Top 10 reasons digital publishing on Calaméo is best in class

Here on the blog, we show the details of different features that make Calaméo work for you. From virtual libraries to custom viewer themes, we’ve highlighted plenty of ways to bring your digital publications to the next level. But one tool that we haven’t talked about is the Calaméo API and how to use it.

Today we’re taking on the subject of Calaméo’s API. We’ll look at what API is and in particular ways that it can help simplify your digital publishing needs.

Short for Application Programming Interface, an API is the set of protocols that allows a particular program to communicate with a different program. A main advantage of having programs communicate with each other via API is that it removes the need for people to intervene between them.

For example, your business may use software to manage the content of your digital publications and Calaméo to publish them online. By connecting your content management system to Calaméo’s API, you can avoid having to transfer files manually from your software to your Calaméo account for uploading. You can instead configure your software to publish to Calaméo directly.

💡 TIP: To make use of our API, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and code. If you’re not already comfortable with software development, we recommend discussing your specific needs with a professional for best results.

As a PREMIUM or PLATINUM user, you can publish up to 10 documents every 15 minutes or make up to 10,000 requests per hour with our API.

The Calaméo API in practice

It’s easy to see that making smart use of API can be a real timesaver. However, seeing where to get started may not be quite as easy. You might want to use Calaméo’s API if:

• You use your own software for managing content
• You use your own software for managing subscribers
• You use your own monetization system
• You want to monetize your publications on Calaméo

One of our API’s most valuable uses for our publishers is to create a system for selling their digital publications. First, make Subscriber lists to control reader access to their publications. Then, link your publication’s subscriber protections to an external payment program. A simple development will let you collect revenue for individual publications, a series or a period of subscriber access.

How to set up API access

The first step is to be sure you have a Calaméo account! If you don’t yet, you can sign up here for free.

Upgrade your account for API privileges.

Next, create an API key and set its access to the external software you want to connect. This is where you’ll need to begin developing your own code.

Once your API key is configured, all you need to do is consult our list of the Calaméo API’s methods and decide what you need to get done. The exact configuration for publishing, managing subscribers and monetizing content will depend on the programs used by your business.

To sum it up: No matter what you wish to accomplish with your digital publications, Calaméo’s API can be a great resource.

Complete documentation of our API is available in our Developer Resources. Need more help? You can reach us any time at contact@calameo.com.

Publishing your digital materials in different languages can be a rewarding strategy—and sometimes a headache to get right. From translating an entire website to translating social media posts, details matter when managing multilingual content. Since we work in seven languages here at Calaméo, today we’re sharing our best tips for managing multilanguage digital publications.

Set a realistic schedule

First things first: it’s easier to start small with multilingual content than it is to translate every single word you publish. Before beginning to plan, you should know which new language(s) you’ll be using and the audience that you’ll be targeting. For example, imagine your product catalogs are not yet available in the language of a fast-growing market. Providing a translated catalog for users to browse may benefit your online sales.

Once you know which content needs translation, you can update your production schedule. Remember that creating multilingual content requires time and resources! You’ll need to budget time to translate your content, as well as format and publish each version. If you work with outside translation services, request an estimate of time and cost to help stay on track.

Keep content organized

Next, choose the best tools to share your multilingual content. If you’re translating pages of your website, research how your CMS handles different language options. For more substantial content like tutorials, white papers and brochures, our platform makes creating beautiful multilanguage digital publications simple. You can upload PDFs, Powerpoints and more to your account in just seconds.

💡 TIP: Have lots of different languages to get online? Our advanced conversion technology accepts batch uploads of up to 10 files at a time.

Then, think about how you’d like to present your multilingual publications. Group them either by the type of content, like magazines and e-books, or by language. Thanks to the Folders feature on Calaméo, you can easily organize multilanguage digital publications according to your needs. Share a Folder directly with your audience, or embed a convenient Library Widget in your website for viewers to explore.

Update search basics

So your content is translated, formatted, uploaded and organized online—whew! But if you haven’t thought about search, don’t start celebrating just yet. Taking a few minutes to improve the SEO of your multilanguage digital publications gives them greater visibility in the future and can help you meet your goals.

Fortunately, publishing your multilingual content with Calaméo means that you’re already a step ahead. That’s because in any language, all non-private publications are automatically indexed for search engines. By entering a title and description, you can associate your publication with relevant keywords in its language and make it easier for your target audience to find via search.

Consider the context

To publish successful multilingual content, you need to do more than copy and paste. In addition to careful strategy and organization, attention to detail within the overall context creates a seamless reading experience for your audience. A wonderfully produced prospectus in Spanish works best when presented in a Spanish-language publication viewer. Not only is this consistency a must for good UX, it’s also a snap to achieve with the right digital publishing solution.

Our viewer is fully translated and ready for you to use in any of the Calaméo platform’s seven available languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, German and Russian. When you share a link to one of your multilanguage digital publications, the viewer will automatically adapt to the reader’s browser. However, you can add a simple URL parameter to guarantee a specific viewer language:

https://www.calameo.com/calameo/read/0000000017fecd1302942?language=es

Go the extra mile

Although we’re proud of our multilingual platform, we know that our users publish in dozens of different languages every day. As a result, we work hard to offer options like RTL reading mode that make managing multilanguage digital publications smoother. But if there’s something missing to make your translated content really shine, you can add it to our viewer by creating a custom theme.

For example, custom themes allow you to control the tooltip text that labels different buttons in the viewer. That means you can translate the publication viewer into the language of your choice with only a few lines of code, as the tutorial below shows:

Plus, our Elements feature has everything you need to whip up themes in multiple languages built right in to your Calaméo account.

💡 TIP: Access to Elements is an exclusive feature of our PLATINUM plan. To test it out yourself, request a two-week free trial today!

Managing multilanguage digital publications often requires a bigger investment of time and energy than publishing content in just one language. With these tips, you should be ready to tackle translations and enjoy the benefits of a more direct relationship with your audience. Bon courage !

Do you have a great hack for handling multilanguage digital publications? Share it with us on Twitter @calameo!