Fixing UI Translation Service Issue

[nniknam1]

Tool Description

This PR integrates automatic LLM-based translation into NodeBB.
When a user posts a message in a non-English language, NodeBB detects this and sends the content to a remote translation service running on a GPU VM. The service uses a Flask-based API backed by an Ollama LLM to produce a high-quality English translation. The final UI displays the translated message directly underneath the original post in a clear, styled info panel.

This feature improves accessibility, cross-language communication, and supports mixed-language communities without modifying the core posting flow.

How it works:
NodeBB → GPU VM:

1. NodeBB sends POST /translate with the post content.

2. GPU VM responds with:

   { "is_english": false, "translated_content": "…" }

3. Non-English posts are annotated with the translation and rendered in the UI.

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Changes Made

Backend Integration (UI VM – NodeBB)

• Implemented remote translation pipeline in src/translate/index.js.

  • Calls GPU VM endpoint: http://crs-17313-nodegpt-gpu.qatar.cmu.edu/translate.

  • Added try/catch to prevent “fetch failed” from crashing the site.

  • Ensures the output matches NodeBB’s expected data structure:

    [isEnglish, translatedContent]

• Attached translation fields to post data:

  • posts.isEnglish
  • posts.translatedContent

• Updated post creation logic to correctly store translated content in post metadata.

UI Rendering (Frontend)

• Modified public/templates/partials/topic/post.tpl to show translations directly for non-English posts.

• Final UI (no toggle/button):

  • Displays a blue info box under the original content:
    “Translated message: ”

• Ensures visibility only when posts.isEnglish === false.

GPU VM Translation Service (Remote)

(Not part of this repository but required for full functionality)

• Deployed Flask + Ollama translation microservice.
• Nginx reverse proxy (/translate) configured for external access.
• Verified correct integration between UI VM and GPU VM.

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Evidence of Successful Integration

Backend Logs (UI VM)

NodeBB logs confirm successful translation and data flow:

LLM translate debug: {
  original: 'Die ist eine Nachricht auf Deutsch',
  isEnglish: false,
  translated: 'This is a message in German'
}

UI Output

For a German post:

Translated message: This is a message in German

End-to-End Verification

• Posting non-English text triggers translation request to GPU VM.
• GPU VM returns accurate English translation.
• NodeBB renders translated content automatically.
• English posts remain unchanged.
• No errors, crashes, or bad gateway responses.

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Files Modified

• src/translate/index.js
• public/templates/partials/topic/post.tpl
• public/src/client/topic.js (light cleanup to remove unused button logic)

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Summary

This PR delivers full multilingual support by integrating NodeBB with a GPU-accelerated LLM translation service. The solution is resilient, production-safe, and improves user experience by showing translations directly in the UI without additional interaction.

[coveralls]

Pull Request Test Coverage Report for Build 19448429339

Details

• 6 of 17 (35.29%) changed or added relevant lines in 1 file are covered.
• 1 unchanged line in 1 file lost coverage.
• Overall coverage decreased (-0.03%) to 78.477%

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Changes Missing Coverage	Covered Lines	Changed/Added Lines	%
src/translate/index.js	6	17	35.29%

Files with Coverage Reduction	New Missed Lines	%
src/translate/index.js	1	30.43%

Totals
Change from base Build 19390469716:	-0.03%
Covered Lines:	24807
Relevant Lines:	29756

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💛 - Coveralls

[FaizFarooqMoazam]

lgtm

[dkhalifa25]

lgtm