Kode Java

How do I use ResourceBundle for i18n?

Category: java.util, viewed: 20193 time(s).

Creating an application for users in different regions can be hard in term of the message format for the local region. Java provide a ResourceBundle class that help internationalize our application.

To create resources for i18n (there are 18 letters between the first i and the final n) we need to create a file for each locale our application supported. The file name must be ended in language_COUNTRY.properties. For instance a resource bundle for Locale.UK will be MessagesBundle_en_GB.properties.

When the bundle has been loaded we can use bundle.getString(key) to read specific message from our resource bundle file.

package org.kodejava.example.util;

import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;

public class InternationalizationDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //
        // Load resource bundle for Locale.UK locale. The resource bundle will 
        // load the MessagesBundle_en_GB.properties file.
        //
        ResourceBundle bundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle("MessagesBundle", Locale.UK);
        System.out.println("Message in " + Locale.UK + ": " + bundle.getString("greeting"));

        //
        // Change the default locale to Indonesian and get the default resource
        // bundle for the current locale.
        //
        Locale.setDefault(new Locale("in", "ID"));
        bundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle("MessagesBundle");
        System.out.println("Message in " + Locale.getDefault() + ": " + bundle.getString("greeting"));
    }
}

Below are some example of our resource bundle files, these files should be located in our application classpath to enable the ResourceBundle class to read it.

    greeting=Hello, how are you?

    greeting=Halo, apa kabar?