Hi all,I'm working on a LimeSurvey project and need to translate a full file into six languages that go beyond the Quick Translation tool's default capabilities. The goal is to automate the translation process and re-import the survey with the new language versions included.🧩 My Setup:

• I have exported the
  Code:

  .lss

  file.
• The base language is English.
• I need to add the following target languages:
  • German (Germany)
  • German (Austria)
  • French
  • Dutch (Netherlands)
  • Hungarian
  • Dutch (Belgium/Flemish)

💡 Workflow I’d like to automate:

1. Extract all translatable strings from the
   Code:

   .lss

   XML (questions, subquestions, labels, help texts, etc.).
2. Send them to an AI translation engine (like DeepL or ChatGPT API).
3. Generate translated text for each language.
4. Insert those translations back into the correct XML structure under the appropriate
   Code:

   <questiontext lang="xx">

   ,
   Code:

   <answer lang="xx">

   , etc.
5. Re-import the updated
   Code:

   .lss

   into LimeSurvey.

❓Questions:

• Has anyone successfully built or used a script (Python, Node, etc.) to do this?
• Is there a best practice for safely injecting multilingual content into
  Code:

  .lss

  without breaking the file?
• Any tips for managing languages like Flemish separately from Dutch in LimeSurvey?

I’m happy to share a sample if that helps. Any guidance, code examples, or tool recommendations are greatly appreciated!Thanks in advance 🙏
— Daniela

file into six languages that go beyond the Quick Translation tool's default capabilities. The goal is to automate the translation process and re-import the survey with the new language versions included.

This won't work for a couple of reasons:

AI translation tools are incredibly bad at translating stuff they don't have context for. My suspiscion is that the errors for the normal GUI text strings would be pretty bad.

But, and this is the main issue here: Not all texts used in the respondent facing part of the survey is included in the LSS files. Basically everything that is NOT included in the quick translation is part of the language files of Limesurvey and Limesurvey substitutes the string based on the chosen language for the survey, drawing not from the LSS, but from the language files.

So the standard help texts from Limesurvey (not your individual ones, but the standard ones that come from Limesurvey are not included in the LSS files.

and another point: The LSS file includes all languages in one file (if you run 1 survey, you could also run x surveys, one for each language / location, then you need one LSS file for all.

So overall, I think it would be a lot more effort to create a script that does that for you, than to do it on your own.

Let's see if someone else has a good idea that I am not aware of.

Regarding Flemish: So far no Flemish language option exists in Limesurvey ( translate.limesurvey.org/projects/limesurvey-6/ )

So what you would need to do is basically create your 'own' language file for flemish. However, you did not answer the initial questions about Limesurvey version, where it is hosted, which theme is used, etc. that show up when you start a new topic.

Because to be able to upload your own language file you most probably need to have access to the server Limesurvey is installed on (self hosted basically). If it is hosted by your University or by Limesurvey GmbH, you depend on others, which is often complicated in the case of the university and in the case of Limesurvey Pro hosting through the Limesurvey GmbH will most probably charge something on a hourly basis for making those adaptions.

If you really want to do this, I'd recommend a *.txt export.
In my opinion a simple small Excel Makro is sufficient to translate and add the translated phrases.
 

Joffm

I have this: 
Version:  LimeSurvey Community Edition  Version 6.5.3+240415  
Host: BOKU universty Vienna
Theme: inherit (BOKU) 
And in "Theme options" it show: 
 

I also noticed that for version after 6.x it should be available these languages:  translate.limesurvey.org/projects/limesurvey-6/  but actually...when I try to add a new languages...I cannot add for exmaple HUngarian or Dutch I only see these available languages....only french and german...I am still lacking: dutch hungarian 

The admin of the installation can decide which languages are available to their users. So you would need to take this up with the admin responsible at the university.