how to pass format to google cloud translation API using the client library? - google-translate

Question

We are using google cloud translation API in our express application.
I am trying to do translations using the client library instead of making an API request every time.
1. What I want to know is how to pass the options like format (text or html) to the api while using the client library?
I can achieve this via making http requests using requestjs like this:
var request = require('request');
var url = 'https://translation.googleapis.com/language/translate/v2';
var options1 = {
q: 'amore mio',
target: 'hi',
format: 'text',
source: 'it',
key: 'my API key'
}
request.post({url:url, qs:options1}, (err, res, body)=> {
if(err) {
console.log('ERR: ', err);
}
console.log('RES: ', res.statusCode);
console.log('Body: ', body);
})
But the sample for using client library shows only this:
const {Translate} = require('#google-cloud/translate');
// Your Google Cloud Platform project ID
const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';
// Instantiates a client
const translate = new Translate({
projectId: projectId,
});
// The text to translate
const text = 'Hello, world!';
// The target language
const target = 'ru';
// Translates some text into Russian
translate
.translate(text, target)
.then(results => {
const translation = results[0];
console.log(`Text: ${text}`);
console.log(`Translation: ${translation}`);
})
.catch(err => {
console.error('ERROR:', err);
});
Is there a way I can pass options like 'format' using the client library?
How can I pass an array of strings to the q attribute (querystring) of the options object in the first method? If I pass an array directly like:
q: ['amore mio', 'grazie']
I get an error message :
RES: 400
Body: {
"error": {
"code": 400,
"message": "Required Text",
"errors": [
{
"message": "Required Text",
"domain": "global",
"reason": "required"
}
]
}
}

Answer 1

With respect to question 2 about passing the array of input arguments, this works fine if you use cURL to send the POST request similar to this example. I have tried it myself with success. I have tried to do different manipulations with your code from snipper 1 with the request library, but it seems as if the request library is not passing the array correctly. I would generally suggest using the client library which can successfully handle arrays in the input text.

Answer 2

Okay after a little research I just tried to pass options object with format and other properties (like source and target language) instead of target, and it worked.
So this can be achieved by:
const options = {
to: target,
format: 'html',
prettyPrint: true
}
translate
.translate(text, options)
.then(results => {
const translation = results[0];
console.log('flag: ', Array.isArray(translation));
console.log(`Text: ${text}`);
console.log(`Translation: ${translation}`);
})
.catch(err => {
console.error('ERROR:', err);
});

Answer 3

Use JSON.stringify
`https://translation.googleapis.com/language/translate/v2?q=${JSON.stringify([array]}`