed, instead of retranslating from scratch.

1. Send an item for translation in Smartcat for the first time. If it is fully or partly translated, include the existing translations

2. Update the source content of the item

   

3. Send it for translation again by creating a translation project. You can select several pages at once, whether or not they were previously translated

⚠️ Do not include existing translations this time

Additional settings

Custom language mapping

Sitecore allows you to create highly custom locales and dialects and Smartcat may not have a fully matching option. The list of languages and dialects supported by Smartcat is available here.

In some cases you may also want to treat one of your Sitecore languages differently. For example, Spanish with the "es" locale might actually be Spanish (LATAM) when it comes to translation.

For both cases, Smartcat allows you to create custom locale mappings, essentially telling Smartcat to use a certain locale when translating from another locale in Sitecore.

To do this, in Sitecore, open System → Settings → Smartcat → SmartcatSettings and edit the LocaleMap field. The format is: %locale in Sitecore% <> %locale in Smartcat%. Each entry should be on a new line.

Copying values from source to language copies

In some cases, field values should be the same across all languages.

In this case, you can either use the shared setting for this field in the item template, or configure the Smartcat plugin to copy the field value from the source to the language version when creating one using the plugin.

To do this, open the Smartcat tab and click Plugin Settings. Next, select the template and the field that should be copied. The setting will be applied to all items created using this template.

Emulating Sitecore item path in Smartcat

When a translation project is created in Smartcat, each translatable item is represented as a file. Optionally, you can configure Smartcat to mirror the item path from Sitecore inside Smartcat. This can be useful when you want to see the exact item path while working in the Smartcat Editor.

Understanding "Copy field value" vs. "Do not copy field value"

The Plugin Settings panel displays two sections: Copy field value and Do not copy field value. These are two opposite modes of the same setting.

Copy field value acts as a whitelist: the plugin copies only the selected fields to the target language version.

Do not copy field value acts as a blacklist: the plugin copies everything except the selected fields.

Only one mode is active at a time. The selected field list is shared between both modes: a field you add appears under both sections because the list is retained regardless of which mode is currently active. Your selection is not lost when you switch modes. Only the active mode takes effect when a project is created.

📌 This setting is plugin-wide and applies to all projects created from the selected template, not to individual projects.

How to Connect

1. At Launchpad go to Control Panel→Desktop
   

2. Open Development Tools→Installation Wizard
   

3. Upload package
   

4. Add zip-archive with Smartcat plugin
   

5. Select override existing files and upload plugin

6. Choose uploaded package and click Next
   

7. Install plugin
   

8. Restart the Sitecore client
   

9. Installation's completed. Smartcat tab should appear in the Content Editor

Setting up your connection with Smartcat

1. Generate a Smartcat API Key
   To generate a Smartcat API key, navigate to Settings → API in your Smartcat account. Click on Create New Key to generate a new API key. Make sure to copy the API key and your account ID for future use.

   

2. Set up connection in plugin
   Open Smartcat tab in Sitecore Content Editor, click on Connect workspace, paste Account ID and API Key, and confirm changes

   

3. Now plugin is connected and ready for translation

Setting up the translation scope (plugin settings)

Before creating your first translation project, tell the plugin which content should be translated. On the Smartcat tab, click Plugin Settings.

The settings list all your content templates and their fields. Every template and every field has one setting:

• Translate - the field is sent to Smartcat for translation.

• Copy from source - the field is not translated; its source value is copied into the language version.

• Skip - the field is ignored: not translated and not copied.

A template's setting applies to all of its fields. A field set to Inherit from template (the default) follows its template; select a different value to override it for that field.

On a fresh installation nothing is selected for translation yet: set the templates you want to translate to Translate and click Save. (If you upgraded from a 0.6.x version, your previous configuration was converted automatically - just review it.)

Tips:

• Use the search box to quickly find a template or field.

• Rows indicated with a teal line on the left are sent for translation; greyed-out rows are not.

• These settings are global. You can adjust them for a single project while creating it - see Translating pages.

Translating pages using the plugin

Translating pages

1. Click on “Create project” on Smartcat tab
   

2. Select one or several items for translation
   

3. Review the translation scope
   

   The Content selection step shows the templates and fields used by the pages you selected, pre-filled with your Plugin Settings. You can adjust them for this project only; for example, set a field to Skip to exclude it from translation, or to Copy from source to keep the source value in the language versions.

   

   Changed values are highlighted, and Reset to defaults returns everything to your Plugin Settings. These adjustments apply only to the project you are creating; the plugin-wide settings are not affected.

