Localization file formats¶
Weblate supports a wide range of translation formats. Each format is slightly different and provides a different set of capabilities.
Hint
When choosing a file format for your application, it’s better to stick some well established format in the toolkit/platform you use. This way your translators can additionally use whatever tools they are used to, and will more likely contribute to your project.
See also
Automatic detection¶
Weblate tries to detect file format during Adding translation projects and components. The detection might be wrong for different variants of the same serialization format (JSON, YAML, properties) or file encoding, so please verify that File format is correct before creating the component.
Translation types capabilities¶
Format |
Linguality [1] |
Plurals [2] |
Descriptions [3] |
Context [4] |
Location [5] |
Flags [8] |
Additional states [6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bilingual |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes [9] |
needs editing |
|
mono |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes [9] |
needs editing |
|
both |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
needs editing, approved |
|
both |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
yes |
no |
yes |
no |
||
both |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
yes |
needs editing |
|
mono |
yes |
yes [7] |
no |
no |
yes |
||
both |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no [10] |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
yes |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
||
both |
no |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
needs editing |
|
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
||
mono |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
needs editing |
|
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
bilingual |
no |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
||
mono |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
no |
||
mono |
no [11] |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
Bilingual and monolingual formats¶
Both monolingual and bilingual formats are supported. Bilingual formats store two languages in single file—source and translation (typical examples are GNU gettext PO (Portable Object), XLIFF 1.1 and 1.2 or Apple iOS strings). On the other side, monolingual formats identify the string by ID, and each language file contains only the mapping of those to any given language (typically Android string resources). Some file formats are used in both variants, see the detailed description below.
For correct use of monolingual files, Weblate requires access to a file containing complete list of strings to translate with their source—this file is called Monolingual base language file within Weblate, though the naming might vary in your paradigm.
Additionally this workflow can be extended by utilizing Intermediate language file to include strings provided by developers, but not to be used as is in the final strings.
String states¶
Many file formats only differentiate “Untranslated” and “Translated” strings. With some formats it is possible to store more fine-grained state information, such as “Needs editing” or “Approved”.
Source string description¶
Source string descriptions can be used to pass additional info about the string to translate.
Several formats have native support for providing additional info to translators (for example XLIFF 1.1 and 1.2, GNU gettext PO (Portable Object), WebExtension JSON, CSV files, Excel Open XML, Qt Linguist .ts, go-i18n JSON files, gotext JSON files, ARB File, .NET resource files (RESX, RESW)). Many other formats extract closest comment as source string description.
Explanation¶
The Explanation on strings can be stored and parsed from a few file formats.
Currently supported only in TermBase eXchange format.
Source string location¶
Location of a string in source code might help proficient translators figure out how the string is used.
This information is typically available in bilingual formats where strings are extracted from the source code using tools. For example GNU gettext PO (Portable Object) and Qt Linguist .ts.
Translation flags¶
Translation flags allow customizing Weblate behavior. Some formats support defining those in the translation file (you can always define them in the Weblate interface, see Customizing behavior using flags).
This feature is modelled on flags in GNU gettext PO (Portable Object).
Additionally, for all XML based format, the flags are extracted from the
non-standard attribute weblate-flags. Additionally max-length:N is
supported through the maxwidth attribute as
defined in the XLIFF standard, see Specifying translation flags.
Context¶
Context is used to differentiate identical strings in a bilingual format used in different scopes (for example Sun can be used as an abbreviated name of the day “Sunday” or as the name of our closest star).
For monolingual formats the string identifier (often called key) can serve the same purpose and additional context is not necessary.
Pluralized strings¶
Plurals are necessary to properly localize strings with variable count. The rules depend on a target language and many formats follow CLDR specification for that.
Hint
Pluralizing strings need proper support from the application framework as well. Choose native format of your platform such as GNU gettext PO (Portable Object), Android string resources or Stringsdict format.
Read-only strings¶
Read-only strings from translation files will be included, but
can not be edited in Weblate. This feature is natively supported by few formats
(XLIFF 1.1 and 1.2 and Android string resources), but can be emulated in others by adding a
read-only flag, see Customizing behavior using flags.
Supporting other formats¶
Most formats supported by translate-toolkit which support serializing can be easily supported, but they did not (yet) received any testing. In most cases, an additional thin layer is needed in Weblate to hide differences in behavior of different storages.
To add support for a new format, the preferred approach is to first implement support for it in the translate-toolkit.
See also
File format parameters¶
File format parameters provide a way to configure settings related to the file format. They are configured at component level and allow you to customize how file parsing and serialization are handled.
List of file format parameters¶
Parameter name |
File formats |
Label |
Help text |
|---|---|---|---|
flatxml_key_name |
|
FlatXML key name |
|
flatxml_root_name |
|
FlatXML Root name |
|
flatxml_value_name |
|
FlatXML value name |
|
json_indent |
|
JSON indentation |
|
json_indent_style |
|
JSON indentation style |
Available choices:
|
json_sort_keys |
|
Sort JSON keys |
|
json_use_compact_separators |
|
Avoid spaces after separators |
|
po_fuzzy_matching |
|
Use fuzzy matching |
|
po_keep_previous |
|
Keep previous msgids of translated strings |
|
po_line_wrap |
|
Long lines wrapping |
By default, gettext wraps lines at 77 characters and at newlines. With the Available choices:
|
po_no_location |
|
Do not include location information in the file |
|
xml_closing_tags |
|
Include closing tag for blank XML tags |
|
yaml_indent |
|
YAML indentation |
|
yaml_line_break |
|
Line breaks |
Available choices:
|
yaml_line_wrap |
|
Long lines wrapping |
Available choices:
|