polyglotr | Multilingual Text Translation

Versatile R Package for Text Translation
Seamless integration with multiple free translation services for R users.
_{Ideal for translating text, files, and creating multilingual datasets.}

CRAN | Features | Installation | Usage | Contribution

_{Built by Tomeriko96 and contributors.}

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Shiny Web App
• Usage
• Troubleshooting
• Contribution
• License
• Citation
• Related Projects

Overview

The polyglotr package is a language translation tool for the R programming language. It provides convenient functions to translate text using different (free) translation services. This vignette will guide you through the usage of the package and demonstrate how to translate text and files in various languages.

Currently, the package has functions to communicate with the following services:

• Google Translate API
• Apertium API
• Mymemory API
• Linguee API
• Pons API
• QCRI API
• Wikimedia Translation API

Why polyglotr?

polyglotr offers a streamlined translation experience for R users:

• No API Keys Required - Start translating immediately after installation
• Multiple Services - Access 7 translation services through one interface
• R-Native Integration - Seamlessly incorporate translation into data workflows
• Flexible Usage - Translate single phrases, datasets, or entire files
• Open Source - Community-driven with comprehensive documentation

Features

• Translate text using multiple free translation services
• Batch translation capabilities
• Language detection
• Create translation tables for multiple languages
• File translation
• Easy-to-use interface for different translation APIs
• NEW: Interactive Shiny web application for non-R users

To see which functions are available, please refer to the reference page of the polyglotr package. The reference page provides a comprehensive list of functions available in the package, organized by category.

Additionally, the package includes vignettes that provide more detailed information on how to use the functions in the package.

Installation

System Requirements

• R (>= 3.6.0)
• Internet connection for translation services
• Optional for Shiny app: shiny, shinydashboard, DT

Install Package

# The easiest way is to get polyglotr from CRAN
install.packages("polyglotr")

# Alternatively, install the development version from GitHub
# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("Tomeriko96/polyglotr")

Quick Start

Here's a minimal example to get you started:

library(polyglotr)

# Translate a simple phrase using Google Translate
text <- "Hello, world!"
translation <- google_translate(text, target_language = "fr")
print(translation)

# Translate using Apertium (no API key required)
translation_apertium <- apertium_translate(text, target_language = "es", source_language = "en")
print(translation_apertium)

Shiny Web App

polyglotr includes a web application for translation services, accessible to users without R programming knowledge.

Launching the App

library(polyglotr)
launch_polyglotr_app()
# Or with custom settings
launch_polyglotr_app(port = 3838, launch.browser = TRUE)

App Features

• Multiple translation services: Google Translate, MyMemory, PONS, Linguee, QCRI, Apertium, Wikimedia Cloud
• Language detection
• Dynamic language selection based on service
• User-friendly dashboard interface
• No coding required

Installation Requirements

To use the Shiny app, install these additional packages:

install.packages(c("shiny", "shinydashboard", "DT"))

Usage

To demonstrate the usage of the polyglotr package, let's consider an example where we translate a list of texts into multiple languages using the create_translation_table function.

texts <- c("Hello, how are you?", 
           "I love programming!", 
           "This is a test.")

languages <- c("es", 
              "fr", 
              "de")


create_translation_table(texts, languages)


#>        Original_word                     es
#> 1 Hello, how are you?     ¿Hola, cómo estás?
#> 2 I love programming! ¡Me encanta programar!
#> 3     This is a test.    Esto es una prueba.
#>                           fr                       de
#> 1 Bonjour comment allez-vous?   Hallo, wie geht's dir?
#> 2        J'adore programmer ! Ich liebe Programmieren!
#> 3              C'est un test.        Das ist ein Test.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Translation fails or returns empty results

• Check your internet connection
• Verify the target language is supported by the chosen service
• Some services have rate limits - try again later

Shiny app won't launch

• Ensure required packages are installed: install.packages(c("shiny", "shinydashboard", "DT"))
• Check if the specified port is available

Language detection not working

• Not all services support language detection
• Try using a different translation service

Getting Help

• Package Website
• Reference Manual
• Vignettes
• GitHub Issues

Contribution

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to contribute, please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Citation

If you use polyglotr in your research, please cite it as follows:

Iwan, T. (2023). polyglotr: Multilingual Text Translation in R. R package version 1.0.0.
https://github.com/Tomeriko96/polyglotr

Related Projects

• googleLanguageR: R client for the Google Translation API, Cloud Natural Language API, Cloud Speech API, and Cloud Text-to-Speech API