Skip to content

Adding new languages

Extend the toolkit’s generated text capabilities by adding new language files.

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

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- Provide new languages for Gaelic and Vietnamese. --> <langlist> <lang xml:lang="ga" filename="strings-ga-ga.xml"/> <lang xml:lang="ga-GA" filename="strings-ga-ga.xml"/> <lang xml:lang="vi" filename="strings-vi-vn.xml"/> <lang xml:lang="vi-VN" filename="strings-vi-vn.xml"/> </langlist>

  2. Copy this file to your plug-in into the same directory as step 1.

    • non-PDF output: plugins/org.dita.base/xsl/common/strings-en-us.xml
    • PDF output: plugins/org.dita.pdf2/cfg/common/vars/en.xml
    • Rename the file to match the language you wish to add (for instance, strings-vi-vn.xml).

  3. Without changing the @id value, replace the generated text string for each variable.

    <variables> <variable id="Figure">Hình</variable> <variable id="Table">Bảng</variable> <variable id="Next topic">Chủ đề tiếp theo</variable> [...] <variable id="Copyright">Bản quyền</variable> <variable id="a11y.and-then"/> </variables>

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

  5. 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 language strings are available to your stylesheets. For example, if processing in a context where the @xml:lang value is vi-VN, the following call returns “Chủ đề tiếp theo” because it was defined as the text for the variable with @id value of Next topic in step 5.

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

Related information

How to add or modify generated text strings