CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
Dirt McCrasse
Dirt McCrasse

Reputation: 42

Formatting recursively using Locale in MessageFormat

We're using MessageFormat to manage translations in our application. We have a wrapper class (TranslationWrapper) containing the translation key and its parameters.

When displaying a translated message, it is formated with this command 

String message = new MessageFormat( translationKey, aLocale ).format( parameters );

Where translationKey is in a format similar to "message {0} {1}", and parameters is an Object array containing the values for {0} and {1}.

Since any object may used as a parameter, we often use our TranslationWrapper as a parameter. This allows us to create localized Strings based on imbricaed translation keys.

For any object passed as a parameter, the toString() method is called. The toString() method of the TranslationWrapper automatically translate using the current user's Locale, but I would sometimes like to use another Locale.

Since I pass this different Locale to the MessageFormat in its constructor, I would like to know if there is a way to have a handle on the way the parameters' strings are generated in MessageFormat when replacing values like {0}. Instead of calling the toString() method on the TranslationWrapper, I would like to call something like:

toString(locale);

where locale is the Locale I passed in the constructor.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 363

Answers (1)

hoaz
hoaz

Reputation: 10163

This is rather ugly solution but you can set current locale into thread local variable to use it inside toString method (if it is set):

private static final ThreadLocal<Locale> threadLocale = new ThreadLocal<Locale>();

...

public String translate(String translationKey, Locale aLocale, Object ...parameters) {

    Locale previousLocale = threadLocale.get();
    try {
        threadLocale.set(aLocale);
        return new MessageFormat( translationKey, aLocale ).format( parameters);
        ...
    } finally {
        threadLocale.set(previousLocale);
    }
}

// somewhere in toString method threadLocale.get() will return you current Locale

Upvotes: 1

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