Empty values in a localized dialog

[jimk]

As an example, try the following.

1. Tools → Macros → Organize Dialogs. This should expand to My Dialogs -> Standard by default.
2. Press New… to create Dialog1, then Edit.
3. Create a new text box, called TextField1 by default.
4. Dialog → Manage Language. Pressing Add gave English (USA) on my system, but I’m guessing this will work for whatever locale you choose.
5. Press Close. Notice that the Text… value for TextField1 is empty.

Now run the following Basic code (my actual code is in Python).

Sub GetDefaultEmptyText
    DialogLibraries.LoadLibrary("Standard")
    oDlg = CreateUnoDialog(DialogLibraries.Standard.Dialog1)
    oCtrl = oDlg.getControl("TextField1")
    MsgBox "<<" & oCtrl.getText() & ">>"
End Sub

The result is something like <<&14.Dialog1.TextField1.Text>>. What I want instead is <<>>, which is what happens if the dialog is not localized.

The help text shows a similar problem, with &13.Dialog1.TextField1.HelpText appearing in a tooltip, instead of nothing.

So, how to create fields with empty values in a localized dialog?

Solutions that require editing the .xdl file with a text editor are acceptable. The file LibreOffice/4/user/basic/Standard/Dialog1.xdl shows this line.

<dlg:textfield dlg:id="TextField1" dlg:tab-index="0" dlg:left="29" dlg:top="37" dlg:width="100" dlg:height="19" dlg:help-text="&amp;13.Dialog1.TextField1.HelpText" dlg:value="&amp;14.Dialog1.TextField1.Text"/>

And in DialogStrings_en_US.properties:

13.Dialog1.TextField1.HelpText=
14.Dialog1.TextField1.Text=

[jimk]

The following edit to the .xdl file seems to fix the problem.

dlg:help-text="" dlg:value=""

However, I vaguely remember doing this a while back and having some kind of problem.

For one thing, if the text should be empty in one language but has a value in another one, then this solution does not work.