---
title: "Export translations"
method: POST
path: "/files-api/v2/projects/{projectId}/locales/{localeId}/file/get-translations"
tags: ["Files"]
---

# Export translations

`POST /files-api/v2/projects/{projectId}/locales/{localeId}/file/get-translations`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.smartling.com`
- URL: `https://api.smartling.com/files-api/v2/projects/{projectId}/locales/{localeId}/file/get-translations`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Temporarily uploads a file, then returns a translated version for requested locales.

This call can be used instead of a standard upload/download if you keep different versions of a file in multiple branches or are triggering rebuilds, and don’t want your files in Smartling to be overwritten by out-of-date versions of a file.

To use the call, you upload a file and identify the Smartling URI where the main version of that file is saved. Smartling will match strings shared between the uploaded file and the main file and return any available translations.

## Path parameters

- `projectId` string, required: Unique identifier of a Smartling project — 9 lowercase alphanumeric characters.
- `localeId` string, required: Locale identifier. Either a 2-letter language code (`en`) or a language-region pair (`en-US`). The language part is always lowercase; the region part is always uppercase.

## Request body `multipart/form-data`

- object
  - `file` string, binary, required: The file contents to upload.
  - `fileUri` string, required: URI path of a source file within a Smartling project.
  - `retrievalType` 'pending' | 'published' | 'pseudo' | 'contextMatchingInstrumented': Determines the desired format for the download. Applies to translated files only. | retrievalType | Description | |---------------|-------------| | pending | Smartling returns any translations (including non-published translations).| | published | Smartling returns only published/pre-published translations.| | pseudo | Smartling returns a modified version of the original text with certain characters transformed and the text expanded. For example, the uploaded string "This is a sample string", will return as "T~hís ~ís á s~ámpl~é str~íñg". Pseudo translations enable you to test how a longer string integrates into your application.| | contextMatchingInstrumented | Smartling returns a modified version of the original file with strings wrapped in a specific set of Unicode symbols that can later be recognized and matched by the Chrome Context Capture Extension.|
  - `includeOriginalStrings` boolean: Specifies whether Smartling will return the original string or an empty string where no translation is available. This parameter is only supported for ANDROID, ARB, GETTEXT, IDML, IOS, JAVA Properties, JSON, QT, STRINGSDICT, XLIFF, XML, and YAML files. If unset, the default is <code>true</code>. | Value | Description | |-------|-------------| | true | If there is no translation, Smartling returns the original string. | | false | If there is no translation, Smartling returns an empty string. |

## Response `200`

OK

## Other responses

- `400`: Provided request parameters are invalid.
- `401`: Provided credentials are not valid.
- `429`: Too many simultaneous API requests.
- `500`: Unexpected error

## Changes

- **2026-10-17** `2cd7a8215799`: 11 breaking, 1 info
  - added the pattern `^[a-z0-9]{9}$` to the `path` request parameter `projectId`
  - added the pattern `^[a-z]{2}(-[A-Z]{2})?$` to the `path` request parameter `localeId`
  - added `#/components/schemas/FileUri` to the `fileUri` request property `allOf` list
  - the response property `response/errors/items/details` became nullable for the status `400`
  - …8 more
- **2026-08-06** `ae422098d9c5`: 1 breaking
  - added the new required request property `file`

[Operation history](https://skmtc.dev/smartling/apis/smartling-rest-api-reference/changes/files-api/v2/projects/:projectId/locales/:localeId/file/get-translations/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/smartling/apis/smartling-rest-api-reference.md) - [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/smartling/apis/smartling-rest-api-reference/llms.txt) - [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/smartling/apis/smartling-rest-api-reference/revisions/e63066e7f5e9?raw)