XLIFF#

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

XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) is usually used as bilingual, but Weblate supports it as monolingual as well.

Weblate supports XLIFF in several variants:

XLIFF translation file: Simple XLIFF file where content of the elements is stored as plain text (all XML elements being escaped).
XLIFF with placeables support: Standard XLIFF supporting placeables and other XML elements.
XLIFF with gettext extensions: XLIFF enriched by XLIFF 1.2 Representation Guide for Gettext PO to support plurals.

Translation states#

Changed in version 3.3: Weblate ignored the state attribute prior to the 3.3 release.

The state attribute in the file is partially processed and mapped to the “Needs edit” state in Weblate (the following states are used to flag the string as needing edit if there is a 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.

If the translation string has approved="yes", it will also be imported into Weblate as “Approved”, anything else will be imported as “Waiting for review” (which matches the XLIFF specification).

While saving, Weblate doesn’t add those attributes unless necessary:

The state attribute is only added in case string is marked as needing edit.
The approved attribute is only added in case string has been reviewed.
In other cases the attributes are not added, but they are updated in case they are present.

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

Similarly upon importing such files (in the upload form), you should choose Import as translated under Processing of strings needing edit.

Whitespace and newlines in XLIFF#

Generally types or amounts of whitespace is not differentiated between in XML formats. 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 using flags) by using the weblate-flags attribute. Weblate also understands maxwidth and font attributes from the XLIFF specification:

<trans-unit id="10" maxwidth="100" size-unit="pixel" font="ubuntu;22;bold">
   <source>Hello %s</source>
</trans-unit>
<trans-unit id="20" maxwidth="100" size-unit="char" weblate-flags="c-format">
   <source>Hello %s</source>
</trans-unit>

The font attribute is parsed for font family, size and weight, the above example shows all of that, though only font family is required. Any whitespace in the font family is converted to underscore, so Source Sans Pro becomes Source_Sans_Pro, please keep that in mind when naming the font group (see Managing fonts).

String keys#

Weblate identifies the units in the XLIFF file by resname attribute in case it is present and falls back to id (together with file tag if present).

The resname attribute is supposed to be human friendly identifier of the unit making it more suitable for Weblate to display instead of id. The resname has to be unique in the whole XLIFF file. This is required by Weblate and is not covered by the XLIFF standard - it does not put any uniqueness restrictions on this attribute.

Weblate configuration#

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