   If a page has linked items, for example, a banner added to the layout which is stored as a separate item inside Core - you can automatically include them in the translation scope of the main page by selecting Include Linked Items.

   

4. Smartcat uses Sitecore's default system language as the source language for translations. Optionally, you can set up custom locale mappings to properly align your Sitecore locales with Smartcat ones.
   

5. Specify translation project details
   

   You need to set up:

   • Translation project title

   • Project deadline (optional)

   • Translation workflow — either the default Smartcat one or a custom one

   • Optionally, import existing translations for these locales into Smartcat

6. Confirm project creation
   

7. Translate pages within Smartcat
   On Smartcat tab click on "View projects”

   

   Select the project you just created and click the pencil icon to open it in Smartcat and review the page translations. Alternatively, you can open the Smartcat dashboard directly and navigate to the correct project from there.

   

   Complete translations in Smartcat:

   

8. Pull translations to Sitecore
   After the translation is completed, it can be pulled from Smartcat to Sitecore. It can be done for specific language version, selected translation project or for all translation projects.

   

   When a page's translation is updated, pulling it will create a new page version in that language in Sitecore. Note that the Subtitle field was excluded from the translation scope.

   

   If a page has complex items such as images, links, etc., with their own text fields like alt text, description, etc., all these fields will also be automatically extracted and sent to Smartcat.

   

   Updating translations

   Smartcat allows you to update translations after an item's source content has been updated. In this case, the translation won't be done from scratch — only the parts that have changed will be translated.

   1. Send an item for translation in Smartcat for the first time. If it's fully or partly translated, include existing translations.

   2. Update the source content of this item.

      

   3. Send it for translation again by creating a translation project.
      You can also select several pages at once, regardless of whether they were previously translated or not.

      ⚠️ Don't include existing translations this time.

   4. If a page was previously sent for translation, the Smartcat plugin will detect it and automatically send it to the corresponding translation project.

      

   5. Previously created unchanged translations remain fully completed.

      

   6. The rest of the flow is the same as for translating your content. After the translation is completed, just pull the translations back to Sitecore.

Additional Settings

Custom language mapping

Sitecore allows you to create highly custom locales. It may occur that Smartcat doesn't have a fully matching locale. The list of locales supported by Smartcat is here: https://smartcat.com/Home/Languages

In some cases you may also want to treat one of your Sitecore languages differently — for example, Spanish with the "es" locale might actually be Spanish (LATAM) when it comes to translation.

For both cases, Smartcat allows you to create custom locale mappings, essentially telling Smartcat to use a certain locale when translating from another locale in Sitecore.

To do this, open System → Settings → Smartcat → SmartcatSettings and edit the LocaleMap field. The format is: %locale in Sitecore% <> %locale in Smartcat%. Each entry should be on a new line.

Copying values from source to language copies

In some cases, field values should be the same across all languages.

In this case, you can either use the shared setting for this field in the item template, or configure the Smartcat plugin to copy the field value from the source to the language version when creating one using the plugin.

To do this, open the Smartcat tab and click Plugin Settings. Find the template in the list (or use search) and set the field to Copy from source. The setting will be applied to all items created using this template.

Copying is applied when translations are pulled: when the language version is created or updated, the plugin writes the source value into the copied fields. Fields set to Copy from source are never sent for translation.

Emulating Sitecore item path in Smartcat

When a translation project is created in Smartcat, each translatable item is represented as a file. Optionally, you can configure Smartcat to mirror the item path from Sitecore inside Smartcat.

To enable this, open Plugin Settings and select Create folder hierarchy in Smartcat.

This can be useful when you want to see the exact item path while working in the Smartcat Editor.

Understanding field settings: Skip, Translate, and Copy from source

Every template and field in Plugin Settings has exactly one behavior when content is sent for translation:

• Translate - the field is sent to Smartcat and comes back translated.

• Copy from source - the field is not translated. Its source value is copied into the language version when translations are pulled to Sitecore.

• Skip - the field is ignored entirely: not translated and not copied.

Fields are set to Inherit from template by default, so in most cases you only need to configure the template behavior. A template that was never configured is treated as Skip: its content is not sent anywhere.

How the settings are applied:

• Plugin Settings are plugin-wide and apply to all projects. The Content selection step of project creation lets you deviate from them for one project; such changes affect only that project.

• What is sent for translation is decided when the project is created (or when its documents are updated). If you change a field from Skip to Translate, send the page for translation again to include it.

• Copying from source is applied every time translations are pulled, using the current Plugin Settings. If you add a Copy from source rule later, simply pull the project again: the values will be copied.