How QCDS Runtime Translation Works for Email and Creator Content

QCDS keeps one authoritative creator-authored source and creates recipient-facing translated derivatives only when needed. Translation is designed to preserve tokens, URLs, HTML structure, and the original source even when the translation service is unavailable.

One Source, Recipient-Specific Output

New Requests freeze one authoritative email-template source set rather than storing a separately editable copy for every language. At delivery time QCDS resolves the recipient's current language and translates the frozen source when the target differs.

The immutable source stays unchanged. Translation produces a delivery derivative, not a replacement for the original creator-authored text.

Sensitive Structure Is Protected Locally First

Before creator content can be sent for translation, QCDS locally replaces protected elements with deterministic placeholders. This protection covers QCDS {{...}} tokens, URLs, and entities. For HTML, QCDS also records the exact tag/attribute structure.

The protection map remains on the Joomla site. After translation returns, QCDS restores the protected values locally and rejects the result if placeholders are missing/duplicated, unexpected protected values appear, or the HTML structure changed.

Exact Local Cache Comes Before a Service Call

QCDS checks its local exact-content translation cache when the proven translation engine/version is known. A valid cache hit can satisfy the request without contacting the central translation service.

If a service call is needed, QCDS uses its registered installation identity and signed translation protocol. The translated response must match the requested source language, target language, content type, protected-source hash, and engine version before QCDS will accept it.

Translation Fails Soft

Translation failure does not corrupt or partially rewrite creator content. Registration, network, service, response-integrity, placeholder, or HTML-structure failures return the untouched source text with a fallback state.

Email-template translation is atomic at the template-bundle level: if the required translated fields are not consistently valid, QCDS renders the exact source-language bundle rather than mixing source-language creator text with target-language template chrome.

Runtime Translation Does Not Rewrite Evidence

Translated email bodies and signer-facing labels are presentation derivatives. QCDS preserves the frozen source, Request snapshot, source field labels, source PDF, signer values, and audit evidence independently from those derivatives.

Community Discussion

Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDS feature? Visit the QC Digital Signature Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.