Locale: Configuring the Intercom Help Center Connector

Introduction

Simplify the management of your Intercom Online Help articles with Locale. Unleash the power of simplicity in translation with designed to optimize project managers' efforts, this connector synchronizes published Intercom Online Help Articles and your dedicated translation systems seamlessly. Watch as your articles can automatically undergo automated localization steps to either MT engines, TMS systems, or directly to your LSP or translation agency, freeing your team to focus on strategy and growth.


What you will need to get started

  1. The Login link for Locale.

  2. The login link for your Intercom instance.

    1. Note: This is provided to you by your Intercom account manager, support team, or contact person. If you are unsure of this information, please contact your system administrator or your Intercom representative.

  3. User login information for both your Locale instance, and your Intercom instance.

    1. A trial account of Locale can also be taken for free by going to locale.to and selecting the Get Started button.


Supported content types

At the time of this publication (August 2023) the Intercom Help Center Connector supports the following content.

  • Published content from the articles and collections sections of your Intercom Help Center instance. These can includes published pieces which are part of a collection, or are stand alone articles.

  • Draft content will not be accessed for translation.

More information on this can be found in our articles for Locale: Creating an Intercom Help Center localization project – basic and Locale: Creating an Intercom Help Center localization project – advanced.


Limitations

At the time of this publication (August 2023) there are the following limitations on the side of Intercom.

  • When adding new languages for multi-lingual support to your Intercom Help Center, it is necessary to first add these languages in the Settings tab, as well as manually enter a Page Title under Settings → Content → Header Content section.

Intercom - Lang Selection 001.png
  • This content cannot and will not be translated by a Locale project; see below and in our article on Creating an Intercom Help Center localization project

  • Settings → Content → Welcome Message: This section contains invisible placeholder text, and cannot be accessed by Locale for translation. This means, if the text fields are left empty in your Intercom instance, they will automatically be populated with content such as “Advice and answers from the [Company Name] Team”.

Intercom - Heading Content 001.png
  • This content is translated automatically by Intercom, though the source is not known as this is not done by Locale or Lang Connector.


At the time of this publication (August 2023) there are the following limitations on the side of Locale.

  • To enable content for translation into different languages in your Intercom Help Center, it is necessary to first add these languages under the Articles → Settings → General section.

  • As mentioned above, when adding new languages to your Intercom Help Center, the text field under Settings → Content → Header for Page Title must be manually populated with content. Otherwise, this language cannot be successfully added and saved in the Intercom instance, which means Locale cannot process the translation request.


Configuring the Intercom Connector

Please be sure you have read the content above, or in our article on Locale: Prerequisites & limitations for the Intercom Help Center Connector before proceeding with configuring the Intercom Help Center Connector.

  1. Start by accessing and logging into Locale with your username and password.

  2. Once logged into Locale (instructions on that can be found Locale: Accessing your Locale instance), we are greeted with our Dashboard, which looks something like this image below.

  1. Next, select the Add Project button from the dashboard. This will populate a list of connectors which can be used for our project. From this list, start by selecting the Customer Success filter option from the list on the left side, and choose Create Project under Intercom Help Center.

  1. Next, Locale will require you to log into Intercom in order to connect your Intercom Help Center and Locale instances.

    1. It is best to access with an admin user and password to guarantee the correct level of read and write access. This can be a dedicated user, but does not need to be.

  1. From here, you can confirm the Intercom Help Center instance being connected, and authorize Locale to be able to access the content for translation.

  1. Once the access has been given, a screen like the below will appear to indicate the systems are synchronizing the connection is successful.

  1. The next steps are to continue with creating a project in locale.


Creating an Intercom Help Center localization project

After configuring the Intercom connector to your Locale instance with the steps above, you are ready to create a translation project in Locale.

  1. Start by selecting the source and target languages for your project, and select Add Project.

The target languages must also be enabled in the Article settings of your Intercom Help Center instance for the translations to be processed properly. If you have not done this already and need some help, see our article on Adding languages to your Intercom Help Center instance or Locale: Prerequisites & limitations for the Intercom Help Center Connector

  1. Locale will automatically connect to your Intercom Help Center instance, and perform an analysis on the content that needs to be translated.

  1. Once the content has been analyzed, Locale will display the number of words and segments which require translation.

  1. Choose the Push Content button in the top right corner of the page to choose the translation resource you would like to use: TMS, Contact Person, or MT engine. (Our example shows translation with MT) and push the content for translation.

  1. Locale will automatically begin the translation process according to the selected resource, and show the In Progress status.

  1. When the translations are complete, Locale will update the status with the Complete status indicator, and place all of the translated content back into your Intercom Help Center articles.

  1. For more information on project creation options, see our article on Locale: Creating an Intercom Help Center localization project – basic and Locale: Creating an Intercom Help Center localization project – advanced.