📝 Excel to ARB Generator

Tired of manually converting translation spreadsheets into .arb files for your Flutter or Dart projects? This command-line tool automates the process, letting you manage your localization in a simple Excel file—and generates all the necessary Application Resource Bundle (.arb) files instantly.

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🚀 How It Works

You provide a link to a specially formatted Excel file, and the tool generates the corresponding .arb files for each language, ready to be used in your application.

Excel File → excel2arb Tool → Generated .arb Files

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🔧 Prerequisites

Make sure you have the Dart SDK installed.

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📦 Installation

Activate the package globally:

dart pub global activate excel2arb

This makes the excel2arb command available globally in your terminal.

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📁 Step 1: Format Your Excel Sheet

Create an Excel sheet following these key formatting rules. You can see a full example here.

✅ Key Formatting Rules

Column	Description
Name [name]	Required. Used as the JSON key in .arb files.
Language {locale}	Required. Columns with language names and 2-letter locale in {}. E.g., English {en}
Remark	Optional. Notes or instructions for translators.
Placeholders [placeholders]	Optional. JSON object defining placeholders and their types.

🧾 Example Excel Layout

Name [name]	Description [description]	Remark	English {en}	Myanmar {my}	Placeholders [placeholders]
greeting	A welcome message		Hello, World!	မင်္ဂလာပါ လောကကြီး
welcomeUser	Welcomes a specific user	Keep {} as-is	Hello {userName}	မင်္ဂလာပါ {userName}	{"userName": {"type": "String"}}

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⚙️ Step 2: Run the Generator

Once your Excel file is published and accessible via URL, run:

▶️ Basic Usage

excel2arb --excel-url <your-excel-file-url> --output-directory <path-to-output-folder>

If the script isn't found, try:

dart pub global run excel2arb --excel-url <your-excel-file-url> --output-directory <path-to-output-folder>

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🧰 Command-Line Options

Flag	Alias	Description	Default
--excel-url	-u	(Required) Public URL of the Excel file
--sheet-name	-s	Sheet name to parse	Localization
--output-directory	-o	Directory to save .arb files	Current directory
--gen-l10n	-g	Also generate l10n.yaml config	false

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💡 Full Example

excel2arb -u https://example.com/sample.xlsx -s Localization -o output_dir -g true

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💡 Bonus Tip #1: Using Google Sheets

You can use Google Sheets instead of Excel:

1. Create your spreadsheet in Google Sheets (follow the same format).
2. Go to File → Share → Publish to web.
3. Under the Link tab, select the specific sheet.
4. Change format to Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).
5. Click Publish.
6. Copy the generated link and use it with --excel-url.

✅ This gives you a live Excel download link, so your team can collaborate in real-time—just run the generator when you're ready.

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💡 Bonus Tip #2: Streamline with an IDE Plugin

If you're using Android Studio or any JetBrains IDE, streamline the sync using the Dart Scripts Runner plugin.

🛠 Setup

1. Install Dart Scripts Runner from JetBrains Marketplace.
2. In pubspec.yaml, add:

scripts:
  sync_localization:
    script: excel2arb -u https://shorturl.at/abcd -o lib/l10n/locales -g true
    description: Sync localization from google sheet

3. Replace the URL with your actual spreadsheet link.
4. Now, you can run sync_localization directly from the Dart Scripts tool window in your IDE—just one click!

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✨ Features

• ✅ Downloads Excel files directly from a URL
• ✅ Generates .arb files for all languages
• ✅ Supports custom sheet names
• ✅ Optionally generates l10n.yaml
• ✅ Handles placeholders and their types

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a PR on the GitHub repo.