JSON files

Changed in version 4.3: The structure of JSON file is properly preserved even for complex situations which were broken in prior releases.

JSON format is used mostly for translating applications implemented in JavaScript.

Weblate currently supports several variants of JSON translations:

• Simple key / value files, used for example by vue-i18n or react-intl.

• Files with nested keys.

• i18next JSON files

• go-i18n JSON files

• gotext JSON files

• WebExtension JSON

• ARB File

JSON translations are usually monolingual, so it is recommended to specify a base file with (what is most often the) English strings.

Hint

The JSON file and JSON nested structure file can both handle same type of files. Both preserve existing JSON structure when translating.

The only difference between them is when adding new strings using Weblate. The nested structure format parses the newly added key and inserts the new string into the matching structure. For example app.name key is inserted as:

{
   "app": {
      "name": "Weblate"
   }
}

See also

JSON, Updating target language files, Customize JSON output, Cleanup translation files,

Example files

Example file:

{
  "Hello, world!\n": "Ahoj světe!\n",
  "Orangutan has %d banana.\n": "",
  "Try Weblate at https://demo.weblate.org/!\n": "",
  "Thank you for using Weblate.": ""
}

Nested files are supported as well (see above for requirements), such a file can look like:

{
  "weblate": {
    "hello": "Ahoj světe!\n",
    "orangutan": "",
    "try": "",
    "thanks": ""
  }
}

Weblate configuration

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask	langs/translation-*.json
Monolingual base language file	langs/translation-en.json
Template for new translations	Empty
File format	JSON nested structure file