Alibaba Cloud Machine Translation SDK for Python

3.2.0 verified Mon Apr 27 auth: no python

The Alibaba Cloud Machine Translation (alimt) SDK for Python, part of the Aliyun Python SDK family. Version 3.2.0 provides APIs for text translation, image translation, and document translation. Release cadence is irregular, tied to API updates.

pip install aliyun-python-sdk-alimt

Common errors

error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'aliyunsdkcore' ↓

cause The required core library is missing.

fix

pip install aliyun-python-sdk-core

error aliyunsdkcore.acs_exceptions.error_code: InvalidAccessKeyId.NotFound ↓

cause The provided AccessKey ID or Secret is incorrect or the environment variables are not set.

fix

Ensure ALIBABA_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_ID and ALIBABA_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET are set correctly.

error TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for /: 'str' and 'str' ↓

cause Passing a string to SourceText when using SDK v3.0 incorrectly. The set_SourceText method expects a string correctly.

fix

This error typically occurs if you use the request incorrectly. Ensure you are calling set_SourceText with a plain string, not a dict or list.

Warnings

breaking In v3, the API version suffix changed from v20181012 to v20181012 (no change). However, the package structure was reorganized. If you were using v1 (aliyun-python-sdk-alimt<2.0), you must update imports from 'alimt' to 'aliyunsdkalimt'. ↓

fix Use from aliyunsdkalimt.request.v20181012 import * and install aliyun-python-sdk-core-v3.

gotcha The core library aliyun-python-sdk-core must be installed separately; it does not come as a dependency automatically. Use pip install aliyun-python-sdk-core. ↓

fix pip install aliyun-python-sdk-core

deprecated Attribute 'set_*' methods (like set_FormatType) are being deprecated in favor of direct properties in future versions. Currently both work. ↓

fix Use request.FormatType = 'text' instead of request.set_FormatType('text').

gotcha The API endpoint defaults to 'mt.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com'. If your Region is not cn-hangzhou, you must set the endpoint region explicitly via client.set_region_id('your-region') or AcsClient's third argument. ↓

fix Pass the correct region to AcsClient (e.g., 'ap-southeast-1').

Imports

Alimt
wrong
```
from aliyun_sdk_alimt import Alimt
import alimt
```
correct
```
from aliyunsdkalimt.request.v20181012 import TranslateGeneralRequest
from aliyunsdkcore.client import AcsClient
```
The old path was changed in v2. The correct import uses subpackages based on API version. The top-level package 'aliyunsdkalimt' must be used, not 'aliyun_sdk_alimt'.

Quickstart

Quick start: create an AcsClient with credentials from environment variables, then translate text.

import os
from aliyunsdkcore.client import AcsClient
from aliyunsdkalimt.request.v20181012 import TranslateGeneralRequest

client = AcsClient(
    os.environ.get('ALIBABA_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_ID', ''),
    os.environ.get('ALIBABA_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET', ''),
    'cn-hangzhou'
)
request = TranslateGeneralRequest()
request.set_FormatType('text')
request.set_SourceLanguage('en')
request.set_TargetLanguage('zh')
request.set_SourceText('Hello')
response = client.do_action_with_exception(request)
print(response.decode())