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JSF 2 internationalization example

In JSF application, you can change your application locale programmatically like this :


//this example change locale to france
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().setLocale(new Locale('fr');

It makes JSF support for internationalization or multiple languages easily.

Complete JSF internationalization example

In this tutorial, we show you a JSF 2.0 web application, which display a welcome page, retrieve a welcome message from properties file, and change the welcome message dynamically based on the selected language.

1. Project Folder

Directory structure for this example.

jsf2-internationalization-folder

2. Properties file

Here’s two properties files to store English and Chinese message.

welcome.properties


welcome.jsf = Happy learning JSF 2.0

welcome_zh_CN.properties


welcome.jsf = \u5feb\u4e50\u5b66\u4e60 JSF 2.0
Note
For UTF-8 or non-English characters, for example Chinese , you should encode it with native2ascii tool.

3. faces-config.xml

Include above properties file into your JSF application, and declared “en” as your default application locale.

faces-config.xml


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<faces-config
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
    http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd"
    version="2.0">
     <application>
     	   <locale-config>
     	        <default-locale>en</default-locale>
     	   </locale-config>
	   <resource-bundle>
		<base-name>com.mkyong.welcome</base-name>
		<var>msg</var>
	   </resource-bundle>
     </application>
</faces-config>

4. Managed Bean

A managed bean, which provide language selection list , and a value change event listener to change the locale programmatically.

LanguageBean .java


package com.mkyong;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.event.ValueChangeEvent;
 
@ManagedBean(name="language")
@SessionScoped
public class LanguageBean implements Serializable{
	
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	
	private String localeCode;
	
	private static Map<String,Object> countries;
	static{
		countries = new LinkedHashMap<String,Object>();
		countries.put("English", Locale.ENGLISH); //label, value
		countries.put("Chinese", Locale.SIMPLIFIED_CHINESE);
	}

	public Map<String, Object> getCountriesInMap() {
		return countries;
	}

	
	public String getLocaleCode() {
		return localeCode;
	}


	public void setLocaleCode(String localeCode) {
		this.localeCode = localeCode;
	}

	//value change event listener
	public void countryLocaleCodeChanged(ValueChangeEvent e){
		
		String newLocaleValue = e.getNewValue().toString();
		
		//loop country map to compare the locale code
                for (Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : countries.entrySet()) {
        
        	   if(entry.getValue().toString().equals(newLocaleValue)){
        		
        		FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
        			.getViewRoot().setLocale((Locale)entry.getValue());
        		
        	  }
               }
	}

}

5. JSF Page

A JSF page to display a welcome message from properties file, and attach a value change event listener to a dropdown box.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
      xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
      xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
      >
     
    <h:body>
    	
    	<h1>JSF 2 internationalization example</h1>
		
     <h:form>
			
	<h2>
		<h:outputText value="#{msg['welcome.jsf']}" />
	</h2>
			
	<h:panelGrid columns="2">
				
		Language : 
		<h:selectOneMenu value="#{language.localeCode}" onchange="submit()"
			valueChangeListener="#{language.countryLocaleCodeChanged}">
   			<f:selectItems value="#{language.countriesInMap}" /> 
   		</h:selectOneMenu>

	</h:panelGrid>
			
      </h:form>
		
    </h:body>
</html>

6. Demo

URL : http://localhost:8080/JavaServerFaces/faces/default.xhtml

Default, locale English is display.

jsf2-internationalization-example-1

If user changes the dropdown box language, it will fire a value change event listener and change the application locale accordingly.

jsf2-internationalization-example-2

Download Source Code

Download It – JSF-2-Internationalization-Example.zip (11KB)

Reference

  1. Resource bundle in JSF 2.0
  2. Create a Locale (Oracle Tutorial)
  3. Spring MVC internationalization example
  4. W3C charset

40 comments on “JSF 2 internationalization example”

  1. Hi there, hope everyone is well

    I’ve been looking around about how to set the lang attribute based on the current language for the session without success. And I came across this example where the content is in chinese but the doctype declaration doesn’t have any dinamic attribute indicating the language in which the page is displayed. Also I may be wrong but the doctype declaration also indicates english with the “EN” (I have to check the standard for this).

    As far as I know I can’t use expression language at the HTML tag declaration point, so the only way I see to do this is by javascript.
    Can someone point me in some direction about this?

    Thanks in advance

    Reply

  4. I have a doubt, to see if someone can answer it.

    What happens if i want to update a page that contains a form, but i don’t want that the values of the view will be update, but only the literals ???

    i guess that manually it’s possible to achieve that by a function that catches all values within a form and then restore it after the language was changed; but i inquire if there are some way to do it much more straightforward, using some function in JSF or even with some external library, cause it’s possible that it can be a common scene for many web applications

    PD: sorry for my English.

    Reply

  6. To complement: To keep the locale in session you can put

    in the pages you want to show with the seleted language.
    And of course keep a variable of localeSelect in your languageBean.

