Microsoft Translate Text Stopped Working - PHP - php

Question

I've been using this library to translate text using Microsoft cognitive translator.
PHP Microsoft Translate package
I have an Azure account and I think my endpoints and keys are still valid. I had not changed anything in the interim, although I have the "free" package.
The code I had actually translate multiple languages and worked fine before. For some reason it STOPPED working in the recently. I edited the post to set:
$host = "https://api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com", thank you (typo).
It actually does work if I set $text to something simple like:
$text = 'Guten Morgen! Mit Corona zusammenraufen.Milde gesagt: Es sind keine besonders beruhigenden Nachrichten.';
returns English:
{"text":"Good morning! To put it mildly, it's not particularly reassuring news.","to":"en"}
If I slightly lengthen the string to:
$text = 'Guten Morgen! Mit Corona zusammenraufen. Milde gesagt: Es sind keine besonders beruhigenden Nachrichten. Milde gesagt: Es sind keine besonders beruhigenden Nachrichten.';
I get a:
failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
This worked previously with much longer strings for input. I have a "free" plan with Azure. Is it possible that there is now a limit to string length with my Azure account ?
The code that I have is. There is some extra stuff for putting the translations into a database.
$key = 'MicrosoftKEY';
$host = "https://api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com";
$path = "/translate?api-version=3.0";
$languages = $data['languagearray']; // array of languages to translate to.
$params = '&from=' . $data["from"] ; // language to translate from
foreach ($languages as $language) {
$params .= "&to=" . $language;
}
$params .= "&textType=html";
$text = $data["text"]; // text to translate
if (!function_exists('com_create_guid')) {
function com_create_guid() {
return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0x0fff ) | 0x4000,
mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff )
);
}
}
// function to return the translated text, seem below, $json = jsonp_decode($result, true)[0]["translations"];
function Translate ($host, $path, $key, $params, $content) {
$headers = "Content-type: application/json\r\n" .
"Content-length: " . strlen($content) . "\r\n" .
"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n" .
"X-ClientTraceId: " . com_create_guid() . "\r\n";
// NOTE: Use the key 'http' even if you are making an HTTPS request. See:
// http://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php
$options = array (
'http' => array (
'header' => $headers,
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $content
)
);
$context = stream_context_create ($options);
$result = file_get_contents ($host . $path . $params, false, $context);
echo $result;
return $result;
}
$requestBody = array (
array (
'Text' => $text,
),
);
function jsonp_decode($jsonp, $assoc = false) { // PHP 5.3 adds depth as third parameter to json_decode
if($jsonp[0] !== '[' && $jsonp[0] !== '{') { // we have JSONP
$jsonp = substr($jsonp, strpos($jsonp, '('));
}
return json_decode(trim($jsonp,'();'), $assoc);
}
$content = json_encode($requestBody);
$result = Translate ($host, $path, $key, $params, $content);
// Note: We convert result, which is JSON, to and from an object so we can pretty-print it.
// We want to avoid escaping any Unicode characters that result contains. See:
// http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php
$json = jsonp_decode($result, true)[0]["translations"];
$conn = DatabaseFactory::getFactory()->getConnection();
foreach ($json as $language) {
$query = 'UPDATE kronen_translations SET translated_text = ? WHERE language_code = ?';
$parameters = [$language['text'], $language['to']];
$stmt = $conn->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute($parameters);
echo $language['to'] . '<br>';
echo $language['text'] . '<br>';
}

