Using MT plugins on memoQ server

Applies to:  

• memoQ server version 2015

Description:   Originally, plugins for machine translation services like Google MT were developed for the memoQ client. In a recent development, we have made them available for use in memoQ server as well: you can use these services to pre-translate documents in an online project in memoQ server, without checking out the project to your computer. Currently, this requires some manual configuration, and it is available in the versions listed above.

The latest memoQ server installers (the versions mentioned above) will install all MT plugins on the server. How to use them will be detailed below. You can choose (activate) the MT plugin you want to use in a config file. You also need to use a memoQ client installed on the server machine to set up the configuration of your plugin of choice in the client first, and then copy the resulting configuration file to the server's configuration file location.

How to:    The below are the steps to enable your MT plugins on the server, and verify that it is working.

1. Stop memoQ server.
2. Locate the memoQ server's main configuration file (c:\ProgramData\MemoQ Server\Configuration.xml). Select the active plugin on your memoQ server by adding a line like this (yellow highlight below) to the end of the file (on the penultimate line). The below example enables the Microsoft MT plugin: to activate another plugin, use the name of the corresponding DLL file. without the DLL extension.
     <ActiveMTPlugin>MemoQ.MicrosoftMT</ActiveMTPlugin>
   </PersistedServerConfig>
3. You will need to recreate the configuration files in the memoQ client you have installed on the server. First, note down the access details (server address, username, password, etc: this will vary for each MT plugin) from the configuration of the MT plugin in memoQ options > Machine translation.
4. Then stop memoQ, and delete the affected configuration file(s) here: c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MemoQ\Plugins\
   
5. Make sure you have updated memoQ to a current build (see versions at the top of this article). Restart memoQ (client), and recreate the configuration for the MT plugin here: memoQ options > Machine translation. Enter your access details. Then in a local project, verify that machine translation works correctly with the MT plugin.
   
6. memoQ created or updated the configuration file for the MT plugin with the correct content. (Warning: existing configuration files you created in earlier versions will NOT work when copied to the server, even if they contain the correct access details. The method of encrypting the access details has changed. Also, only the configuration file created in a memoQ client on the server machine will work, again because of how the data is encrypted.)
   You will need to copy this file to the server's corresponding configuration folder. Make sure that your server is not running. For example, for Microsoft MT, copy this file:
   c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MemoQ\Plugins\MicrosoftMTSettings.xml
   
   ...to this location:
   
   c:\ProgramData\MemoQ Server\Plugins\MicrosoftMTSettings.xml
7. Restart your memoQ server. This is when it reads all the configuration. Note: this also means that whenever you want to change the active plugin or its settings, you will need to restart your memoQ server service. (For Microsoft MT, some of its settings are also available over the memoQ server WSAPI.)
   
8. To verify that the plugin is working on the server side, set up an online project in memoQ server with a language pair that is supported by your MT plugin. Then in the online project manager interface, pre-translate a document, making sure that the "Perform machine translation" option is enabled. If the plugin is working, it must fill the document's target segments with machine translations.