Adding new strings

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

Procedure

  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"/>
  <lang xml:lang="en"     filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/>
  <lang xml:lang="en-US"  filename="my-added-strings-mul.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="is"     filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/>
  <lang xml:lang="is-IS"  filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/>
  <lang xml:lang="ru"     filename="my-added-strings-ru-ru.xml"/>
  <lang xml:lang="ru-RU"  filename="my-added-strings-ru-ru.xml"/>
  <lang xml:lang="ru"     filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/>
  <lang xml:lang="ru-RU"  filename="my-added-strings-mul.xml"/>
</langlist>