Exporting localizations

Provide the localizable files from your project to localizers.

Overview

Export localizations for the languages and regions you’re ready to support. You can export all the files that you need to localize from your Xcode project, or export the files for specific localizations. Optionally, add files to the exported folders to provide context, and then give the files to localizers.

Export localizations using Xcode

In the Project navigator, select the project, then choose Product > Export Localizations. In the dialog that appears, enter a folder name, choose a location, choose the localizations, and click Export.

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If you generate screenshots when testing your localizations, provide context for localizers by clicking “Include screenshots” to include the localization-specific screenshots in the Notes folder of the exported files. To filter the screenshots, click Customize, deselect the screenshots you don’t want to include, and click Done.

Xcode creates an Xcode Localization Catalog (a folder with a .xcloc file extension) containing the localizable resources for each language and region. You can open and edit this file in Xcode, or use any third-party tool that supports this file type. Xcode manages the localizable strings in your app for you as follows:

Extracts strings from the following file types: source code, storyboard, XIB, .strings, .stringsdict, and Siri intent definition. Adds the extracted strings to a standard XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) that’s familiar to localizers.
Adds the correct .stringsdict plural variants for each exported language to the XLIFF file.
Creates a strings file for the localizable properties in the information property list file.
Copies all localizable resources into the Source Contents folder to provide context for localizers.

Xcode extracts strings that you pass to Text structures, the NSLocalizedString macro, and similar APIs in your code. For example, if you pass a string with a comment to the NSLocalizedString macro, Xcode includes the comment in the XLIFF file.

In addition, each localization folder in the catalog contains only the resources and assets that you mark as localizable. Prior to localization, the file is a copy of the development language file—a placeholder to provide context for the localizers.

Add files to the Xcode Localization Catalog

Before you give the catalog to localizers, you can add additional files to the Notes folders to provide more context. An Xcode Localization Catalog folder contains:

Item	Description
`contents.json`	A JSON file containing metadata about the catalog, such as the development region, the locale, the tool (Xcode) and its version number, and the catalog version number.
`Localized Contents`	A folder containing the localizable resources, including an XLIFF file containing the localizable strings.
`Notes`	A folder containing additional information for localizers, such as screenshots, movies, or text files.
`Source Contents`	A folder containing the assets to produce the content that provides context for localizers, such as user interface files and other resources.

Export localizations using commands

You can also export localization files with the xcodebuild command using the -exportLocalizations argument:

xcodebuild -exportLocalizations -project <projectname> -localizationPath <dirpath> [[-exportLanguage <targetlanguage>] ...]

To include the screenshots you generate while testing localizations, add the -includeScreenshots argument to the above command.