This module goes against Google's TOS (http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS).
5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers) and shall ensure that you comply with the instructions set out in any robots.txt file present on the Services.
In general, it's not a good idea to tinker and mess with Google code.
Comment | File | Size | Author |
---|---|---|---|
#10 | gtrans.zip | 2.01 KB | John Carbone |
Comments
Comment #1
WeRockYourWeb.com CreditAttribution: WeRockYourWeb.com commentedOk, maybe I made that comment a little hastily. I was just concerned that Drupal users might be affected adversely by using this module. I appreciate the efforts that went into creating this module, as it appears to provide some useful features. But we all know how black and white Google can be when it comes to tinkering with their code. Maybe there's a way we can get permission from them to make these changes?
In fact, Google appears to have a Toolkit, which can be used for Wikipedia pages, among other things, and that allows converting the translation into content. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the technology doesn't appear to be very accurate yet, and they state something about only publishing pages that have at least 50% human translated content.
Comment #2
apadernoThank you for pointing out the issue.
Reading the Google TOS, it seems that nobody can use the Google Translation service if not through the user interface they provide (I guess that means through http://translate.google.com), and not through any script (which includes this module).
Comment #3
ziobudda CreditAttribution: ziobudda commentedHi, it's strange because there are the google translate api: "The Google Translate API lets websites and programs integrate with Google Translate programmatically." and are public: http://code.google.com/intl/it-IT/apis/language/translate/overview.html,
And from "Introduction": "This document is intended for developers who want to write applications that can interact with the Google Translate API. Google Translate is a tool that automatically translates text from one language to another language (e.g. French to English). You can use the Google Translate API to programmatically translate text in your webpages or apps."
M.
Comment #4
apadernoI think that it means applications and third-party websites can use the Google Translate API, which is not what the module is doing (correct me if I am wrong) as it is not using any of the methods reported in http://code.google.com/intl/it-IT/apis/language/translate/v2/getting_sta... or http://code.google.com/intl/it-IT/apis/language/translate/v1/getting_sta... if it would be so, the module would require you set an API key.
Comment #5
rickmanelius CreditAttribution: rickmanelius commentedSo if I write my own functions to communicate with google translate, it's ok. If I use a module that writes those functions for me, it's not ok?
How exactly is this module incorrectly using the API if it's simply providing a button to do what google would be doing anyway?
Comment #6
dman CreditAttribution: dman commentedNo rickman, it's not OK for you to write your own functions to progamatically communicate with the front-end interface of Google translate web pages. They tell you not to do that.
This module is not using the provided, documented, recommended and required API at all - it is screen-scraping.
The API is a different channel of communication. A module that wants to link into Google translate must use that channel.
Comment #7
rickmanelius CreditAttribution: rickmanelius commentedOk, so why is this module not using the API instead then? That's how I do it (via getJSON calls with a key and everything). Is this module doing it another way?
Comment #8
dman CreditAttribution: dman commentedYes indeed. That is the problem that has been raised and must be addressed.
If you look at the code, you'll see this module is screen-scraping the HTML
Comment #9
rickmanelius CreditAttribution: rickmanelius commented@dman. Thanks for the explanation. At least I know that the ways I use it are not causing a problem. Hopefully this module could be reworked.
Comment #10
John Carbone CreditAttribution: John Carbone commentedI was bored and thought it would be a cool project so I tore the whole module down and reworked it so you can just go to http://translate.google.com/translate_tools copy the output and paste it into a settings page. Just match the display mode settings in the module with the display mode option you chose on the google form. Adds a block for the inline version, just set the display mode to inline and move the block where you want it. I can't imagine Google would complain about *where* you copy and paste something into your site if they told you to add add it in their instructions. It could use comments and code formatting and whatnot, but it's a fully functional beta anyway. I couldn't see the point in making some giant API, but maybe there's a good reason to, I don't know. What do you guys think of the concept/module? It's got to be the most straightforward approach to this, in my opinion. :) My apologies if someone is working on this already. I wrote the module without even looking at the rest of the issue queue. lol.
Comment #11
John Carbone CreditAttribution: John Carbone commentedCouple things. Security is a concern in the module I posted above. Suggestions?
Also, I just found this project http://drupal.org/project/gtranslate which, from a diff of this module and that one is just a fork of this module, with some minor enhancements. The function names didn't even change. One of the committers on this project just opened a new project and kept going with this. Looks like there are 20,000 people violating the Google Terms of Service because of it. Am I getting this right or have I entered an alternate universe? Are we positive about the TOS issue? If so, I don't know what to say. Can opened, worms everywhere.
Comment #12
3olution CreditAttribution: 3olution commentedIts about time that Google writes there own modules for Drupal,
so that the confusions have an end.
Drupal has now gotten so big, and important,
that even Google cant ignore it anymore.
Also is Google known to highly support the the open source community,
so we don't see there a big problem that Google could have with Drupal.
Did somebody asked Google for there help in this specific case?
If not, it would be wise to do so.
We are pretty sure, Goggle will be very supportive.
Most of Google´s products are based on open source anyhow.
Sincerely
3olution.com
The creative community
Comment #13
mattcasey CreditAttribution: mattcasey commentedThe simplest answer I found to add Google Translate doesn't require a module: create a block and add the code from the link in #10, set the input format to PHP code.
Comment #14
apaderno@#11 To be correct, the maintainer of the GTranslate module, when applied for a CVS account, was said that there was already a project with the same purpose, and decided to apply as co-maintainer; when the owner of this project didn't like him changing the project page content, the co-maintainer created the GTranslate module.
They are two different projects, and the base code is not the same; it was the co-maintainer who changed this module to contain his code. I think I reverted any changes.
Comment #15
apaderno@John Carbone I will take a look to the module you wrote. If you want, I can make you a co-maintainer of the project.
If you need any help, I can improve the code where I can improve it.
Comment #16
apadernoI removed the warning I added to the project page, as the link for the Google TOS isn't anymore valid.
Does anybody know what is the correct link for Google TOS, now?
Comment #17
apadernoDid the Google TOS change?
I am asking because from http://www.google.com/accounts/tos, I was redirected to https://policies.google.com/terms, where I was not able to find anything that would say the module isn't correctly using the Google Translate service. The sentences quoted in the IS aren't anymore present in the the page I was redirected to and, for what I can see, in any linked page.
Comment #18
apadernoI can see the quoted sentences in https://policies.google.com/terms/archive/20070416-20120301?gl=US&hl=en, which the old version of the TOS.
Following http://translate.google.com/support/toolkit/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1..., I am redirected to https://support.google.com/answer/9464390?hl=en&visit_id=637804507655380..., where I read:
This means that the only way to translate is through https://translate.google.com/. Still, I have to find a page saying in which way that service can be used.
Comment #19
apadernoI updated the project page and the links it used to show the project was against Google TOS.