Stringtable.xml

ⓘ

Stringtable.xml was introduced with Armed Assault. For Operation Flashpoint, see Stringtable.csv.

String tables are used to make internationalization easier for the game. They are used in addons, missions, and scripts, and are located in the root of the mission or addon folders.

Any strings that are used in the game can be kept separate from the code, and can therefore easily be edited and expanded into different languages. Instead of using strings directly in the code, you are using a variable. This variable will then contain the actual string, read from stringtable.xml, with the language that is being read depending on the game settings.

Stringtable Editors

It is strongly recommended to use a tool to edit the XML file; a selection of Stringtable Community Tools can be found in the Community Tools - Localisation Tools page section.

Example

Show Stringtable.xml example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Project name="Any Name">
	<Package name="Mission One">
		<Container name="Some Words">
			<Key ID="STR_TAG_Yes">
				<Original>yes</Original>
				<English>yes</English>
				<Czech>ano</Czech>
				<French>oui</French>
				<German>ja</German>
				<Italian>sì</Italian>
				<Polish>tak</Polish>
				<Portuguese>sim</Portuguese>
				<Russian>да</Russian>
				<Spanish>sí</Spanish>
				<Korean>네</Korean>
				<Japanese>はい</Japanese>
				<Chinesesimp>是</Chinesesimp>
				<Chinese>是（繁體）</Chinese>
			</Key>
			<Key ID="STR_TAG_No">
				<Original>no</Original>
			</Key>
		</Container>
		<Container name="Another Container">
			<Key ID="STR_TAG_formatted">
				<Original>Hello, %1.</Original>
			</Key>
			<Key ID="STR_TAG_structuredText">
				<Original>Some text &lt;t color='%1'&gt;%2&lt;/t&gt;</Original>
			</Key>
		</Container>
	</Package>
</Project>

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ⓘ

Package and Container "groups" are only helpful for organisation and have no impact on the translations; use them for your own sanity.

⚠

Stringtable.xml must be saved with UTF-8 Encoding for international characters to display and save correctly.

Supported Languages

Arma 2 & Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead

Arma 3

className In-game name Note English English Czech Čeština French Français Spanish Español Italian Italiano Polish Polski Russian Русский German Deutsch Hungarian Magyar Partially supported Portuguese Portuguese Not available in-game

className In-game name Note English English Czech Čeština French Français Spanish Español Italian Italiano Polish Polski Portuguese Português do Brasil Russian Русский German Deutsch Korean 한국어 Japanese 日本語 Chinese 繁體中文 Chinese Traditional Chinesesimp 简体中文 Chinese Simplified Turkish Türkçe Hungarian Magyar Cannot be set in-game. Edit arma3.cfg to use that language. Swedish N/A Slovak N/A SerboCroatian N/A Norwegian N/A Icelandic N/A Greek N/A Finnish N/A Dutch N/A 2.18 Ukrainian N/A

CfgLanguages

Languages defined in CfgLanguages will show up in the languages combo box in the game options menu. However, only languages that are supported by the engine, see Supported Languages can be added. By default, vanilla Arma 3 has only added the languages that are actually used by the base game.

// Languages defined in Arma 3 2.20
class CfgLanguages
{
    class Original
    {
        name = "Original";
    };
    class English
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_ENGLISH;
    };
    class French
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_FRENCH;
    };
    class Spanish
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_SPANISH;
    };
    class Italian
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_ITALIAN;
    };
    class German
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_GERMAN;
    };
    class Czech
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_CZECH;
    };
    class Polish
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_POLISH;
    };
    class Russian
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_RUSSIAN;
    };
    class Portuguese
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_PORTUGUESE;
    };
    class Korean
    {
        name = $STR_LANGUAGE_KOREAN;
    };
    class Japanese
    {
        name = $STR_LANGUAGE_JAPANESE;
    };
    class Chinese
    {
        name = $STR_LANGUAGE_CHINESETRAD;
    };
    class Chinesesimp
    {
        name = $STR_LANGUAGE_CHINESESIMP;
    };
    class Turkish
    {
        name = $STR_LANG_TURKISH;
    };
};

Custom Language

A new language can be added by a hack. One can reuse a supported but not used language to add a custom language.

class CfgLanguages
{
    class Dutch
    {
        name = "Arabic";
    };
};

The Dutch language will now show up in the game options menu as Arabic. Now one can fill that with an arabic translation via stringtable.xml

<Key ID="STR_ENH_MAIN_ZEUSADDONS_INVERT">
    <Dutch>My Arabic Translation</Dutch>
</Key>

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Be aware that this will break other mods if these actually implemented the language that is being overwritten!

