Swing application framework for multilanguage application

Question

Can the swing application framework be used to implement multilanguage swing applications? If so, how should it be done? Should I use multiple .properties files, one for each language? How can I let the system know which properties file to use then? Does anybody know a good tutorial for this?

Answer 1

Short answer: yes it can, and yes you should.

Here's a short bit of user-friendly blurb on it: http://chaoticjava.com/posts/the-quiet-revolution-part-i-jsr-296/

However, a word of warning: According to the web-site for the JSR http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=296 It is currently inactive.

Answer 2

take a look to the ResourceBundle class and this tutorial.

NB: this class is not tied to Swing, you can use it in console or web applications)

Answer 3

You can put the following in your base panel class (or anywhere else, and plug it in):

public ResourceMap getResourceMap() {
    if (resourceMap == null) {
        ApplicationContext context = getContext();
        if (context != null) {
            resourceMap = context.getResourceMap(getResourceStartClass(), 
                   getResourceStopClass());
        }
    }

    return resourceMap;
}

public ApplicationContext getContext() {
    if (applicationContext == null) {
        Application app = getApplication();
        if (app != null) {
            applicationContext = app.getContext();
        }
    }

    return applicationContext;
}

public Application getApplication() {
    if (application == null) {
        application = Application.getInstance();
    }

    return application;
}