Adding new strings

Add new generated strings to your plug-in for the toolkit to include in your output.

1. Copy this file to your plug-in.

   • non-PDF output: plugins/org.dita.base/xsl/common/strings.xml
   • PDF output: plugins/org.dita.pdf2/cfg/common/vars/strings.xml

2. In your plug-in, edit strings.xml to contain references to the language files for which you are providing custom strings.

   The en-US language must be present; other language files are optional.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!-- Provide strings for my plug-in; this plug-in supports
        English, Icelandic, and Russian. -->
   <langlist>
     <lang xml:lang="en"     filename="my-added-strings-en-us.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="en-US"  filename="my-added-strings-en-us.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="is"     filename="my-added-strings-is-is.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="is-IS"  filename="my-added-strings-is-is.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="ru"     filename="my-added-strings-ru-ru.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="ru-RU"  filename="my-added-strings-ru-ru.xml"/>
   </langlist>
   

3. In xsl/common or cfg/common/vars, create a new file called my-added-strings-en-us.xml.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <variables>
   
   </variables>
   

4. For each new string you want, add a <variable> element with an @id attribute and the text you want the toolkit to use.

   The @id attribute value must be unique in the file and should reflect the purpose of the generated text.

   The toolkit uses the text found inside the element when inserting generated text.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <variables>
     <variable id="String1">English generated text</variable>
     <variable id="Another String">Another string in English</variable>
   </variables>
   

5. Repeat step 3 and step 4 for each language.

6. Update your plugin.xml file to extend the strings available.

   <plugin id="com.example.your-plugin">
     <feature extension="dita.xsl.strings" file="xsl/common/strings.xml"/>
   </plugin>
   

   Your custom strings are available to your stylesheets. For example, if processing in a context where the @xml:lang value is en-US, the following call returns “Another string in English” because it was defined as the text for the variable with @id value of Another String in step 4.

   <xsl:call-template name="getVariable">
     <xsl:with-param name="id" select="'Another String'"/>
   </xsl:call-template>
   

   You can also use the same strings in multiple languages by assigning a file with common strings to each language in addition to the language-specific custom strings files.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <langlist>
     <lang xml:lang="en"     filename="my-added-strings-en-us.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="en-US"  filename="my-added-strings-en-us.xml"/>
     **&lt;lang xml:lang="en"     filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/&gt;**
     **&lt;lang xml:lang="en-US"  filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/&gt;**
     <lang xml:lang="is"     filename="my-added-strings-is-is.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="is-IS"  filename="my-added-strings-is-is.xml"/>
     **&lt;lang xml:lang="is"     filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/&gt;**
     **&lt;lang xml:lang="is-IS"  filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/&gt;**
     <lang xml:lang="ru"     filename="my-added-strings-ru-ru.xml"/>
     <lang xml:lang="ru-RU"  filename="my-added-strings-ru-ru.xml"/>
     **&lt;lang xml:lang="ru"     filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/&gt;**
     **&lt;lang xml:lang="ru-RU"  filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/&gt;**
   </langlist>
   

Related information

How to add or modify generated text strings