    Reply

  7. Hi Mkyong,
    I’ve got this tutorial working but I got a new problem which is: this only takes effect on the actual page. If I change pages then the previous language selected or the basic one remains. How can I change that please???

    Reply

  8. Hi Mkyong,
    I’ve got this tutorial working but I got a new problem which is: this only takes effect on the actual page. If I change pages then the previous language selected or the basic one remains. How can I change that please???

    Reply

  10. Hi Mkyon
    I have this problem: My application web has many xhtml and When I executed FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().setLocale(newLocale); change language properly but when click to another xhtml, FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().getLocale()); changes to default whithout executing the set method

    ¿What happens?

    Thanks

    Reply

  11. Thanks Mkyong , i have finally made it working the issue were properties file names and Locale name- messages_en_GB.properties ,messages_fr_FR.properties and countries.put(“French”,Locale.FRANCE);
    countries.put(“UK”, Locale.UK); //label, value

    Reply

  12. Hello Mkyong, Your effeorts for software community is great and cannot be matched with anybody. but i am afraid unfortnately i have spend many times on your tutorials and never but most of them work as like this, it does not work JSf2. I am sorry but soemtime it looks like it is pure time waste of time running ur code.

    Please accept my apologies.

    Thanks

    Reply

  14. Excuseme mykong. How can put spanish how default languaje and english, german supported languaje in:
    private static Map countries;
    static{
    countries = new LinkedHashMap();
    countries.put(“English”, Locale.ENGLISH); //label, value
    countries.put(“Chinese”, Locale.SIMPLIFIED_CHINESE);
    }

    Reply

    1. countries.put(“English”, Locale.ENGLISH); //label, value
      countries.put(“Chinese”, Locale.SIMPLIFIED_CHINESE)
      Hi, how can use “English”, from properties in this method
      for example ResourceBundle rs=new ??. Thanks

      Reply

  18. i tried it with my project but the change on dropdown list does not fire the countryLocaleCodeChanged method. I clearly spoored all the things but it doesnt work. only if i change default properties file in faces-config. any idea?

    Reply

    1. Please see my above message. i had same issue and working now, please do let me knwo more details i shall try to help u cheers

      Reply

  21. I want this example to display the language of the combos in the actual language selected.
    Could somebody point me how this can be done?

    Reply

  22. Hi,
    i cannot change locale on jsf implement is myface2
    when i change select item the alway is Happy learning JSF 2.0.but is show the FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().getLocale() was change.
    please help me.

    Reply

  24. Hi,

    I like so much this post, i have a question, how can i for that the internationalization keep in each page, because i have an error for this, when i press the indicate button that changes the language in that page but when i pass throught other page it back to the default. How can i do for that this keep the language always?

    Regards

    Reply

  25. Hello Friends

    I Have Problem To Making Site In Turkish Language.

    This Is My Property File For Turkish
    /*
    login1=giri?
    username1=kullan?c? ismi
    help1=yard?m etmek
    */

    But when I am Printing This Property In My JSF page It Is Printing Something Like Below.
    /*
    kullanıcı ismi
    yardım etmek
    giriÅŸ
    */

    It Is Printing Some Extra Characters. I am Using UTF-8 encoding.

    I have Also Implemented Spanish, French, Portugese, And German There Is Not Problem With It.

    Just Problem In Turkish Language.

    IF Any body Can Help.

    Regards
    kshitij

    Reply

  26. Thanks for the example, but if i refresh the page, the locale is set again to the default language.

    my bean is session scoped in faces-config.

    whats the matter with it.

    Reply

      1. I got the solution. In jsf tag which has local attribute you can set all pages language through this tag.
        first set the country code and assign the value to local attribute. tag should be top of the page.

        Reply

          1. Ah stupid editor ate my tags. Correction:
            In the “f:view” tag … after the “html” tag.

  27. Hi,

    nice tutorial for the beginner. This example work for one page when user click on other page it doesn’t work. when user select one language how it can b sett for all other pages?

    Regards,

    Reply

    1. Can any one help me:

      While I am trying the above example, I a getting the below exception:

      An Error Occurred:
      javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Property ‘localeCode’ not found on type com.igatepatni.LanguageBean

      viewId=/default.xhtml
      location=D:\sridhar\JSF_Pratice\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\wtpwebapps\Jsf_internationalization\default.xhtml
      phaseId=RENDER_RESPONSE(6)

      Caused by:
      javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException – Property ‘localeCode’ not found on type com.igatepatni.LanguageBean
      at javax.el.BeanELResolver$BeanProperties.get(BeanELResolver.java:214)

      /default.xhtml at line 25 and column 65 value=”#{language.localeCode}”

      Regards,
      M.sridhar.

      Reply

  29. Thank you for example but i have a question. ViewRoot’s locale isn’t only applicable for the current request? If we need a locale info for all session, what to do?

    Reply

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