JSON Resource Bundles

JSON Resource Bundles

Well-formed JSON is required and specified by http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt. JSON can in effect have any 'schema' and only some subset of JSON makes sense for Localization. JSON resource bundles are supported starting with LRM 2.1. The details of the LRM supported format is provided below.

JSON files are increasingly used with JavaScript as a means to capture strings to be translated.

JSON File Naming

In order to detect and import changes, LRM 2.1 requires JSON files to also adhere to the following standards. The json files must follow this naming convention: filename_<locale>.json or filename_<locale>_<country>.json. For example,

• resources_en.json or resources_en_US.json,
• resources_fr.json or resources_fr_FR.json, etc.

We strongly recommend file names should be unique, even if they are in different directories. LRM sends unique file names per prep kits. For example, if you have two JSON files under locales/ and under module1/locales, you could name them:

• locales/common_resources_en.json
• modules1/locales/module1_messages_en.json

JSON File Format

JSON files are like XML files: They can have complex schemas to represent complex objects. For translation purposes, LRM supports a restricted subset of the overall JSON format.

Arrays are not allowed in the context of JSON files as resource bundles. String references in the code, from an i18n point of view, is unmanageable for JSON arrays. In addition, many L10n vendors do not support JSON arrays. (Sample JSON files are located in LRM-Server-2.1/samples/JSON_Examples):

• There is only one key/value per line.
• Valid

      "key1":"This is my value for key1",
      "key2":"This is my value for key2"

• Invalid

      "key1":"This is my value for key1","key2":"This is my value for key2"

End-object character (curly bracket) may not exist on the same line as a key/value.

• • Valid
    • "keys": {
    • "key1":"This is my value for key1"
    • }
  • Invalid
    • "keys": {
    • "key1":"This is my value for key1"}
• Values associated with a key must be a string. Numeric and boolean values are not allowed.
  • Valid

      "key1":"0"

• • Invalid

      "key1":0,
      "key1": true