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