Supported file formats

Weblate supports most translation format understood by the translate-toolkit, however each format being slightly different, there might be some issues with formats that are not well tested.

Примечание

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 use whatever tools they are get used to and will more likely contribute to your project.

Bilingual and monolingual formats

Weblate does support both monolingual and bilingual formats. Bilingual formats store two languages in single file - source and translation (typical examples are GNU Gettext, XLIFF or Apple iOS strings). On the other side, monolingual formats identify the string by ID and each language file contains only mapping of those to given language (typically Android string resources). Some file formats are used in both variants, see 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 application.

Automatic detection

Weblate can automatically detect several widely spread file formats, but this detection can harm your performance and will limit features specific to given file format (for example automatic adding of new translations).

Translation types capabilities

Below are listed capabilities of all supported formats.

Format Linguality [1] Plurals [2] Comments [3] Context [4] Location [5] Flags [8] Additional states [6]
GNU Gettext bilingual yes yes yes yes yes [9] needs editing
Monolingual Gettext mono yes yes yes yes yes [9] needs editing
XLIFF both yes yes yes yes yes [10] needs editing, approved
Java properties both no yes no no no  
Joomla translations mono no yes no yes no  
Qt Linguist .ts both yes yes no yes yes [10] needs editing
Android string resources mono yes yes [7] no no yes [10]  
Apple iOS strings bilingual no yes no no no  
PHP strings mono no yes no no no  
JSON files mono no no no no no  
JSON i18next files mono yes no no no no  
WebExtension JSON mono yes yes no no no  
.NET Resource files mono no yes no no yes [10]  
CSV files mono no yes yes yes no needs editing
YAML files mono no yes no no no  
Ruby YAML files mono yes yes no no no  
DTD files mono no no no no no  
Windows RC files mono no yes no no no  
Excel Open XML mono no yes yes yes no needs editing
App store metadata files mono no no no no no  
Subtitle files mono no no no yes no  
[1]See Bilingual and monolingual formats
[2]Plurals are necessary to properly localize strings with variable count.
[3]Comments can be used to pass additional information about string to translate.
[4]Context is used to differentiate same strings used in different scope (eg. Sun can be used as abbreviated name of day or as a name of our closest star).
[5]Location of string in source code might help skilled translators to figure out how the string is used.
[6]Additional states supported by the file format in addition to not translated and translated.
[7]XML comment placed before the <string> element is parsed as a developer comment.
[8]See Customizing behavior
[9](1, 2) The Gettext type comments are used as flags.
[10](1, 2, 3, 4) The flags are extracted from non standard attibute weblate-flags for all XML based formats. Additionally max-length:N is supported through maxwidth attribute as defined in the Xliff standard.

GNU Gettext

Most widely used format in translating free software. This was first format supported by Weblate and still has the best support.

Weblate supports contextual information stored in the file, adjusting its headers or linking to corresponding source files.

The bilingual gettext PO file typically looks like:

#: weblate/media/js/bootstrap-datepicker.js:1421
msgid "Monday"
msgstr "Pondělí"

#: weblate/media/js/bootstrap-datepicker.js:1421
msgid "Tuesday"
msgstr "Úterý"

#: weblate/accounts/avatar.py:163
msgctxt "No known user"
msgid "None"
msgstr "Žádný"
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask po/*.po
Monolingual base language file Empty
Template for new translations po/messages.pot
File format Gettext PO file

Monolingual Gettext

Some projects decide to use Gettext as monolingual formats - they code just IDs in their source code and the string needs to be translated to all languages, including English. Weblate does support this, though you have to choose explicitly this file format when importing components into Weblate.

The monolingual gettext PO file typically looks like:

#: weblate/media/js/bootstrap-datepicker.js:1421
msgid "day-monday"
msgstr "Pondělí"

#: weblate/media/js/bootstrap-datepicker.js:1421
msgid "day-tuesday"
msgstr "Úterý"

#: weblate/accounts/avatar.py:163
msgid "none-user"
msgstr "Žádný"

While the base language file will be:

#: weblate/media/js/bootstrap-datepicker.js:1421
msgid "day-monday"
msgstr "Monday"

#: weblate/media/js/bootstrap-datepicker.js:1421
msgid "day-tuesday"
msgstr "Tuesday"

#: weblate/accounts/avatar.py:163
msgid "none-user"
msgstr "None"
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask po/*.po
Monolingual base language file po/en.po
Template for new translations po/messages.pot
File format Gettext PO file (monolingual)

XLIFF

XML-based format created to standardize translation files, but in the end it is one of many standards in this area.

