Using the Watson Translator package

The /whisk.system/watson-translator package offers a convenient way to call Watson APIs to translate.

The package includes the following actions.

Entity	Type	Parameters	Description
/whisk.system/watson-translator	package	username, password	Package for text translation and language identification
/whisk.system/watson-translator/translator	action	payload, translateFrom, translateTo, translateParam, username, password	Translate text
/whisk.system/watson-translator/languageId	action	payload, username, password	Identify language

Note: The package /whisk.system/watson is deprecated including the actions /whisk.system/watson/translate and /whisk.system/watson/languageId.

Setting up the Watson Translator package in Bluemix

If you're using OpenWhisk from Bluemix, OpenWhisk automatically creates package bindings for your Bluemix Watson service instances.

1. Create a Watson Translator service instance in your Bluemix dashboard.

Be sure to remember the name of the service instance and the Bluemix organization and space you're in.

2. Refresh the packages in your namespace. The refresh automatically creates a package binding for the Watson service instance that you created.

wsk package refresh

created bindings:
Bluemix_Watson_Translator_Credentials-1

wsk package list

packages
/myBluemixOrg_myBluemixSpace/Bluemix_Watson_Translator_Credentials-1 private

Setting up a Watson Translator package outside Bluemix

If you're not using OpenWhisk in Bluemix or if you want to set up your Watson Translator outside of Bluemix, you must manually create a package binding for your Watson Translator service. You need the Watson Translator service user name, and password.

• Create a package binding that is configured for your Watson Translator service.

  wsk package bind /whisk.system/watson-translator myWatsonTranslator -p username MYUSERNAME -p password MYPASSWORD
  

Translating text

The /whisk.system/watson-translator/translator action translates text from one language to another. The parameters are as follows:

• username: The Watson API user name.

• password: The Watson API password.

• payload: The text to be translated.

• translateParam: The input parameter indicating the text to translate. For example, if translateParam=payload, then the value of the payload parameter that is passed to the action is translated.

• translateFrom: A two-digit code of the source language.

• translateTo: A two-digit code of the target language.

• Invoke the translator action in your package binding to translate some text from English to French.

  wsk action invoke myWatsonTranslator/translator \
  --blocking --result \
  --param payload "Blue skies ahead" --param translateFrom "en" \
  --param translateTo "fr"
  

  {
      "payload": "Ciel bleu a venir"
  }
  

Identifying the language of some text

The /whisk.system/watson-translator/languageId action identifies the language of some text. The parameters are as follows:

• username: The Watson API user name.

• password: The Watson API password.

• payload: The text to identify.

• Invoke the languageId action in your package binding to identify the language.

  wsk action invoke myWatsonTranslator/languageId \
  --blocking --result \
  --param payload "Ciel bleu a venir"
  

  {
    "payload": "Ciel bleu a venir",
    "language": "fr",
    "confidence": 0.710906
  }