CLDR - Unicode Common Locale Data Repository

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Unicode CLDR Project
CLDR Releases/Downloads
CLDR Survey Tool
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CLDR Process
CLDR Specifications
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Unicode Locale Extension (‘u’) for BCP 47

Milestone Schedule

Date	Phase
10.26	v22.1 Released
03.15	v23 Release
09.15	v24 Release

See General Schedule.

Internal Development

CLDR Development Site
CLDR: Big Red Switch
Messages
Design Proposals
Handling Tickets (bugs/enhancements)
Direct Modifications to CLDR Data
Updating Codes
Updating DTDs
Editing the CLDR Spec
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Unicode CLDR Project

Contents

1 News
2 What is CLDR?
3 Who uses CLDR?
4 How to Contribute?
5 How to Use?
6 Acknowledgments
7 Regular Semi-Annual Schedule
1. 7.1 2013Q1 Release

News

2012-12-13	CLDR 23 Data Submission (limited locales)
2012-11-29	JSON Format for CLDR v22.1 data Released
2012-10-26	CLDR v22.1 Released

What is CLDR?

The Unicode CLDR provides key building blocks for software to support the world's languages, with the largest and most extensive standard repository of locale data available. This data is used by a wide spectrum of companies for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages for such common software tasks. It includes:

Locale-specific patterns for formatting and parsing: dates, times, timezones, numbers and currency values
Translations of names: languages, scripts, countries and regions, currencies, eras, months, weekdays, day periods, timezones, cities, and time units
Language & script information: characters used; plural cases; gender of lists; capitalization; rules for sorting & searching; writing direction; transliteration rules; rules for spelling out numbers; rules for segmenting text into graphemes, words, and sentences
Country information: language usage, currency information, calendar preference and week conventions, postal and telephone codes
Other: ISO & BCP 47 code support (cross mappings, etc.), keyboard layouts

CLDR uses the XML format provided by UTS #35: Unicode Locale Data Markup Language (LDML). LDML is a format used not only for CLDR, but also for general interchange of locale data, such as in Microsoft's .NET.

For a set of slides on the technical contents of CLDR, see Overview.

Who uses CLDR?

Some of the companies and organizations that use CLDR are:

Apple (OS X & applications; iOS for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch; Safari for Windows; Apple Mobile Device Support in iTunes for Windows; …)
Google (Web Search, Chrome, Android, Adwords, Google+, Google Maps, Blogger, Google Analytics, …)
IBM (DB2, Lotus, Websphere, Tivoli, Rational, AIX, i/OS, z/OS,…)
and many others, including:

ABAS Software, Adobe, Amazon (Kindle), Amdocs, Apache, Appian, Argonne National Laboratory, Avaya, BAE Systems Geospatial eXploitation Products, BEA, BluePhoenix Solutions, BMC Software, Boost, BroadJump, Business Objects, caris, CERN, Debian Linux, Dell, Eclipse, eBay, EMC Corporation, ESRI, Firebird RDBMS, Free BSD, Gentoo Linux, GroundWork Open Source, GTK+, Harman/Becker Automotive Systems GmbH, HP, Hyperion, Inktomi, Innodata Isogen, Informatica, Intel, Interlogics, IONA, IXOS, Jikes, Library of Congress, Mathworks, Mozilla, Netezza, OpenOffice, Oracle (Solaris, Java), Lawson Software, Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping LLC, Mandrake Linux, OCLC, Progress Software, Python, QNX, Rogue Wave, SAP, SIL, SPSS, Software AG, SuSE, Symantec, Teradata (NCR), ToolAware, Trend Micro, Virage, webMethods, Wine, WMS Gaming, XyEnterprise, Yahoo!

To suggest additions or corrections, please file a ticket.

How to Contribute?

CLDR is a collaborative project, which benefits by having people join and contribute. Anyone can submit data to CLDR, and contribute to making their language usable in a wide variety of products (see Who uses CLDR?). For information on how to set up an account and contribute data, see Survey Tool.

There is a process for resolving conflicting data that depends on voting strength. Members of the Unicode consortium get increased voting strength, from liaison members up to full members. Full members can also participate in the technical committee, which is the ultimate arbiter for the structure and content of CLDR. For information about joining the Unicode Consortium, see Unicode Consortium.

How to Use?

Most developers will use CLDR indirectly, via a set of software libraries, such as ICU, Closure, or TwitterCLDR. These libraries typically compile the CLDR data into a format that is compact and easy for the library to load and use.

For those interested in the source CLDR data, it is available for each release in the XML format specified by LDML. There are also tools that will convert to JSON and POSIX format. For more information, see CLDR Releases/Downloads.

Acknowledgments

Many people have made significant contributions to CLDR and LDML; see the Acknowledgments page for a full listing.

Regular Semi-Annual Schedule

Q2-Q3 Phase
Apr	Submission
May	Submission
Jun	Vetting
Jul	Resolution
Aug	Production	08-15	Final candidate tagged
Sep	Production	09-15	Release
		09-30	Survey Tool updated
Q4-Q1 Phase
Oct	Submission
Nov	Submission
Dec	Vetting
Jan	Resolution
Feb	Production	02-15	Final candidate tagged
Mar	Production	03-15	Release
		03-30	Survey Tool updated

We are planning on a different process for the future, with the following changes:

A consistent release schedule each year.
Two releases per year: end of Q1 and end of Q3.
Making the survey tool open most of the year.

Rather than having the Survey tool unavailable except during the Main Submission and Vetting periods, it would be available most of the year: It would be taken down during the Resolution phase, and occasionally for a week for updates or structural changes before and during the first month of the Submission phase. The two important periods for translators would be:

Submission: translators are asked to flesh out missing data, and check for consistency.
Vetting: translators are asked to review all changed or conflicted values, and reach consensus.

The actual dates may vary slightly from the plan for any given release.

2013Q1 Release

The 2013Q1 release has a very limited internal data phase—with only a few locales—because it needs to be shortened in the migration to the new Regular Semi-Annual Schedule.

2013Q1 release plan
12-13	Submission
01-23	Vetting
Feb	Resolution	02-11	All tickets done
	Production	02-15	Final candidate tagged
Mar	Production	03-15	Release
		03-30	Survey Tool updated

Locales:

Armenian (hy)
Georgian (ka)
Mongolian (mn)
Welsh (cy)

Subpages (11): Acknowledgments CLDR Change Requests CLDR Charts CLDR Process CLDR Releases/Downloads CLDR Specifications CLDR Survey Tool Corrigenda Draft Schedule JSON Format Data Unicode Locale Extension (‘u’) for BCP 47