XLIFF is usually used as bilingual, but Weblate supports it as monolingual as well.

Translations states

Изменено в версии 3.3: Weblate did ignore the state attribute prior to the 3.3 release.

The state attribute in the file is partially processed and mapped to needs edit state in Weblate (the following states are used to flag the string as needing edit if there is some target present: new, needs-translation, needs-adaptation, needs-l10n). Should the state attribute be missing a string is considered translated as soon as a <target> element exists.

Also if the translation string has approved="yes" it will be imported into Weblate as approved, anything else will be imported as waiting for review (which matches XLIFF specification).

That means that when using XLIFF format, it is strongly recommended to enable Weblate review process, in order to see and change the approved state of strings. See Dedicated reviewers.

Similarly on importing such files, you should choose Import as translated under Processing of strings needing review.

Whitespace and newlines in XLIFF

Generally the XML formats do not differentiate between types or amounts of whitespace. If you want to keep it, you have to add the xml:space="preserve" flag to the string.

For example:

    <trans-unit id="10" approved="yes">
        <source xml:space="preserve">hello</source>
        <target xml:space="preserve">Hello, world!
</target>
    </trans-unit>

Specifying translation flags

You can specify additional translation flags (see Customizing behavior) in using weblate-flags attribute. Weblate also understands maxwidth attribute from the Xliff specification:

<trans-unit id="10" maxwidth="100" weblate-flags="c-format">
   <source>Hello %s</source>
</trans-unit>
Typical Weblate Component configuration for bilingual XLIFF
File mask localizations/*.xliff
Monolingual base language file Empty
Template for new translations localizations/en-US.xliff
File format XLIFF Translation File
Typical Weblate Component configuration for monolingual XLIFF
File mask localizations/*.xliff
Monolingual base language file localizations/en-US.xliff
Template for new translations localizations/en-US.xliff
File format XLIFF Translation File

См.также

XLIFF on Wikipedia, XLIFF

Java properties

Native Java format for translations.

Java properties are usually used as monolingual.

Weblate supports ISO-8859-1, UTF-8 and UTF-16 variants of this format. All of them supports storing all Unicode characters, it’s just differently encoded. In the ISO-8859-1 the Unicode escape sequences are used (eg. zkou\u0161ka), all others encode characters directly either in UTF-8 or UTF-16.

Примечание

Loading of escape sequences will work in UTF-8 mode as well, so please be careful choosing correct charset matching your application needs.

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask src/app/Bundle_*.properties
Monolingual base language file src/app/Bundle.properties
Template for new translations Empty
File format Java Properties (ISO-8859-1)

Joomla translations

Добавлено в версии 2.12.

Native Joomla format for translations.

Joomla translations are usually used as monolingual.

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask language/*/com_foobar.ini
Monolingual base language file language/en-GB/com_foobar.ini
Template for new translations Empty
File format Joomla Language File

Qt Linguist .ts

Translation format used in Qt based applications.

Qt Linguist files are used as both bilingual and monolingual.

Typical Weblate Component configuration when using as bilingual
File mask i18n/app.*.ts
Monolingual base language file Empty
Template for new translations i18n/app.de.ts
File format Qt Linguist Translation File
Typical Weblate Component configuration when using as monolingual
File mask i18n/app.*.ts
Monolingual base language file i18n/app.en.ts
Template for new translations i18n/app.en.ts
File format Qt Linguist Translation File

Android string resources

Android specific file format for translating applications.

Android string resources are monolingual, the Monolingual base language file file is stored in a different location from the others res/values/strings.xml.

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask res/values-*/strings.xml
Monolingual base language file res/values/strings.xml
Template for new translations Empty
File format Android String Resource

Примечание

Android string-array structures are not currently supported. To work around this, you can break you string arrays apart:

<string-array name="several_strings">
    <item>First string</item>
    <item>Second string</item>
</string-array>

become:

<string-array name="several_strings">
    <item>@string/several_strings_0</item>
    <item>@string/several_strings_1</item>
</string-array>
<string name="several_strings_0">First string</string>
<string name="several_strings_1">Second string</string>

The string-array that points to the string elements should be stored in a different file, and not localized.

