Upgrade the Plugin from V1 to V2
The Signapse Website Plugin ships two runtime modes on the same script bundle. V1 (the default) plays pre-recorded videos matched to each paragraph. V2 generates the signed video on demand from the paragraph text, so any content on the page can be translated without pre-authoring.
This guide covers the change to your script tag and the behavioural differences to expect once V2 is on.
V1 and V2 are two runtime modes of the same plugin package. You do not need to reinstall or change your app-id. The switch is a single attribute on the script tag.
What changes between V1 and V2
| Area | V1 (legacy) | V2 (latest) |
|---|---|---|
| Video source | Pre-recorded clip served from CDN, matched by a content hash | Generated on demand from the paragraph text via SignStream |
| Content coverage | Only paragraphs whose content matches a pre-authored clip | Any paragraph on the page |
| Welcome video | Static BSL_Welcome / ASL_Welcome placeholder | Generated per language on first mount and on pre-translation language switches; falls back to the V1 placeholder if unreachable |
| Language selection | Fixed to the app’s configured default | Switchable at runtime through the actions menu |
| Fallback | — | V2 falls back to a V1 placeholder if generation fails, so a bad request does not blank the player |
Prerequisites
A version="v2" allow on your app-id. Reach out to the Signapse team before flipping the attribute if you are not sure whether V2 is enabled for your installation.
Step 1 — Flip the version attribute
Add version="v2" to your existing script tag. Nothing else on the tag needs to change.
Before (V1, the default):
<!-- Start of Signapse Web Translation Plugin Script Tag -->
<script src="https://translations.signapsesolutions.com/" app-id="6aa07307-b2ce-4a48-a0d6-b6dd26f824f9" id="signapse"></script>
<!-- End of Signapse Web Translation Plugin Script Tag -->After (V2):
<!-- Start of Signapse Web Translation Plugin Script Tag -->
<script src="https://translations.signapsesolutions.com/" app-id="6aa07307-b2ce-4a48-a0d6-b6dd26f824f9" id="signapse" version="v2"></script>
<!-- End of Signapse Web Translation Plugin Script Tag -->The value is case-insensitive and accepts v2 or 2. If the attribute is omitted or unrecognised the loader falls back to V1 for backwards compatibility.
Step 2 — Verify V2 is active
Open a page with the plugin embedded and check the browser DevTools console. On mount you should see log lines like:
[Signapse] TranslationPlugin: Initialized with version: v2 ...
[Signapse] VideoLoadingStrategy: Using V2 video generationIf the console reports Using V1 video loading after you have added version="v2", confirm the attribute is on the same <script> tag as id="signapse" (the loader reads attributes from that element) and that the script has not been cached by a CDN in front of your page.
On a paragraph that has never had a pre-recorded clip authored for it, V1 will fall back to the welcome placeholder. On V2 that same paragraph should return a generated MP4 within a few seconds.
Behavioural differences to expect
- First-play latency. V2 generates video on demand, so the first play of a paragraph is not instant — expect roughly the same latency as a SignStream translation. Subsequent plays of the same content are cached on the media host.
- Dynamic welcome video. On first plugin load, and when the user switches language before requesting a translation, V2 fetches a per-language welcome video. If the request fails, the player falls back to the static
BSL_Welcome/ASL_Welcomeplaceholder — the plugin does not blank. - Language switching. V2 exposes a language picker inside the actions menu. Selections persist for the rest of the session but do not survive a reload.
- Failure mode. If a V2 generation call fails, the plugin automatically falls back to the V1 code path for that paragraph. You will still see the placeholder rather than an error state.
Rolling back
To revert to V1, remove the version="v2" attribute (or set it to v1) and redeploy. No cache purge, config change, or Signapse-side action is required.
Support
If you have any issues or questions, please contact us at support@signapse.ai.