smartling api 500 job creation failed

Fix Smartling API 500 on job creation

TL;DR

The 500 is on Smartling's side or your payload trips an unhandled case, so validate the payload, retry once, then check their status. First rule out your JSON, a malformed field is the most common trigger. If the payload is clean and it still 500s, wait and retry, then contact support with the request id.

The error

HTTP 500 Internal Server Error
POST /jobs-api/v3/projects/{id}/jobs to 500, no useful body

Fix it

Step 1: Validate your payload against the docs

node -e "const p=require('./job.json'); console.log('jobName' in p && 'targetLocales' in p ? 'required fields present' : 'missing required fields')"

Expected: Required fields are present and types look right.

Step 2: Retry once after a short wait

sleep 30 && curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -X POST -H "your auth header -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @job.json https://api.smartling.com/jobs-api/v3/projects/$SMARTLING_PROJECT/jobs

Expected: A transient 500 often clears on the second try.

Step 3: Check the Smartling status page

curl -s https://status.smartling.com/api/v2/status.json | head -c 200

Expected: You see whether there is an active incident.

Step 4: Retry with a minimal payload to isolate the trigger

node -e "console.log('send jobName plus one target locale only, add fields back until it 500s')"

Expected: You find the field that triggers it, or it works and the original had a bad value.

When to use this

• Smartling job creation returns 500
• The error body is empty or generic

When NOT to use this

• The API returns 400, that is your payload, fix the named field
• The API returns 401, that is auth

Tool and version compatibility

• Smartling Jobs API v3
• Check status.smartling.com during incidents

Variant phrasings

500 on file upload instead of job creation

Same approach. Try a tiny test file first to separate payload from service issues.

500 only for one project

Something about that project's config trips it. Compare settings with a working project.

Why it happens

A 500 means the server failed handling the request. With translation APIs that is usually either a transient backend hiccup or one specific payload shape the backend does not handle, like an unusual locale code or a duplicate job name.

Edge cases

• Always capture the request id or timestamp for support, 500s without it are hard to trace
• Do not retry in a tight loop, back off or you will look like an attack
• Idempotency: check whether the job was created before retrying, 500s can be ambiguous

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstLDPtBunEvFKSJmekFhxMg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstLDPtBunEvFKSJmekFhxMg

Thread query: smartling api 500 job creation failed

TL;DR: The 500 is on Smartling's side or your payload trips an unhandled case, so validate the payload, retry once, then check their status. First rule out your JSON, a malformed field is the most common trigger. If the payload is clean and it still 500s, wait and retry, then contact support with the request id.