Localization of your Storyblok CMS

Translating content inside a CMS (content management system) is always challenging when you don't use the right tool. That's why the Lingohub team released a new, updated, and improved Storyblok integration to make the stories translation easier than ever. This article will overview the new opportunities for Lingohub-Storyblok integration and describe how to use it with the most significant productivity.

What is Storyblok?

Storyblok is a headless CMS (content management system) that empowers companies by providing flexible tools for developers and content creators. Released in 2017, it now provides a top-notch content management experience and independence for teams worldwide.

How has Storyblok transformed the content creation process?

Storyblok is a headless CMS, meaning content management and presentation are separate processes. The front and backend are split; users can utilize different frontends (heads) with the same backend code (body). Thus, developers can use any framework and technologies that increase the project's flexibility. Other advantages of the Storyblok are:

• Intuitive interface for content management;
• Simple content structuring with different components and blocks;
• The previous point provides easy scalability and content re-usage - you can re-use the same blocks for different pages;
• Internationalization - Storyblok provides creating different language versions of your content;
• Versioning to track changes or roll back to previous versions;
• Simple integration with third-party tools by Storyblok's API-First Approach.

In conclusion, Storyblok is a robust content management system that allows flexible implementation of technical solutions compared to a user-friendly interface, making it a perfect solution for any size company, independent of the technologies they prefer.

5 challenges during the manual CMS localization

In our blog, we already overviewed CMS localization and the ways to do this best, but here, we want to focus on the challenges the companies face during this process if they don't use a supporting solution. Below, we identified five main points that are most complicated to handle:

1. String management. In addition to the content itself, the software always includes various elements like buttons, navigation, pop-ups, notifications, etc. Managing these content strings and maintaining consistency throughout the project can be challenging when the team handles them manually. Managing and organizing strings and building a simple and scalable process for them is nearly impossible without tools created for this task. Something can be lost; others use non-actual versions or missed, etc.
2. Content translation: To translate CMS content without a translation management system, the team should constantly import/export files, which becomes annoying, especially when it is needed to update small changes. Imagine that when you decide to change, for example, a feature name or make some terms translation differ, your team should spend a significant time importing and exporting all the needed files or opening each page and changing them one by one.
3. Collaboration. Localizing CMS content requires the involvement of developers, translators, and often designers, marketers, and QA. Thus, all these people need a transparent communication and collaboration process, which is hard to build from scratch.
4. Multilingual SEO. Besides the content for users, when going to a new market, companies should consider the requirements of the search engines, such as metadata optimization, hreflang preparation, interlinking, etc.
5. Continuous localization. As with any other product, the CMS localization is an ongoing process, and the translation should go in parallel with the development process to have a fast time-to-market. If your translators wait for the ready feature/page/etc. to start the translation, the company will lose precious time. As a localization management platform provider, we know about all these main and other tiny nuances. That's why our team is always focused on processed optimization by their automation.

How does the Lingohub support the Storyblok localization?

Previously, our users had to use the Storyblok import/export abilities to extract data from their workspace. They uploaded the files to Lingohub for translation and then exported and re-uploaded the translated files back to Storyblok. It doesn't sound like the most effective way, does it?

To save our clients time, we built a smooth integration that allows them to connect their Storyblok workspace to Lingohub with a few clicks and pull/push data within seconds. Setting up this authentication is as easy and takes minutes to prepare. You only need to generate an access token and enter it into the Storyblok workspace plugin inside the Lingohub app.

Read our Help Center → How to connect the Storyblok workspace to Lingohub.

Let's overview a few cases that Lingohub-Storyblok integration can successfully cover.

1. Terms consistency keeping. The Lingohub term base can contain all the project-related terms and their translation rules. You can mark the term untranslated or provide preferred/admitted options for translators. The best thing is that the glossary applies to your entire Lingohub workspace, no matter which type of project you created, which means that besides Storyblok content, your other texts, like emails, will use the same terminology.
2. More context. We usually repeat in our blog that context is essential to success. We are not only talking about this but also designed a list of tools aimed at providing it, namely:

• Terms' images and descriptions. Besides the translation inside the glossary, you can add the image that represents the term and helpful information;
• Context images are screenshots of your software so translators can see where exactly the specific text segment is located. To simplify the process, they can be uploaded manually or automatically to Lingohub.
• Segment descriptions that all localization participants can edit — developers in the resource file and translators/managers inside Lingohub Editor.

• Quick "try-on" of new languages. To understand the design changes for a new language, you need to see what it will look like inside current layouts. Waiting until the translation is fully ready isn't a best practice; the more suitable option is to use our AI pre-translation feature. The process will take less than 5 minutes: pull the stories you want to translate inside Lingohub, pre-translate them in a few clicks, and push back. That's all — your pre-translated content will be visible inside Storyblok.
• Simplified quality assurance. Lingohub provides an inbuilt quality check tool that prevents issues with HTML tags, markups, duplications, line breaks, etc. Thus, you can reduce the number of tasks for the QA team, and they can focus on the more essential things that look for human error described.

Let's start right now

It's better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times. That's why we suggest you try all the abilities of Lingohub-Storyblok integration for yourself. Sign up to Lingohub and test all the features and integration for 14 days for free. No credit card is required.

If you need any support or have questions, schedule a demo call. Our team will show you how Lingohub works and provide the best practices for your organization.

Stay awesome!