How to Google translate from French to English? - html

Question

With Google Translate, the French to English is not returning the correct values when using the code below.
If I manually use the Google Translate app I get the correct translation.
For example;
From code of "salle de l'émetteur", returns "director's room".
From the Google Translate app, correctly returns "transmitter room".
If I inspect the elements in the Google Translate app, I see the correct translation at
span class="tlid-translation translation" lang = "en"
I can't figure out how to get this "innertext" from 'span title class'
Is there a way to get the translation from
span class="tlid-translation translation" lang = "en"'
instead of
objDivs = objHTML.getElementsByTagName("div"), objDiv.className = "t0"
Public Function Translate(strInput As String, strSourceLng As String, strTargetLng As String) As String
Dim strURL As String
Dim objHTTP As Object
Dim objHTML As Object
Dim objDivs As Object
Dim objDiv As Object
Dim strTranslated As String
' send query to web page
strURL = "https://translate.google.com/m?hl=" & strSourceLng & _
"&sl=" & strSourceLng & _
"&tl=" & strTargetLng & _
"&ie=UTF-8&prev=_m&q=" & strInput
Set objHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP") 'late binding
objHTTP.Open "GET", strURL, False
objHTTP.setRequestHeader "User-Agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)"
objHTTP.send ""
' create an html document
Set objHTML = CreateObject("htmlfile")
With objHTML
.Open
.Write objHTTP.responseText
.Close
End With
Set objDivs = objHTML.getElementsByTagName("div")
For Each objDiv In objDivs
If objDiv.className = "t0" Then
strTranslated = objDiv.innerText
If strTranslated <> "" Then
Translate = strTranslated
End If
End If
Next objDiv
Set objHTML = Nothing
Set objHTTP = Nothing
End Function

Answer 1

If you use early bound html document i.e. MSHTML.HTMLDocument then you get access to querySelector and can try using css selectors to target that element
e.g.
Dim html As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Set html = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
html.body.innerHTML = objHTTP.responseText
Debug.Print html.querySelector(".translation[lang=en]").innerText
Requires VBA>Tools>References> Add reference to Microsoft HTML Object Library.
This assumes the translation is in the .innerText. It would help to share the relevant part of the response showing the translation.

Answer 2

Thanks QHarr,
I tried your recommendation, but get error 91 "Object variable or With block not set"... I must be missing something or it's just not clear to me.
Maybe the translation issue is with "XMLHTTP" because it seems to return the same translation results when you use try the =Translate(A1,"fr","en") to a cell in Excel.
I did however try your recommendation Excel vba Translate IE.Document empty
and this does return the correct translated response "salle de l'émetteur" now = "transmitter room" with ie.navigate2 "https://translate.google.com/#" & "fr" & '/' & "en" & "/" & str". However, this method is too slow to translate worksheets, since I need to translate worksheets 60 rows x 36 cols.
I tweaked your code up so that it will open IE and then loop through each cell with just the one IE (Goggle Translate) window open, instead of open/close the window for each cell data translation. Works super quick in comparison. I just need to figure out timing issues because it's doesn't always put the correct data to the cells when it fetches the translation from Google Translate.
I sometimes get a 'run time error' at MyStrings = ie.document.querySelector (".translation").innerText because it's empty. So I added a dwell time to the process. It seems that <0.5 sec not long enough but seems to work at >0.8 sec per translated cell.
At least it's a step in the right direction. I'll keep playing with the timing to optimize the process, unless there's some other workable solutions or recommendations.
So after play around with this, my crud code below seems to be doing the job and seem to translate faster...so far!
Function Translate_fr_en()
'***This function loops through an array called Data0 loaded with all the values of the worksheet "Translate_Sheet".
' It translates each row of select columns to a mirror image temp worksheet called "Temp".
' It skip past columns not requiring translations since the values are numeric.
Dim str, strTranslated, TempStr As String
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim i, ii As Integer
Dim col As Integer
Dim LastRow As Integer
Dim ie As Object
Dim Flag As Boolean
Set wb = ThisWorkbook
Set ws = wb.Sheets("Temp")
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
rcount = 3 'Temp worksheet row counter
ii = 0 'array row counter
lrow = wb.Sheets("Translate_Sheet").UsedRange.rows.count 'worksheet requiring translation
LastRow = lrow - 2
With ie
For col = 1 To 36
Select Case col
Case 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 18, 21, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36 'Selected columns containing text to translate...other columns not need translation because of numeric values
'Translate columns with text values requiring translation
Do Until ii = LastRow '# of rows
i = col - 1
str = Data0(i, ii) '"Translate_Worksheet" worksheet data preloaded into Data0() array
If str = "" Then 'If blank row than do nothing and skip translation
ii = ii + 1 'Array row counter
Else 'then translate columns with text
skip:
.navigate2 "https://translate.google.com/#" & "fr" & "/" & "en" & "/" & str
While .busy Or .readystate < 4: DoEvents: Wend
If Flag = False Then
Application.Wait (Now + timevlue("0:00:01") / 1.3) 'wait 0.769 second for the first tanslation otherwise returns blank value
Flag = True
End If
strTranslated = ie.document.querySelector(".translation").innerText 'get translated text
'String comparison...if translated text has "..." at the end of string do again.
If strTranslated = CStr(TempStr & "...") Then
GoTo skip
End If
ws.Cells(rcount, col) = strTranslated 'load cell with translation
TempStr = ws.Cells(rcount, col) 'TempStr is temp string to hold value for comparison
rcount = rcount + 1
End If
Loop
ii = 0
rcount = 3
Case Else 'load Temp worksheet columns with numeric values not requiring translation
ii = 0
rcount = 3
Do Until ii = LastRow
str = Data0(i, ii) 'worksheet data
ws.Cells(rcount, col) = str
ii = ii + 1
rcount = rcount + 1
Loop
ii = 0
rcount = 3
End Select
Next col
End With
Set ie = Nothing
End Function