Java Tips, Tricks & Code

String[] locales = Formatter.getSupportedLocales();
formatter formatter = new Formatter("en-US");
formatter.formatDate(calendarDateTime, style);
formatter.formatCurrency(currency);

StringComparator comparator = new StringComparator("en-US");
if(comparator.equals(string1, string2)){ … };

The above code is straightforward to use and does not require any external tools. This is however not true for the ResourceManager class. This class can be used to handle binary localized data. This is useful if a MIDlet wants to separate its localization mechanism from the program code.

In order to use this class, you must first use some external tools to generate binary data that can be understood by the ResourceManager. One way to do this is to use the Nokia ResourceMaker. The first thing you must do is to create an XML file containing all your strings and locales. Such an XML file is provided in the example that can be downloaded.

This text does not go into detail on how to generate these binary files, as it can be done in many ways and with existing documentation. More information on how to do this here>> 

Based on the XML file that the tool uses as input, a Java source file is generated for you to use in your program. This Java source file contains named indexes that are needed to extract the localized data from the binary files. It looks something like this: