# String Resources

As well as _dialog resources_, scripts can also have _string resources_ which provides an easy way for a script to support languages for ad-hoc strings (that is, for strings not part of a static dialog but used programmatically by the script). Strings defined in dialogs (e.g. _Button_ control labels) can be translated using the [_Language overlays_](../script_editor/editors/dialog_editor/language_overlays) feature.

As a very simple example, consider the following VBScript fragment.

```
If DOpus.language = "francais" Then
DOpus.Output "Bonjour!"
ElseIf DOpus.language = "deutsch" Then
DOpus.Output "Guten Tag!"
Else
DOpus.Output "Hello!"
End If
```

This tests the current language Opus is running in and prints an appropriate “hello” string in that language, or in English if the language isn’t known. That’s fine for a single string, but having to do that for every string in the script could be a lot of typing. Using string resources, the above script fragment reduces to:

```
DOpus.Output DOpus.Strings.Get("hello")
```

The actual strings themselves are provided as an XML resource, much the same way as dialog definitions are. Here’s the string resource that provides the above strings:

```
<resources>
<resource type="strings">
<strings lang="francais">
<string id="hello" text="Bonjour!" />
</strings>
<strings lang="deutsch">
<string id="hello" text="Guten Tag!" />
</strings>
<strings lang="english">
<string id="hello" text="Hello!" />
</strings>
</resource>
</resources>
```

As you can see, there are three **strings** tags, each one with a different **lang** attribute (this specifies the language). Inside each **strings** tag are one or more **string** tags which provide the actual strings. The **id** attribute is a name of your choosing – it’s how your script refers to the string. The **text** attribute provides the translation of the string in the specified language.

The values for the **lang** attribute correspond to the names of the Directory Opus language libraries (which can be found in the **/home/Language** folder) – **english**, **deutsch**, **francais**, **cat**, **czech**, **espanol**, etc.

String resources can be edited using the GUI editor in the script editor. In button scripts you need to code the XML resources yourself if you want to use them.

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