Description

WebWork supports internationalization (in short, i18n) in two different places: the UI tags and the action/field error messages.

• Tags Typically the i18n and text tag
• Validation

Resource Bundle Search Order

Resource bundles are searched in the following order:

1. ActionClass.properties
2. BaseClass.properties (all the way to Object.properties)
3. Interface.properties (every interface and sub-interface)
4. ModelDriven's model (if implements ModelDriven), for the model object repeat from 1
5. package.properties (of the directory where class is located and every parent directory all the way to the root directory)
6. search up the i18n message key hierarchy itself
7. global resource properties (webwork.custom.i18n.resources) defined in webwork.properties

For more information, checkout the LocalizedTextUtil class.

To clarify item #5:

com/
  acme/
     package.properties
     actions/
          package.properties
          FooAction.java
          FooAction.properties

If FooAction.properties does not exist com/acme/action/package.properties will be searched for if not found com/acme/package.properties if not found com/package.properties, etc.

Examples

To display i18n text, you can use a call to getText() in the property tag, or any other tag such as the UI tags (this is especially useful for labels of UI tags):

You may also use the text tag:

Also, note that there is an i18n tag that will push a resource bundle on to the stack, allowing you to display text that would otherwise not be part of the resource bundle search hierarchy mentioned previously.

I18n Interceptor

See I18n Interceptorfor more info. It basically pushes a locale into the ActionContext map upon every request. Webwork (components, ActionSupport etc.) honours this and hence every i18n related aspect will used this locale. Its a pretty elegant way of changing locale upon request as well.

Global resouce (webwork.custom.i18n.resources) in webwork.properties

A global resource bundle could be specified through the 'webwork.custom.i18n.resources' property in webwork.properties. The locale can be siwtched by 'webwork.locale' in the webwork.properties as well.

Comparison with Struts

Struts users should be familiar with the application.properties resource bundle, where you can put all the messages in the application that are going to be translated. WebWork, though, splits the resource bundles per action or model class, and you may end up with duplicated messages in those resource bundles. A quick fix for that is to create a file called ActionSupport.properties in com/opensymphony/xwork and put it on your classpath. This will only work well if all your actions subclass ActionSupport.