How to localize the text of a program based on a setting?

Question

I have a Language class, for example, which will contain constant attributes of type String, which will be used all over the program to print x or y Strings based on a setting when launching the program.

How could I do this? I throught of using Enum, but I lack experience with them and failed to apply them correctly; tried diferent classes which inherit Language and must specify the values of each String, but that looked like a home-made Enum.

As a plus, I'd love to have an XML file containing each String content, but I have absolutely no idea of grabbing values of an XML file in java (I probably know how to do them separatedly). If possible, a little example or documentation.

Thanks.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/i18n/index.html – Christophe Roussy Mar 04 '13 at 15:48 — Christophe Roussy, Mar 04 '13 at 15:48
Seems I didn't search as hard as I could. Thanks! – Alxe Mar 04 '13 at 15:49 — Alxe, Mar 04 '13 at 15:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '13 at 15:51

You can use properties files, i.e. naming them en-GB.properties, en-US.properties etc, this is how the file looks like:

en-GB.properties

file=File
edit=Edit

it-IT.properties

file=File
edit=Modifica

The string before the '=' symbol is the property name, the string after it is the property value, this is the code to access it:

    Properties prop = new Properties();

    try {
        //load a properties file
        prop.load(new FileInputStream("it-IT.properties"));

        //get the property value and print it out
        System.out.println(prop.getProperty("file"));  //prints "File"
        System.out.println(prop.getProperty("edit"));//prints "Modifica"

    } catch (IOException ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }

Hope this helps

How to localize the text of a program based on a setting?

1 Answers1