Contentful: Tags

Introduction

In Contentful, within the framework of the XTM Connect – Contentful plugin, tags are (usually short) optional identifier texts that can be assigned to content items, to make them easier to find and identify. By default, those tags are used to identify target languages into which a particular content item was sent off to XTM Cloud or target languages into which that content item has already been translated and imported back to the CMS. Tags of this kind are not the same as the inline tags that are used to store formatting or other information in a translation segment, when the source text is not plain text.


Tags in use

Setting up

To use tags, they must be enabled globally for an entire Contentful CMS. For this purpose, contact the XTM International Support team and request activation of tags. This takes place in the Clients section of the Contentful administrator panel to which you do not have access.

Add content section

In the Add content tab screen, in the XTM Connect plugin, translation requesters can then, for example, use the Tags filter to search for translation projects with particular tags, using a particular criterion.

Once you hover over the Tags column, for a particular entry, you will see the translation details. Tags are added to content items automatically, in the Add content screen, once a particular entry is sent off to XTM Cloud, and they change according to the translation progress.

IMPORTANT!

Keep in mind that tags are set at entry level only, not at language level.

Tags section

Storing tags

Contentful stores all the tags that have ever been used in content items that have been sent off to XTM Cloud. The use of tags is recorded per environment in a particular Contentful space. To see tags that have been used, go to Settings → Environment settingsTags.

Once there, you will see a list of the tags that have been used in the content submission/import process, via XTM Connect – Contentful, since the option was activated by the XTM International Support team. As you can see, the information listed includes the Tag name, Tag ID, and Date added.

Creating custom tags

You can also create your own tags and apply them to content items independently. Click on the Create Tag button to the right. Enter a Tag name, decide on the Tag visibility and save it. You will be able to add and remove your custom tags in the Content section or filter by them in the Add content section of the XTM Connect plugin.

Content section

In the Content section, in Contentful, you can add tags to, or remove them from, your content items by clicking on the “three dots” icon on the right-hand side of a particular entry and selecting Add or remove tags.

Once there, you can add or remove tags to your liking. However, you can only choose from the tags that have already been used at least once – ones that are listed in the Tags section (Settings → Environment settingsTags).

When we enter a particular content item directly, and go to the Tags section, we can also view currently applied tags or add or remove tags, among the tags that have already been used.