Beginning JavaServer Pages™

Chapter 13. Internationalization and Localized Content

In popular media, it is often said that the Internet has created a "global village." For the first time in history, anyone with Internet access is connected to everyone else. Interestingly enough, after everyone was connected, it became apparent that the "global village" concept isn't entirely accurate unless everyone speaks the same language. The fact is, they don't.

Even before the Internet phenomenon, creators of software products discovered the need to create software that can be sold and used internationally. When creating such applications, care must be taken not to assume or hard-code certain user interface conventions (such as English as the only language). The act of readying a software product for adaptation internationally is called internationalization. Because internationalization is such a long word, it is often just called i18n for short (there are 18 characters between the beginning i and the final n).

I18n is the main topic of this chapter. You will learn how to i18n-enable your JSP applications so that they can be used by people whose native language may not be English. More specifically, you will discover the following:

• Two main methods of internationalizing any text within your application

• Why and when one method is preferred over the other

• How to use internationalized resource bundles in JSP

• How a family of JSTL tags greatly simplifies i18n in your JSP programs

• Some of the quirks that you will encounter when attempting ...