Externalizing strings in plugin.xml for Eclipse plugin

Question

How do I externalize strings in my Eclipse plugin\'s plugin.xml?

Right-clicking on the plugin project > PDE Tools > Externalize Strings does not show up my plugin.

Answer 1

I finally figured out how to manually externalize the plugin.

Eclipse, it turns out, externalizes plugin.xml this way:

• In the plugin manifest (META-INF/MANIFEST.MF), add the following line

  Bundle-Localization: plugin
  

  where you intend to store the externalized strings in a file called "plugin.properties" (Turns out this was the missing piece).

• Add the externalized string key-value pairs in plugin.properties.

• Replace the actual strings in plugin.xml with the keys from plugin.properties (prefixed with %).