This script may help pre-process your existing strings.xml files and translations: https://gist.github.com/paour/11291062

Apple iOS strings

Apple specific file format for translating applications, used for both iOS and iPhone/iPad application translations.

Apple iOS strings are usually used as bilingual.

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask Resources/*.lproj/Localizable.strings
Monolingual base language file Resources/en.lproj/Localizable.strings
Template for new translations Empty
File format iOS Strings (UTF-8)

PHP strings

PHP translations are usually monolingual, so it is recommended to specify base file with English strings.

Example file:

<?php
$LANG['foo'] = 'bar';
$LANG['foo1'] = 'foo bar';
$LANG['foo2'] = 'foo bar baz';
$LANG['foo3'] = 'foo bar baz bag';
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask lang/*/texts.php
Monolingual base language file lang/en/texts.php
Template for new translations lang/en/texts.php
File format PHP strings

Примечание

Translate-toolkit currently has some limitations in processing PHP files, so please double check that your files won’t get corrupted before using Weblate in production setup.

Following things are known to be broken:

  • Adding new strings to translation, every translation has to contain all strings (even if empty).
  • Handling of special chars like newlines.

См.также

PHP

JSON files

Добавлено в версии 2.0.

Изменено в версии 2.16: Since Weblate 2.16 and with translate-toolkit at least 2.2.4 nested structure JSON files are supported as well.

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

Weblate currently supports several variants of JSON translations:

JSON translations are usually monolingual, so it is recommended to specify base file with English strings.

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 file can look like:

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

JSON i18next files

Изменено в версии 2.17: Since Weblate 2.17 and with translate-toolkit at least 2.2.5 i18next JSON files with plurals are supported as well.

i18next is an internationalization-framework written in and for JavaScript. Weblate supports its localization files with features such as plurals.

i18next translations are monolingual, so it is recommended to specify base file with English strings.

Примечание

Weblate supports i18next JSON v3 format. The v2 and v1 variants are mostly compatible, with exception of handling plurals.

Example file:

{
  "hello": "Hello",
  "apple": "I have an apple",
  "apple_plural": "I have {{count}} apples",
  "apple_negative": "I have no apples"
}
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask langs/*.json
Monolingual base language file langs/en.json
Template for new translations Empty
File format i18next JSON file

WebExtension JSON

Добавлено в версии 2.16: This is supported since Weblate 2.16 and with translate-toolkit at least 2.2.4.

File format used when translating extensions for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Example file:

{
    "hello": {
        "message": "Ahoj světe!\n",
        "description": "Description"
    },
    "orangutan": {
        "message": "",
        "description": "Description"
    },
    "try": {
        "message": "",
        "description": "Description"
    },
    "thanks": {
        "message": "",
        "description": "Description"
    }
}
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask _locales/*/messages.json
Monolingual base language file _locales/en/messages.json
Template for new translations Empty
File format WebExtension JSON file

.NET Resource files

Добавлено в версии 2.3.

.NET Resource (.resx) file is a monolingual XML file format used in Microsoft .NET Applications. It works with .resw files as well as they use identical syntax to .resx.

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask Resources/Language.*.resx
Monolingual base language file Resources/Language.resx
Template for new translations Empty
File format .NET resource file

CSV files

Добавлено в версии 2.4.

CSV files can contain a simple list of source and translation. Weblate supports the following files:

  • Files with header defining fields (source, translation, location, …). This is recommended approach as it’s least error prone.
  • Files with two fields - source and translation (in this order), choose Simple CSV file as file format
  • Files with fields as defined by translate-toolkit: location, source, target, id, fuzzy, context, translator_comments, developer_comments

Предупреждение

The CSV format currently automatically detects dialect of the CSV file. In some cases the automatic detection might fail and you will get mixed results. This is especially true for the CSV files with newlines in the values. As a workaround it is recommended to avoid omitting quoting chars.

Example file:

Thank you for using Weblate.,Děkujeme za použití Weblate.
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask locale/*.csv
Monolingual base language file Empty
Template for new translations locale/en.csv
File format CSV file

См.также

CSV

YAML files

Добавлено в версии 2.9.

