| name | add-mobile-string |
| description | Use when the user asks to add a new Android string resource with translations to the CommCare Android project, given a string resource name and English text |
Add Android String Resource
Overview
Add a new <string> entry to all locale strings.xml files in the CommCare Android project, given a resource name and English text.
Discovering Locales
The English source lives at app/res/values/strings.xml. Translated locales live in sibling directories matching app/res/values-*/strings.xml (e.g., values-es, values-fr). Always enumerate the current set at runtime — do not assume a fixed list, since locales may be added or removed over time.
Run this to list every locale strings.xml file:
ls app/res/values*/strings.xml
The directory suffix after values- is the BCP 47 / Android locale code (e.g., es = Spanish, fr = French, pt = Portuguese). Translate accordingly.
Workflow
- Enumerate locales: Run the
ls command above to get the full current set of locale files.
- Locate insertion point: Grep for a nearby existing string with a similar prefix in
values/strings.xml to find the right neighborhood. Place the new string near related entries.
- Read context around insertion point in each locale file (the same neighboring strings may appear at different line numbers per locale).
- Add the English string to
values/strings.xml.
- Translate and add to every other locale file discovered in step 1. Translate the English text into each language, matching the tone and style of surrounding strings in that file.
- Every locale gets the string — do not skip any locale, even ones that have fewer existing strings.
Format
<string name="resource_name">Translated text here</string>
- Escape apostrophes with
\' in XML.
- Preserve any
%d, %s, or other format specifiers exactly as in the English source.
Common Mistakes
- Skipping locales that have fewer translated strings — always include every locale returned by the discovery step, regardless of how sparse the file is.
- Hard-coding a list of locales from memory instead of running the discovery command — the set of supported locales changes over time.
- Placing the string at the end of the file instead of near related strings.
- Forgetting to escape special XML characters in translations.
