First of all a Java application, which wishes to utilize the Localization methods of the Wrapper needs to add the WrapperResources instance. There are several ways of doing so. The most recommended way is to place a static variable holding the WrapperResources instance in a unique class of your project and create a static "getter" method. This way the classes of your project can access the WrapperResource and localize messages. In the getter method you can create the WrapperResource class by calling WrapperManager.loadWrapperResources(java.lang.String, java.lang.String).

    private static WrapperResources m_res;

    public static WrapperResources getRes()
    {
        if ( m_res == null )
        {
            // Synchronize and then recheck to avoid this method always synchronizing.
            synchronized( Unique.class )
            {
                if ( m_res == null )
                {
                    m_res = WrapperManager.loadWrapperResources( "myapp",
                        WrapperSystemPropertyUtil.getStringProperty( "wrapper.lang.folder", "../lang" ) );
                }
            }
        }
        return m_res;
    }

The first parameter of WrapperManager.loadWrapperResources() is the domain, i.e. the name upon the Wrapper will try to load the resource file. For instance, if the above getter the Wrapper will try to load the myapp_XX.mo (XX is the language abbrevention) from the location specified in the wrapper.lang.folder property. If this property isn't set, it will try to load from "../lang".

Flagging all the messages you want to localize is most likely the most time consuming part in setting up the localization. You need to go through your project and wrap your messages with the getString() method.

        System.out.println( Unique.getRes().getString( "A test message." ) );

If you need to put variables into your output, please use the getString(java.lang.String, java.lang.Object[]) method. All variables are put into the Object array. For convenience the WrapperResources provides also some wrapper-methods for up to 5 Objects.

        int number = 2;
    String msg = "test";
    System.out.println( Unique.getRes().getString( "A {0} message with {1} variables.", msg, number ) );

The first parameter of the getString() method can also define various formats. For more information on this, please have a look at the "java.text.MessageFormat documentation".

The layout of the localization process of the Wrapper is similar to GNU gettext. Therefore the easiest way is to create the message resource template with xgettext.

xgettext -d myapp -o ./lang/myapp.pot [project source files]

This will create a pot file. Please note that for Java files, xgettext looks for the keyword "getString("..")". If you want to add another keyword please add them with the parameter "-k [keyword]". The resource files for any language is based on this template. To create a resource file for a certain language run:

msginit --locale=ja --input=./lang/myapp.pot --output=./lang/myapp_ja.po

This will resolve in an editable po file. You or your translator can start translating this po file. She/he can either use a plain text editor or an editor (e.g. "poedit", or "Gtranslator", etc.) for po files.

After the translation has been finished, please compile the po file (by po editior or msgfmt), which will resolve in the binary mo file. If not already done, place the mo file to the other mo files of the Wrapper. Your application has been localized!

The localization setup for Your application has been finished! For information on how to run your application, please have a look at the wrapper.lang properties.