Unsupported language English in stringtable

See Common Errors and Warnings.

Key Naming Convention

Same as global variables, it is recommended to use a TAG to prevent translation collision between mods (e.g STR_TAG_helloThere).

String Formats

Strings stored in the stringtable can be in the following formats:

• Normal text, such as Hello there
• format text, such as Hello %1
• Structured Text, such as <t size='2'>Hello</t> there, but:
  
  ⚠

  The HTML tag characters < and > must respectively be encoded as &lt; and &gt;.
  <t size='2'>Hello</t> there would then become &lt;t size='2'&gt;Hello&lt;/t&gt; there.

Usage

Script

A translation can be retrieved and used in a script by using the localize command:

hint localize "STR_TAG_Yes"; // returns "Yes" in English, "Oui" in French, etc. hint format [localize "STR_TAG_formatted", name player]; hint localize "str_TAG_structuredText"; // casing in scripting does not matter

Config

Whether it is in Description.ext, Campaign Description.ext, Dialogs etc., a translated Config entry must use the $ prefix (to an uppercase STR) for the engine to look the translation key up:

onLoadName = "$STR_TAG_missionName";
overviewText = "$str_TAG_overviewText";		// invalid, will display "$str_TAG_overviewText" (with the $ sign)
onLoadMission = $STR_TAG_loadMissionText;	// works without quotes but this is NOT recommended

The preprocessor will replace $STR entries with their corresponding Stringtable value.

Translated Sounds

The Stringtable can be used to use different voices depending on the user's language setting:

class CfgRadio
{
	class TAG_V01
	{
		name = "$STR_TAG_V01_name";
		sound[] = { "$STR_TAG_V01_path", 1, 1 };
		title = "$STR_TAG_V01_subtitle";
	};
};

the Stringtable's entries looking like this:

<Key ID="STR_V01_name">
	<English>"Hello There" by OWK</English>
	<French>"Salut à tous" par OWK</French>
</Key>
<Key ID="STR_V01_path">
	<English>Sound\EN\v01.ogg</English>
	<French>Sound\FR\v01.ogg</French>
</Key>
<Key ID="STR_V01_subtitle">
	<English>Hello There!</English>
	<French>Salut à tous !</French>
</Key>

Then using it in-game:

player sideRadio "TAG_V01";

Editor

In markers and other Eden Editor fields (e.g Mission Name), translation keys should be prefixed with @, without any quotes around - e.g @STR_myMarkerName. Casing does not matter here.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer Scripting should consider that the translation implementation should ideally happen client-side; clients and server are likely to be configured in a different language, as a server-side call to global effect text commands (such as setMarkerText) would set the text in the server's language to everyone.

Example of client-side translation of a server message:

// Server-side if (isServer) then { [nil, nil, rHINT, localize "STR_TAG_myMessage"] call RE; // Arma 2 - server language [nil, nil, rSPAWN, { hint localize "STR_TAG_myMessage" }] call RE; // Arma 2 - client language ["STR_TAG_myMessage"] remoteExecCall ["TAG_fnc_localHint"]; // Arma 3 }; // Client-side executed function TAG_fnc_localHint = { if (hasInterface) then { // hintSilent parseText (localize _this); // Arma 2 hintSilent parseText (_this call BIS_fnc_localize); // Arma 3 }; };

Commands & Functions

See also Command Group: Localization:

• 1.00 localize
• 0.50 isLocalized
• 1.00 BIS_fnc_localize
• 2.02 getTextRaw
• 2.04 diag_localized