The plain YAML files with string keys and values.

Example YAML file:

weblate:
  hello: ""
  orangutan": ""
  try": ""
  thanks": ""
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask translations/messages.*.yml
Monolingual base language file translations/messages.en.yml
Template for new translations Empty
File format YAML file

См.также

YAML, Ruby YAML files

Ruby YAML files

Добавлено в версии 2.9.

Ruby i18n YAML files with language as root node.

Example Ruby i18n YAML file:

cs:
  weblate:
    hello: ""
    orangutan: ""
    try: ""
    thanks: ""
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask translations/messages.*.yml
Monolingual base language file translations/messages.en.yml
Template for new translations Empty
File format Ruby YAML file

См.также

YAML, YAML files

DTD files

Добавлено в версии 2.18.

Example DTD file:

<!ENTITY hello "">
<!ENTITY orangutan "">
<!ENTITY try "">
<!ENTITY thanks "">
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask locale/*.dtd
Monolingual base language file locale/en.dtd
Template for new translations Empty
File format DTD file

См.также

Mozilla DTD format

Windows RC files

Добавлено в версии 3.0: Experimental support has been added in Weblate 3.0, not supported on Python 3.

Example Windows RC file:

LANGUAGE LANG_CZECH, SUBLANG_DEFAULT

STRINGTABLE DISCARDABLE
BEGIN

IDS_MSG1 "Hello, world!\n"
IDS_MSG2 "Orangutan has %d banana.\n"
IDS_MSG3 "Try Weblate at http://demo.weblate.org/!\n"
IDS_MSG4 "Thank you for using Weblate."
END
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask lang/*.rc
Monolingual base language file lang/en-US.rc
Template for new translations lang/en-US.rc
File format RC file

См.также

Windows RC files

App store metadata files

Добавлено в версии 3.5.

Weblate can translate metadata used for publishing apps in various app stores. Currently it is known to be compatible with following tools:

The metadata consist of several text files which Weblate will present as separate strings to translate.

Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask fastlane/android/metadata/*
Monolingual base language file fastlane/android/metadata/en-US
Template for new translations fastlane/android/metadata/en-US
File format App store metadata files

Subtitle files

Добавлено в версии 3.7.

Weblate can translate various subtile files:

  • SubRip subtitle file (*.srt)
  • MicroDVD subtitles file (*.sub)
  • Advanced Substation Alpha subtitles file (*.ass)
  • Substation Alpha subtitles file (*.ssa)
Typical Weblate Component configuration
File mask path/*.srt
Monolingual base language file path/en.srt
Template for new translations path/en.srt
File format SubRip subtitle file

См.также

Subtitles

Excel Open XML

Добавлено в версии 3.2.

Weblate can import and export Excel Open XML (xlsx) files.

When using xlsx files for translation upload, be aware that only the active worksheet is considered and there must be at least a column called source (which contains the source string) and a column called target (which contains the translation). Additionally there should be the column context (which contains the context path of the translation string). If you use the xlsx download for exporting the translations into an Excel workbook, you already get a file with the correct file format.

Others

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.

Adding new translations

Изменено в версии 2.18: In versions prior to 2.18 the behaviour of adding new translations was file format specific.

Weblate can automatically start new translation for all of the file formats.

Some formats expect to start with empty file and only translated strings to be included (eg. Android string resources), while others expect to have all keys present (eg. GNU Gettext). In some situations this really doesn’t depend on the format, but rather on framework you use to handle the translation (eg. with JSON files).

When you specify Template for new translations in Component configuration, Weblate will use this file to start new translations. Any exiting translations will be removed from the file when doing so.

When Template for new translations is empty and file format supports it, empty file is created where new strings will be added once they are translated.

The Language code style allows you to customize language code used in generated filenames:

Default based on the file format
Dependent on file format, for most of them POSIX is used.
POSIX style using underscore as a separator
Typically used by Gettext and related tools, produces language codes like pt_BR.
BCP style using hyphen as a separator
Typically used on web platforms, produces language codes like pt-BR.
Android style
Used only on Android apps, produces language codes like pt-rBR.

Примечание

Weblate recognizes any of these when parsing translation files, the above settings only influences how new files are created.