Multi-lingual Java program

Question

Hi,
The following program from the Sun books, is supposed to work with different languages. Except it doesn't!
It has a problem finding the Properties files (?)
It gives the following Exception:
Exception in thread "main" java.util.MissingResourceException: Can't find bundle
for base name MessagesBundle, locale en_GB
here is the Sun program:
import java.util.*;
public class I18NSample {
static public void main(String[] args) {
String language;
String country;
if (args.length != 2) {
language = new String("en");
country = new String("GB");
} else {
language = new String(args[0]);
country = new String(args[1]);
Locale currentLocale;
ResourceBundle messages;
currentLocale = new Locale(language, country);
messages =ResourceBundle.getBundle("MessagesBundle",currentLocale);
System.out.println(messages.getString("greetings"));
System.out.println(messages.getString("inquiry"));
System.out.println(messages.getString("farewell"));
and I have created several properties file (English, French, German, Arabic) as text files. Maybe I have problems with the properties files.
I have followed the steps from the Java Tutorial book from Sun.
Any help would be most welcome.
Akz

Answer 1

You can create properties files in any text editor, although you're obviously best off with one that can handle the various different characters needed for the different languages.
As a content managmenet issue, I'd suggest not mixing resource bundles with your compiled class files. For one thing, I believe you can and may need to reuse the same properties file for multiple classes. Also it's easier to manage if things are placed in directories based on type.
There's no reason you can't create two directories (or directory hierarchies, really) say "classes/" and "resourceBundles/", and then add both directories to your classpath.