Storing and Retrieving the Plug-in Settings

The settings configured through the plug-in user interface, see Implementing the Plug-in User Interface, must also be stored and retrieved programmatically. This chapter shows how to implement a separate class for storing the plug-in settings. The settings are stored in an .sdlproj or .sdltlp file.

Implement the Class for Handling the Plug-in Settings

Add a helper class named ListTranslationOptions to the project. The plug-in template does not include this class.

Define the Translation Method

First, define the TranslationMethod that best fits the translation provider. The translation method could be translation memory, machine translation, pseudo-translation, or another type. A delimited list is similar to a basic TM, so you could choose TranslationMemory. However, to distinguish this plug-in from a standard TM, use the Other option:

public static readonly TranslationMethod ProviderTranslationMethod = TranslationMethod.Other;

Create the Plug-in URI Builder

Each plug-in uses a URI to store and retrieve settings. The following code creates the URI builder object used to store and persist the plug-in settings:

TranslationProviderUriBuilder _uriBuilder;        

public ListTranslationOptions()
{
    _uriBuilder = new TranslationProviderUriBuilder(ListTranslationProvider.ListTranslationProviderScheme);
}

public ListTranslationOptions(Uri uri)
{
    _uriBuilder = new TranslationProviderUriBuilder(uri);
}

The URI property returns the resulting URI, as shown below:

public Uri Uri
{            
    get
    {
        return _uriBuilder.Uri;                
    }
}

Set and Retrieve the Plug-in Parameters

This plug-in implements two string settings: the list file name and path, and the delimiter character. The following public string properties are set by the plug-in user form. Each property uses a private helper method to get or set the corresponding value:

public string ListFileName
{
    get { return GetStringParameter("listfile"); }
    set { SetStringParameter("listfile", value); }            
}

public string Delimiter
{
    get { return GetStringParameter("delimiter");}
    set {SetStringParameter("delimiter", value);}
}

The following method sets a string parameter. It takes the property name and the corresponding value as string parameters:

private void SetStringParameter(string p, string value)
{
    _uriBuilder[p] = value;
}

The following method retrieves the value for a specified URI property:

private string GetStringParameter(string p)
{
    string paramString = _uriBuilder[p];
    return paramString;
}

The following example shows what a URI string looks like in this implementation:

listprovider:///?delimiter=;&listfile=C:\temp\sample_list.txt" Enabled="true"

The translation provider plug-in settings are stored in the project file (.sdlproj) or in the project template (.sdltpl) file. These XML-compliant files store project-specific or project-template-specific information. The excerpt below shows how a translation provider appears in a project or template file together with its settings:

<CascadeItem OverrideParent="true" StopSearchingWhenResultsFound="false">
  <CascadeEntryItem PerformConcordanceSearch="true" Penalty="0" PerformUpdate="false" PerformNormalSearch="true">
    <MainTranslationProviderItem Uri="listprovider:///?delimiter=;&listfile=C:\temp\sample_list.txt" Enabled="true" />
  </CascadeEntryItem>
</CascadeItem>

Note

For every project that is created in Trados Studio as well as for each single file that is opened for translation, an *.sdlproj file will be created, which contains the translation providers used for the given project or document, the document(s) to translate, the termbase(s) used, etc.

Putting it all Together

The complete class should look as shown below:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Sdl.LanguagePlatform.TranslationMemoryApi;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Sdk.LanguagePlatform.Samples.ListProvider
{
    /// <summary>
    /// This class is used to hold the provider plug-in settings. 
    /// All settings are automatically stored in a URI.
    /// </summary>
    public class ListTranslationOptions
    {
        public static readonly TranslationMethod ProviderTranslationMethod = TranslationMethod.Other;
        TranslationProviderUriBuilder _uriBuilder;        

        public ListTranslationOptions()
        {
            _uriBuilder = new TranslationProviderUriBuilder(ListTranslationProvider.ListTranslationProviderScheme);
        }

        public ListTranslationOptions(Uri uri)
        {
            _uriBuilder = new TranslationProviderUriBuilder(uri);
        }
       
        /// <summary>
        /// Set and retrieve the name and path of the delimited list file.
        /// </summary>        
        public string ListFileName
        {
            get { return GetStringParameter("listfile"); }
            set { SetStringParameter("listfile", value); }            
        }        

        /// <summary>
        /// Set and retrieve the delimiter character.
        /// </summary>
        public string Delimiter
        {
            get { return GetStringParameter("delimiter");}
            set {SetStringParameter("delimiter", value);}
        }

        private void SetStringParameter(string p, string value)
        {
            _uriBuilder[p] = value;
        }

        private string GetStringParameter(string p)
        {
            string paramString = _uriBuilder[p];
            return paramString;
        }

        public Uri Uri
        {            
            get
            {
                return _uriBuilder.Uri;                
            }
        }
    }
}