Answer 1

I did a little bit more investigation and eventually opened up a ticket with Microsoft Cognitive Services. The script as it is / was was working fine a few months ago, and I was actually translating a couple of paragraphs into about 40 different languages (almost all that they support) using a bundled call single call and I would get a response back having all of the translations. This was working fine before.
However, there is a character limits for API requests for the Translation Services:
See: Request limits for Translator Text
"Each translate request is limited to 5,000 characters, across all the target languages you are translating to. For example, sending a translate request of 1,500 characters to translate to 3 different languages results in a request size of 1,500x3 = 4,500 characters, which satisfies the request limit. You're charged per character, not by the number of requests. It's recommended to send shorter requests."
With 40 different languages and a couple of paragraphs having a few hundred characters I was over the limit. After trading e-mails with MS support it turns out that the API request limit was not being enforced for part of last year and recently due to a bug on their end, and they fixed it recently apparently.
Just for reference, the old code was something like the following, with the query string having about 40 or so &to=lang& . . . .
$languages = $data['languagearray'];
$params = '&from=' . $data["from"] ;
foreach ($languages as $language) {
$params .= "&to=" . $language;
}
$params .= "&textType=html";
$text = $data["text"];
if (!function_exists('com_create_guid')) {
function com_create_guid() {
return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0x0fff ) | 0x4000,
mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff )
);
}
}
function Translate ($host, $path, $key, $params, $content) {
$headers = "Content-type: application/json\r\n" .
"Content-length: " . strlen($content) . "\r\n" .
"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n" .
"X-ClientTraceId: " . com_create_guid() . "\r\n";
// NOTE: Use the key 'http' even if you are making an HTTPS request. See:
// http://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php
$options = array (
'http' => array (
'header' => $headers,
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $content
)
);
$context = stream_context_create ($options);
$result = file_get_contents ($host . $path . $params, false, $context);
echo $result;
return $result;
}
$requestBody = array (
array (
'Text' => $text,
),
);
function jsonp_decode($jsonp, $assoc = false) { // PHP 5.3 adds depth as third parameter to json_decode
if($jsonp[0] !== '[' && $jsonp[0] !== '{') { // we have JSONP
$jsonp = substr($jsonp, strpos($jsonp, '('));
}
return json_decode(trim($jsonp,'();'), $assoc);
}
$content = json_encode($requestBody);
$result = Translate ($host, $path, $key, $params, $content);
// Note: We convert result, which is JSON, to and from an object so we can pretty-print it.
// We want to avoid escaping any Unicode characters that result contains. See:
// http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php
$json = jsonp_decode($result, true)[0]["translations"];
$conn = DatabaseFactory::getFactory()->getConnection();
foreach ($json as $language) {
$query = 'UPDATE kronen_translations SET translated_text = ? WHERE language_code = ?';
$parameters = [$language['text'], $language['to']];
$stmt = $conn->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute($parameters);
echo $language['to'] . '<br>';
echo $language['text'] . '<br>';
}
You are allowed to make bundled calls like that, and then decode the results that you get back.
The solution was to make a series of calls (one at a time in this case), one for each language and then process the results in series. The new code is something like this. There might be a better way, but at least this way I can process reasonably sized chunks of text. It just takes a bit of time to run the script for 40 or so languages, although still only my 30 seconds, depending upon the size of the text.
function Translate ($host, $path, $key, $params, $content) {
$headers = "Content-type: application/json\r\n" .
"Content-length: " . strlen($content) . "\r\n" .
"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: $key\r\n" .
"X-ClientTraceId: " . com_create_guid() . "\r\n";
// NOTE: Use the key 'http' even if you are making an HTTPS request. See:
// http://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php
$options = array (
'http' => array (
'header' => $headers,
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $content
)
);
$context = stream_context_create ($options);
$result = file_get_contents ($host . $path . $params, false, $context);
echo $result;
return $result;
}
function jsonp_decode($jsonp, $assoc = false) { // PHP 5.3 adds depth as third parameter to json_decode
if($jsonp[0] !== '[' && $jsonp[0] !== '{') { // we have JSONP
$jsonp = substr($jsonp, strpos($jsonp, '('));
}
return json_decode(trim($jsonp,'();'), $assoc);
}
$key = 'xxxxx';
$host = "https://api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com";
$path = "/translate?api-version=3.0";
$languages = $data['languagearray'];
// print_r($languages);
$conn = DatabaseFactory::getFactory()->getConnection();
$text = $data["text"];
foreach ($languages as $language) {
$params = '&from=' . $data["from"] ;
$params .= "&to=" . $language;
$params .= "&textType=html";
$text = $data["text"];
$requestBody = array (
array (
'Text' => $text,
),
);
$content = json_encode($requestBody);
$result = Translate ($host, $path, $key, $params, $content);
$json = jsonp_decode($result, true)[0]["translations"];
foreach ($json as $language) {
$query = 'UPDATE kronen_translations SET translated_text = ? WHERE language_code = ?';
$parameters = [$language['text'], $language['to']];
$stmt = $conn->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute($parameters);
echo $language['to'] . '<br>';
echo $language['text'] . '<br>';
}