Embed Google Translate in your Knack app

Hi there, I'm Dave Parrish from Knack Builders, and today I'm excited to share a neat trick with you—embedding Google Translate directly into your Knack app. This method is not only quick but incredibly useful for making your app accessible to a global audience. Let’s dive in!

What You’ll Need

Before we jump into the tutorial, you’ll need a Knack app where you want to add Google Translate functionality. You’ll also need a snippet of code to embed. Don't worry if you're not a coding guru—I’ve got you covered with the code you'll need right here.

Step-by-Step Embedding Guide

Prepare Your Page First things first, open the Knack page where you want to add Google Translate. For this example, let’s assume you're working with a basic page that doesn’t yet have Google Translate embedded.
Add the Code Here’s the magic part. You’ll need to insert a small piece of code into your page. I didn’t write this code myself; I got it from a client who used it for similar projects. I’ll make sure to include this code in the description of the video so you can easily copy it. Once you’ve pasted the code, you’ll see a bunch of code appear. This is perfectly normal. Save your changes and refresh the page to see Google Translate in action.
Go to the back end of your Knack app and open the page where you want to embed Google Translate.
Add a new Rich Text field to your page. It doesn’t matter where you place it, but for clarity, I usually move it to the top.
Click on the HTML button in the Rich Text editor (if you're unfamiliar, this is where you can add custom code).
Paste the code snippet into the HTML editor.
Test the Functionality After refreshing, you should see the Google Translate widget at the top of your page. Try selecting different languages to see how it translates the content. For instance, you can switch to Czech or Arabic and observe how the text changes.
Keep in mind that Google Translate won’t translate images or certain types of charts (like those created with Flash), but it will handle most text-based content.

Why Embed Google Translate?

Embedding Google Translate can be a game-changer for your app. Here’s why:

Global Reach: If your app serves users from different countries, Google Translate helps bridge language barriers. I’ve worked on projects that needed to support users in 27 countries, and this feature was invaluable.
Diverse Communities: In cities like Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where communities are linguistically diverse, having built-in translation capabilities can significantly enhance user experience.

Troubleshooting Tips

You might notice that after you paste the code and save it, the code seems to disappear from the HTML editor. Don’t worry—it’s still working behind the scenes. If you’re tech-savvy and have insights on why this happens, feel free to leave a comment. For now, what matters most is that it works.

Final Thoughts

That’s all there is to it! Embedding Google Translate into your Knack app is a straightforward process that can make a huge difference in how users interact with your app. If you have any questions or run into issues, don’t hesitate to reach out or leave a comment.

Update

About a year or so after this post, Google stopping making this code work. If you already have it installed, it will do the job. But it will not work for new installations.

Google Translate Code:

<p><font size="1" color="red">Translate / Traducir / Tradui</font></p>

function googleTranslateElementInit() {

new google.translate.TranslateElement({pageLanguage: 'en', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.SIMPLE}, 'google_translate_element');

}

</script><script type="text/javascript" src="//translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit"></script>

</p>

You can check out my Knack database services here: https://www.knackbuilders.com/knack-database-consulting

Interested? Book an intro call: https://calendly.com/daveparrish/callwithdave