Inside TYPO3

3.8.8. "locallang-XML" (llXML) files

The locallang-XML files contain default labels, possibly inline translations and in addition a lot of meta data used in the translation tool (extension "llxmltranslate").

Performance is great with the XML files. This is because the content of the XML file is cached based on the modification time on the xml file.

"locallang-XML" files store the translations of a single language in external files by default. The main reason for using external files for locallang-XML should be distribution considerations:

1. Typically installations need only English and 1-2 other backend languages, not all 40+!

2. It allows translators to work on translations independent of extension authors.

3. Splitting translations means we can better defend storing meta data for translators.

 

The format of locallang-XML files can look like this example (shows inline translation of danish):

 

  <T3locallang>

      <meta type="array">

          <description>Standard Module labels for Extension Development Evaluator</description>

          <type>module</type>

          <csh_table/>

          <labelContext type="array"/>

      </meta>

      <data type="array">

          <languageKey index="default" type="array">

              <label index="mlang_tabs_tab">ExtDevEval</label>

              <label index="mlang_labels_tabdescr">The Extension Development Evaluator tool.</label>

          </languageKey>

          <languageKey index="dk" type="array">

              <label index="mlang_tabs_tab">ExtDevEval</label>

              <label index="mlang_labels_tabdescr">Evalueringsværktøj til udvikling af extensions.</label>

          </languageKey>

....

    </data>

    <orig_hash type="array">

          <languageKey index="dk" type="array">

              <label index="mlang_tabs_tab" type="integer">114927868</label>

              <label index="mlang_labels_tabdescr" type="integer">187879914</label>

          </languageKey>

    </orig_hash>

</T3locallang>

You can refer to "TYPO3 Core API" for details about the XML format.

Converting to llXML from locallang.php

If you have locallang.php files in your extensions, please consider to convert them to llXML. This can be done with the extension "extdeveval" which contains a tool for that. After conversion there is another tool which will separate translations out into the language pack directories. This is of course also highly recommended so the remaining main llXML file contains only default labels!