How to get Xcode 6 generated XLIFF files to import back into Xcode - renaming is not enough

Question

How to export a base development language XLIFF file from Xcode 6 and then re-import it to configure additional localizations. (E.g. export en.xliff file and use it to create fr.xliff file if you want to add French to an English development language project)

Lovelovebird

Answer 1

I am posting this as an "answer your own question" because I spent hours trying to figure this out and as far as I can tell Apple hasn't documented it.

The Apple documentation implies it should be sufficient to rename an exported base language XLIFF with a language prefix to be able to import. I.e. if the base localization is English, you should be able to create a file that you can import for French localization just by renaming it from en.xliff to fr.xliff.

Renaming the file is not enough. You also need to add a target-language attribute to every file element.

From this:

<file original="MyApp/MyApp-Info.plist" source-language="en" datatype="plaintext">

To this:

<file original="MyApp/MyApp-Info.plist" source-language="en" datatype="plaintext" target-language="fr">

Now you can import the file to Xcode and it will create the new localization

Lovelovebird

If anyone is using Counterparts as I am, just go to File -> Change XLIFF Translation Locale and change to your selected language. – Kaylor