First Easy Application For Internationalization

If you're new to internationalizing software, then, this chapter is for you.

By a simple example you'll learn how Locale and ResourceBundle objects work together and how to use properties files:

1. Before Internationalization:

Simply, lets consider the following program:  (which is NOT internationalized): and analyze the underlined information

public class NotI18N

{

static public void main(String[] args)

{

        System.out.println("Hello.");
        System.out.println("How are you?");
        System.out.println("Goodbye.");
  }

  }

2. After Internationalization:

Let's suppose that we want to Internationalize our code into three language French, English and German:

In order to insure that we need to create four property files: (each one contains the content below)

• MessagesBundle.properties:

greetings = Hello.
farewell = Goodbye.
inquiry = How are you?

• MessagesBundle_de_DE.properties:

greetings = Hallo.
farewell = Tschüß.
inquiry = Wie geht's?

• MessagesBundle_en_US.properties:

greetings = Hello.
farewell = Goodbye.
inquiry = How are you?

• MessagesBundle_fr_FR.properties:

greetings = Bonjour.
farewell = Au revoir.
inquiry = Comment allez-vous?

import java.util.*;

public class I18NSample {

    static public void main(String[] args) {

        String language;
        String country;

        if (args.length != 2) {
            language = new String("en");
            country = new String("US");
        } else {
            language = new String(args[0]);
            country = new String(args[1]);
        }

        Locale currentLocale;
        ResourceBundle messages;

        currentLocale = new Locale(language, country);

        messages = ResourceBundle.getBundle("MessagesBundle", currentLocale);
        System.out.println(messages.getString("greetings"));
        System.out.println(messages.getString("inquiry"));
        System.out.println(messages.getString("farewell"));
    }
}