Spring 3 mvc namespace and i18n

Question

Problem with i18n and Spring 3 mvc namespace

I have not figured out how to get messages resolved when using Spring’s mvc namespace.

For example, a JSP with this line:

<fmt:message key="welcome.title"/>

shows:

???welcome.title???

I have a messages directory under WEB-INF with messages.properties.

Here is the web-servlet.xml (my dispatcher servlet is named web). Any help very much appreciated.

<!-- Scans for @Controllers to deploy as beans -->
<context:component-scan base-package="com.mylittlecompany.web.controllers" />

<!-- Enable annotation driven controllers, validation etc... -->
<mvc:annotation-driven />

<!-- Configures Handler Interceptors -->
<mvc:interceptors>
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor" />
</mvc:interceptors>

<!-- Application Message Bundle -->
<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
    <property name="basename" value="/WEB-INF/messages/messages" />
    <property name="cacheSeconds" value="1" />
</bean>

<!-- Saves a locale change using a cookie -->
<bean id="localeResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.CookieLocaleResolver" />

<!-- Resolves view names to protected .jsp resources within the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
    <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>
    <property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>

Only relevant log file entry:

DEBUG Thread-1 org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Using MessageSource [org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource: basenames=[/WEB-INF/messages/messages]]

Answer 1

ResourceBundle is now looking for your files in package "/WEB-INF/messages" that doesn't exist.

Try to put your "messages" directory to WEB-INF/classes and replace messageSource bean with:

 <bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
    <property name="basename" value="messages/messages" />
    <property name="cacheSeconds" value="1" />
 </bean>

Answer 2

Put the following code in applicationContext.xml

<beans:bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource">
        <beans:property name="basenames">
            <beans:list>
             <beans:value>messages</beans:value>
            </beans:list>
        </beans:property>
</beans:bean>

Put your messages.properties into WEB-INF/classes

And in your jsp you can refer messages like

<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags" %>
<input name="reset" type="reset" value='<spring:message code="button.reset"/>' onclick="setLoginFocus()" />

And your messages.properties

button.reset=ResetFields

Answer 3

Actually, the problem is WEB-INF is NOT on classpath, so your messages.properties in not getting picked up.

Put it under WEB-INF/classes or WEB-INF/lib (though they are not good places to put .properties files).

I'd suggest you to put it under :-

src/main/resources/ OR (src/main/resources/META-INF)

• SE

EDIT

<property name="basename" value="messages/messages" />

Answer 4

I recently completed a Spring 3 project with extensive localization, and used the spring:message tag instead of fmt:message. You might try spring:message to see if the behavior changes. It should find your message source and resolve the message key by the current locale.