Improving Android string resources with XLIFF

Question

I've seen some Google apps and code samples using XLIFF tags to wrap variables. I see some great advantages in doing this, especially for replacing non-descriptive format arguments such as %1$s.

Unfortunately, XLIFF doesn't seem to integrate well into ADT. Take the following string resource, for instance:

<resources 
    xmlns:xliff="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2" 
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

    <string name="share_with_application">
        Share your score of <xliff:g id="score" example="1337">%1$s</xliff:g>
        with <xliff:g id="application_name" example="Bluetooth">%2$s</xliff:g>!  
    </string>

</resources>

In the above example, the string is truncated after the first <xliff> tag. One would also expect the example attribute to be used, resulting in a graphical preview showing:

Share your score of 1337 with Bluetooth!

Is there presently any merit to using XLIFF tags in my strings resources?

Answer 1

We've just added support for this in Android Studio, for version 0.3: https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/67724/