OK, I have something to show, more a proof of concept than a finished product, but because of lack of precise specifications, I leave it this way (or I will over-engineer it). I post in a separate message because it will be a bit long.
I took the opportunity to try a bit more jQuery...
The Java code:
GetLocaleInfo.java
import java.applet.*;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.text.*;
public class GetLocaleInfo extends Applet
{
Locale loc;
NumberFormat nf;
NumberFormat cnf;
NumberFormat pnf;
// For running as plain application
public static void main(String args[])
{
final Applet applet = new GetLocaleInfo();
applet.init();
applet.start();
}
public void init() // Applet is loaded
{
// Use current locale
loc = Locale.getDefault();
nf = NumberFormat.getInstance();
cnf = NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance();
pnf = NumberFormat.getPercentInstance();
}
public void start() // Applet should start
{
// Following output goes to Java console
System.out.println(GetLocaleInformation());
System.out.println(nf.format(0.1));
System.out.println(cnf.format(1.0));
System.out.println(pnf.format(0.01));
}
public String GetLocaleInformation()
{
return String.format("Locale for %s: country=%s (%s / %s), lang=%s (%s / %s), variant=%s (%s)",
loc.getDisplayName(),
loc.getDisplayCountry(),
loc.getCountry(),
loc.getISO3Country(),
loc.getDisplayLanguage(),
loc.getLanguage(),
loc.getISO3Language(),
loc.getDisplayVariant(),
loc.getVariant()
);
}
public String FormatNumber(String number)
{
double value = 0;
try
{
value = Double.parseDouble(number);
}
catch (NumberFormatException nfe)
{
return "!";
}
return nf.format(value);
}
public String FormatCurrency(String number)
{
double value = 0;
try
{
value = Double.parseDouble(number);
}
catch (NumberFormatException nfe)
{
return "!";
}
return cnf.format(value);
}
public String FormatPercent(String number)
{
double value = 0;
try
{
value = Double.parseDouble(number);
}
catch (NumberFormatException nfe)
{
return "!";
}
return pnf.format(value);
}
}
An example of HTML page using the above applet:
GetLocaleInfo.html
<!-- Header skipped for brevity -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var applet;
$(document).ready(function()
{
applet = document.getElementById('LocaleInfo');
$('#Results').text(applet.GetLocaleInformation());
});
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function DoFormatting()
{
$('table.toFormat').each(function()
{
var table = $(this);
$('td', table).each(function(cellId)
{
var val = $(this);
if (val.is('.number'))
{
val.text(applet.FormatNumber(val.text()));
}
else if (val.is('.currency'))
{
val.text(applet.FormatCurrency(val.text()));
}
else if (val.is('.percent'))
{
val.text(applet.FormatPercent(val.text()));
}
});
});
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="Container">
<p>Page to demonstrate how JavaScript can get locale information from Java</p>
<div id="AppletContainer">
<object classid="java:GetLocaleInfo.class"
type="application/x-java-applet" codetype="application/java"
name="LocaleInfo" id="LocaleInfo" width="0" height="0">
<param name="code" value="GetLocaleInfo"/>
<param name="mayscript" value="true"/>
<param name="scriptable" value="true"/>
<p><!-- Displayed if object isn't supported -->
<strong>This browser does not have Java enabled.</strong>
<br>
<a href="http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/downloads/index.html" title="Download Java plug-in">
Get the latest Java plug-in here
</a> (or enable Java support).
</p>
</object>
</div><!-- AppletContainer -->
<p>
Click on the button to format the table content to the locale rules of the user.
</p>
<input type="button" name="DoFormatting" id="DoFormatting" value="Format the table" onclick="javascript:DoFormatting()"/>
<div id="Results">
</div><!-- Results -->
<table class="toFormat">
<caption>Synthetic View</caption>
<thead><tr>
<th>Name</th><th>Value</th><th>Cost</th><th>Discount</th>
</tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>Foo</td><td class="number">3.1415926</td><td class="currency">21.36</td><td class="percent">0.196</td></tr>
<tr><td>Bar</td><td class="number">159263.14</td><td class="currency">33</td><td class="percent">0.33</td></tr>
<tr><td>Baz</td><td class="number">15926</td><td class="currency">12.99</td><td class="percent">0.05</td></tr>
<tr><td>Doh</td><td class="number">0.01415926</td><td class="currency">5.1</td><td class="percent">0.1</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div><!-- Container -->
</body>
</html>
Tested on Firefox 3.0, IE 6, Safari 3.1 and Opera 9.50, on Windows XP Pro SP3.
It works without problem with the first two, on Safari I have a strange error after init() call:
java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol:
at java.net.URL.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URL.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URL.<init>(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.liveconnect.SecureInvocation.checkLiveConnectCaller(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.liveconnect.SecureInvocation.access$000(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin.liveconnect.SecureInvocation$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.plugin.liveconnect.SecureInvocation.CallMethod(Unknown Source)
but it still works.
I can't get it work with Opera: the applet loads correctly, as I can see the trace of init() call in the Java console, I have no errors when JavaScript calls the Java functions (except if I add and call a method getting a JSObject parameter, curiously), but the Java functions are not called (I added trace of the calls).
I believe Liveconnect works in Opera, but I don't see yet how. I will research a bit more.
[Update] I removed references to non-existing jar file (which doesn't stop other browsers) and I got a trace of the calls, but it doesn't update the page.
Mmm, if I do alert(applet.GetLocaleInformation()); I got the information, so it might be a jQuery issue.