translateR (version 1.0)

translate: Translate text with the Google or the Microsoft translation APIs.

Description

This function provides easy access to the Google and Microsoft Translation APIs via R. It can translate any language supported by the APIs (to see a list of the available languages, see the getGoogleLanguages() and getMicrosoftLanguages() functions). Text can be provided as either a column in a dataframe or as a single vector of text, where the elements are the documents to be translated. Translated text is returned in the format it was provided. If text is provided as a single vector, translate() returns a single vector of translated text. If a dataframe is provided, the user must specify which column contains the text that is to be translated. Translated text is then bound to the dataframe in a new column named "translatedContent" and the entire dataframe is returned. The user must provide either a dataset and the content.field (column name) that contains the text to be translated, or a contect.vec (a character vector) where the elements are the text to be translated.

Usage

translate(dataset = NULL, content.field = NULL, content.vec = NULL, google.api.key = NULL, microsoft.client.id = NULL, microsoft.client.secret = NULL, source.lang = NULL, target.lang = NULL)

Arguments

dataset

A dataframe with a column containing the text to be translated.

content.field

If a dataframe is passed to "dataset", the name of the column containing the text must be passed to "content.field".

content.vec

A character vector of text. This is an alternative to "dataset"/"content.field".

google.api.key

To use the Google API, an API key must be provided. For more information on getting your key, see https://developers.google.com/translate/v2/getting_started.

microsoft.client.id

To use the Microsoft API, a client id and a client secret value must be provided. For more information on getting these, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh454950.aspx. NOTE: you do not need to obtain an access token. translateR will retrieve a token internally.

microsoft.client.secret

To use the Microsoft API, a client id and a client secret value must be provided. For more information on getting these, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh454950.aspx. The client secret value is a unique identifying string obtained when registering with Microsoft (see the link for more information). NOTE: you do not need to obtain an access token. translateR will retrieve a token internally.

source.lang

The language code that corresponds with the language in which the source text is written. The translators use different language codes, so select accordingly. To see a list of language codes, enter getGoogleLanguages() or getMicrosoftLanguages() for Google or Microsoft, respectively.

target.lang

The language code that corresponds with the language into which the source text is to be translated. The translators use different language codes, so select accordingly. To see a list of language codes, enter getGoogleLanguages() or getMicrosoftLanguages() for Google or Microsoft, respectively.

Value

translate returns a dataframe if it is passed a dataframe and a character vector if it is passed a character vector.

Examples

## Not run: 
# # Load example data. Three columns, the text
# # content ('email') and two metadata
# # fields (date and subject)
# data(enron)
# 
# # Google, translate column in dataset
# google.dataset.out <- translate(dataset = enron,
#                                 content.field = 'email',
#                                 google.api.key = my.api.key,
#                                 source.lang = 'en',
#                                 target.lang = 'de')
# 
# # Google, translate vector
# google.vector.out <- translate(content.vec = enron$email,
#                                google.api.key = my.api.key,
#                                source.lang = 'en',
#                                target.lang = 'de')
# 
# # Microsoft, translate column in dataset
# google.dataset.out <- translate(dataset = enron,
#                                 content.field = 'email',
#                                 microsoft.client.id = my.client.id,
#                                 microsoft.client.secret =
#                                           my.client.secret,
#                                 source.lang = 'en',
#                                 target.lang = 'de')
# 
# # Microsoft, translate vector
# google.vector.out <- translate(content.vec = enron$email,
#                                microsoft.client.id = my.client.id,
#                                microsoft.client.secret =
#                                          my.client.secret,
#                                source.lang = 'en',
#                                target.lang = 'de')
# ## End(Not run)