How to select the right JSP for a locale

Question

This may be a very stupid question but someone please help me out. I've
looked at the JSP spec and the Weblogic documentation and even browsed the
newsgroup and I still can't figure this out. Perhaps I'm just being dense
(more than likely).
What we want to do is support multiple locals from one server. My idea is
that we'd write the JSP in English then hire translation companies to
convert the JSP to French,German, Japanese, etc.(We've moved all the java
code out of the JSPs using taglibs/java beans to make this easier). What
we'd like to do is have all the languages on the server at once and based on
the local of the client select the right JSP. We'd still like the URL to
remain constant. What I can't seem to figure out is how to have one URL
(like http:/www.myserver.com/example.JSP) and have the server select the
right real JSP for the local (like example-en.JSP, example-fr.JSP, etc).
I had hoped I could find a deployment descriptor (J2EE or Weblogic specific)
directive that mapped a URL to a set of JSP based on locale but I don't see
one.
How does one make this happen or is the wrong way to do it". If it the
"wrong way" what is the right way? Any links or example someone can point
me to would be great.
Kent

Answer 1

We use a Servlet "filter" (not the Servlet 2.3 sense, but a 2.2 servlet that
does a RequestDispatch.forward())
This filter selects the most appropriate JSP page (using a similar naming
convention to the one you indicate), then server-side forwards to it. Works
quite well.
j
"Kent Mitchell" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
So has anybody come up with other solutions that work better. I was
thinking about having a "main" jsp that all it did was check the local and
then forward the request to the right internationalized jsp. So forexample
I'd have the three files:
someMain.jsp
someMain-EN.jsp
someMain-FR.jsp
The main check the local and forwards to EN for English and FRfor French.
etc.. Has anyone done anything like this? Is so what were the pros and
cons?
Kent
"Mettu Kumar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Completely Agree. Once you start using TAG's get Internationalized
Strings
tools
are less useful.
Kumar.
Kent Mitchell wrote:
O.K. but doesn't this sort of make JSP editing tools like dreamweaver
pretty
much useless because of all the embedded Java code or and I missing
something.
"Mettu Kumar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Kent,
Most common way of doing this is having one jsp where All the
Textual
messages in the page are read from properties file based on Locale.
Kumar.
Kent Mitchell wrote:
This may be a very stupid question but someone please help me out.
I've
looked at the JSP spec and the Weblogic documentation and evenbrowsed
the
newsgroup and I still can't figure this out. Perhaps I'm just
being
dense
(more than likely).
What we want to do is support multiple locals from one server. My
idea
is
that we'd write the JSP in English then hire translation companies
to
convert the JSP to French,German, Japanese, etc.(We've moved all
the
java
code out of the JSPs using taglibs/java beans to make this
easier).
What
we'd like to do is have all the languages on the server at once
and
based on
the local of the client select the right JSP. We'd still like the
URL
to
remain constant. What I can't seem to figure out is how to have
one
URL
(like http:/www.myserver.com/example.JSP) and have the server
select
the
right real JSP for the local (like example-en.JSP, example-fr.JSP,etc).
I had hoped I could find a deployment descriptor (J2EE or Weblogicspecific)
directive that mapped a URL to a set of JSP based on locale but I
don't
see
one.
How does one make this happen or is the wrong way to do it". If
it
the
"wrong way" what is the right way? Any links or example someone
can
point
me to would be great.
Kent