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.

Automatisk gjenkjenning

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 Filformat is correct before creating the component.

Translation types capabilities

Capabilities of all supported formats

Format

Linguality [1]

Plurals [2]

Descriptions [3]

Context [4]

Location [5]

Flags [8]

Additional states [6]

GNU gettext PO (Portable Object)

bilingual

ja

ja

ja

ja

yes [9]

needs editing

Monolingual gettext

mono

ja

ja

ja

ja

yes [9]

needs editing

XLIFF

begge

ja

ja

ja

ja

ja

needs editing, approved

Java-egenskaper

begge

nei

ja

nei

nei

nei

draggable/i18n lang files

mono

nei

ja

nei

nei

nei

GWT-egenskaper

mono

ja

ja

nei

nei

nei

Joomla translations

mono

nei

ja

nei

ja

nei

Qt Linguist .ts

begge

ja

ja

nei

ja

ja

needs editing

Android string resources

mono

ja

yes [7]

nei

nei

ja

Apple iOS-strenger

begge

nei

ja

nei

nei

nei

PHP-strenger

mono

no [10]

ja

nei

nei

nei

JSON files

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

i18next JSON files

mono

ja

nei

nei

nei

nei

go-i18n JSON files

mono

ja

ja

nei

nei

nei

gotext JSON files

mono

ja

ja

nei

ja

nei

ARB File

mono

ja

ja

nei

nei

nei

WebExtension JSON

mono

ja

ja

nei

nei

nei

.NET resource files (RESX, RESW)

mono

nei

ja

nei

nei

ja

ResourceDictionary files

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

ja

CSV files

begge

nei

ja

ja

ja

nei

needs editing

YAML files

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

Ruby YAML files

mono

ja

nei

nei

nei

nei

DTD files

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

Flat XML files

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

ja

Windows RC files

mono

nei

ja

nei

nei

nei

Excel Open XML

mono

nei

ja

ja

ja

nei

needs editing

Metadatafiler for programbutikk

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

Subtitle files

mono

nei

nei

nei

ja

nei

HTML files

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

Markdown-filer

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

OpenDocument Format

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

IDML Format

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

INI translations

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

Inno Setup INI translations

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

TermBase eXchange format

bilingual

nei

ja

nei

nei

ja

Tekstfiler

mono

nei

nei

nei

nei

nei

Stringsdict-format

mono

ja

nei

nei

nei

nei

Fluent format

mono

no [11]

ja

nei

nei

nei

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 or Apple iOS-strenger). 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 Ettspråklig basis-språkfil within Weblate, though the naming might vary in your paradigm.

Additionally this workflow can be extended by utilizing Mellomliggende språkfil 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».

Beskrivelse av kildestreng

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, 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.

Forklaring

The Forklaring on strings can be stored and parsed from a few file formats.

Currently supported only in TermBase eXchange format.

Plassering av kildestreng

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.

Oversettelsflagg

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.

Kontekst

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.

Skrivebeskyttede strenger

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 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) receive any testing. In most cases some thin layer is needed in Weblate to hide differences in behavior of different translate-toolkit storages.

To add support for a new format, the preferred approach is to first implement support for it in the translate-toolkit.