CKEditor Localization Troubleshooting

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If you look for an information about very old versions of CKEditor, FCKeditor and CKFinder check also the CKEditor forum, which was closed in 2015. If not, please head to StackOverflow for support.

The following article describes some issues that may arise during the localization process. If your problem is not described here, contact CKEditor project maintainers to get support.

How to report disruptive team members, abuse, and vandalism

If you feel that there is a member of your team who is abusing the CKEditor localization project in any way, please report him or her to the project maintainers.

Resource was not locked after downloading it for translation

You can lock the resource manually by selecting the Lock this translation to notify others you're working with it. option in the Translation Details dialog window.

Lock file option in Transifex


Do not forget to unlock the translation when you are done with your work.

Do I still need to escape apostrophes in the localized strings?

No. Although previously we have been working directly on JavaScript files and all apostrophes had to be escaped by using a backslash character, you no longer need to do this. Our tools will now perform all the necessary replacements in the background so just enter a correct literal string.

  • Old version:
    Barre d\'emplacement des éléments de l\'éditeur
  • Current version:
    Barre d'emplacement des éléments de l'éditeur

Transifex hangs on uploading a localized file

Sometimes when a file is malformed or uses an incorrect encoding, the upload may not succeed — it will hang without a descriptive error message. If this happens please check the following:

  • Whether the file is correctly encoded.
    All CKEditor files are UTF-8 encoded. ANSI files will be rejected.
  • Whether the file does not contain BOM.
  • Whether the file structure was not altered in any way.
    You can run msgfmt -c on the file to check its correctness before you attempt to upload it.

Transifex reports a failed file correctness check

On uploading the file Transifex may report that the file is malformed.

Failed file correctness in Transifex


As suggested by Transifex, check the file by running msgfmt -c. Possible causes of the error might be:

  • BOM is present at the beginning of the file.
  • The .po file structure was altered and is no longer compliant with the project resources.