Translation Microservice

A Go-based microservice that provides text translation via Google Translate API with Redis caching.

Features

• HTTP API for translation requests
• Automatic language detection (when source language is not specified)
• Redis caching with 2-week TTL
• Docker and Docker Compose support for easy deployment
• Health check endpoint

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or higher
• Redis server
• Google Cloud Platform account with Translation API enabled
• Google Cloud service account credentials

Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/translation-service.git
cd translation-service

2. Set up Google Cloud credentials

1. Create a Google Cloud project
2. Enable the Cloud Translation API
3. Create a service account with Translation API access
4. Download the service account key as JSON
5. Save the JSON file as credentials.json in the project root or set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable to point to your credentials file

3. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file based on the example:

cp .env.example .env

Edit the .env file to match your configuration.

4. Run with Docker Compose

This is the easiest way to get up and running:

docker-compose up -d

5. Or run locally

If you prefer to run the service locally:

1. Start a Redis server
2. Install dependencies:

go mod download

3. Run the service:

go run main.go

API Usage

Translate Text

Endpoint: POST /translate

Request Body:

{
  "text": "Hello, world!",
  "source_lang": "en",  // Optional: ISO 639-1 language code
  "target_lang": "es"   // Required: ISO 639-1 language code
}

If source_lang is omitted, the service will auto-detect the source language.

Response:

{
  "translated_text": "¡Hola, mundo!",
  "source_lang": "en",
  "target_lang": "es",
  "cache_hit": false
}

EXAMPLE curl

curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:8080/translate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "Hello, world!",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "target_lang": "es"
  }' \
  -o response.json

Health Check

Endpoint: GET /health

Returns 200 OK if the service and Redis are functioning properly.

Redis Caching

The service caches translation results in Redis with a 2-week TTL (time to live). The cache key is constructed using the source language, target language, and input text.

Deployment Considerations

• For production deployments, consider adding authentication to the API
• Set up proper Redis security (password, firewall, etc.)
• Implement rate limiting to prevent excessive API usage
• Use environment variables for all configuration in production

License

MIT