Applying Java's internationalization facilities to a web application

Question

Hello,
I am a member of a software developing team (using Java-based technologies). Our web application consists of a:
1. static part (HTML-based pages), and
2. a dynamic part (using JSPs and servlets, mainly)
The static part of our web site is currently supported in four languages, having our html pages replicated four times. On the other hand, the dynamic part of our web (that is, the part of our web site restricted to authorized
users only, using JSPs and servlets) is only supported in one of those languages and we are thinking of extending it to support, at least, one more of the other languages. Obviously, it wouldn't be manageable replicating the JSP
pages (about a hundred or so) for the new language, so we are thinking of using Java's internationalization facilities. According to what I have understood, we have two possibilities, basing the internationalization process on:
a. properties files (one for each language?)
b. class files
Knowing all this, our problem is a matter of organization of those approaches. How could I organize the different files? Should I use a database to store the messages, instead of using files (either properties files or class files)? Or might I create different files depending on where the string texts appear? For example, create a
properties file or a class file containing the different string messages in every JSP file? Any other ideas of organization or design would be highly appreciated. Do you know any other web site where internationalization has been applied or case studies dealing with this matter?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

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Knowing all this, our problem is a matter of
organization of those approaches. How could I organize
the different files? Should I use a database to store
the messages, instead of using files (either
properties files or class files)? Or might I createYou could go with using Java's existing resource bundle facilities to work with localized resource bundles stored in files. Whether that be list or property resource bundles, the code is already written to load and manage resource bundles in these formats. I have personally worked with database-backed resource bundles, but that required custom code to be written.
On a performance note, list resource bundles are found before property resource bundles. In a development environment, I've used property resource bundles and when moving an application into production, I have gone through the conversion of the property to list resource bundle format. There's a utility in our book, "Java Internationalization" (O'Reilly) which does conversion from property to list resource bundle format for you.
different files depending on where the string texts
appear? For example, create a
properties file or a class file containing the
different string messages in every JSP file? Any other
ideas of organization or design would be highly
appreciated. Do you know any other web site where
internationalization has been applied or case studies
dealing with this matter?Also in our book, we advocate using different resource bundles for holding different types of localized data. For example, there's nothing that says you cannot have resource bundles devoted to user exception messages, status messages, regular text, prompt text, etc... By splitting up your resources into different categories and placing them in an appropriately named resource bundle, you can know exactly where certain resources will be pulled from when your application is running.
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Thanks in advance.Hope this helps.
-David