CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javainternationalizationresourcebundle
Redwarp
Redwarp

Reputation: 3231

Getting OS language in java

I'm running into a kind of problem here.

I'm French and working on an English version of Windows XP. Therefore, I set the regional options to French, but still have an English language UI.

I'm working on a small Java SE application, and decided to internationalize it using resources bundle.

To display the proper language, I create the bundle with this function :

private static ResourceBundle bundle = ResourceBundle
          .getBundle("locale.Strings", Locale.getDefault());

But the Locale.getDefault() function returns the regional settings (meaning : French) and not the system UI language. As a result, my UI defaults to French, in an English environment. And well, that's not really what I expected...

Does anyone knows of a platform-independent way to recover the system UI language ? Thanks in advance !

Edit : fixed Local to Locale, thanks.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 3626

Answers (3)

Redwarp
Redwarp

Reputation: 3231

I tried a few things thanks to your suggestions, and here is my observation :

  • If you are using Java 6, and not Java 7, you are f***ed.
  • If you are using Java 7, you should do as BalusC tells : change the setting in Region and Language Settings. After that, Locale.getDefault() will by default return the display language, meaning English if you set it to English. To make sure of it, you can create you locale by calling Locale.getDefault(Locale.Category.DISPLAY)

Upvotes: 0

Paweł Dyda
Paweł Dyda

Reputation: 18662

I have no means to try it out (as I tend to avoid anything made by Microsoft), but take a look at these:

Java 7 required:

Locale uiLocale = Locale.getDefault(Locale.Category.DISPLAY);

That's what should be used for getting translations (starting from Java 7), anyway.

If this was not very helpful, I'd try:

System.out.println(System.getenv("LC_MESSAGES"));       
System.out.println(System.getenv("LANG"));
System.out.println(System.getenv("LANGUAGE"));

However, in this case I would expect some similarities to default Locale...

Upvotes: 3

BalusC
BalusC

Reputation: 1109072

This is a misconfiguration in Windows. The Locale#getDefault() returns the system locale, not the date/time formatting region or location.

In the below Windows XP specific screenshot, you could just set the Regional Options and Language to French or whatever you like. The dropdown in the Advanced menu actually sets the system locale and should in your case be set to English.

enter image description here

Admittedly, this is in Windows XP poorly explained, Windows 7 does it somewhat better:

enter image description here

Upvotes: 7

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