asked on

JSP with non-English characters

In DB table , I have I have 3 column
project_id, project_name_english , project_name_japanese
I have records in these columns.

In JSP, I display records from project_name_english column by default.

Now, I want if my user clicks on "japanese" link on my JSP , I want to display japanese column value.
I also want if my logged user's language is "japanese" , then my page should display in japanese.

Question:
What is the best approach I can think here ?

I'm worried about conversion of language.

I'm using JSP, Servlet and Struts 1.3 mix.

CEHJ

Make sure you use UTF-8 encoding in the db and as the page encoding. Then you should be fine

cofactor

ASKER

My VO has 3 fields

String projectID
String projectNameEnglish
String projectNameJapanese

I load data from DB when user logs into the system. ...and want to display English by default.

>>> if my user clicks on "japanese" link on my JSP

How do I switch English to Japanese now in JSP ?

Pramod Kumar

The field values are stored in ENGLISH or JAPANEES in database?

cofactor

ASKER

>>>The field values are stored in ENGLISH or JAPANEES in database

Database has two separate columns for this.

DBA has loaded both data manually.

CEHJ

Well it's a pretty crude way of arranging things (the project name field should be a key into a language table for example) but check the locale of the client and show the Japanese if it's ja_JP

Pramod Kumar

When user click the language link, store the selected lang_key into session. (example: en, jp)
On jsp, check the session value for lang_key and as per that call the respective getter for project name

See my example in jsp:

<%
    String langKey = (String)session.getAttribute("lang");
    ProjectVO proj = (ProjectVO)request.getAttribute("projVo");
%>

Project Name: <%=langKey.equals("en")?proj.getProjectNameEnglish():proj.getProjectNameJapanese()%>

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JavaGuy78

Encode your page properly with UTF-8, so that the characters are properly displayed.

Then I would put the english label in a span with a unique ID, then when the user clicks the "Japanese" link or button, run a bit of javascript to rewrite the value in the span with the Japanese value. That way the name is rewritten without the page having to be reloaded.

Something like this:

<span id="projectName">English Title</span>
<input type="button" value="Japanese" onclick="swapProjectName('Japanese title')"/>

<script type="text\javascript">
    function swapProjectName(jTitle) {
        var projectNameSpan = document.getElementById("projectName");
        projectNameSpan.innerHtml = jTitle;
    }
</script>

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cofactor

ASKER

@pramodkrjsr,

concerns / doubts in your comments.

(1)
If I have to display multiple fields , that becomes a messy code. Is not there any other simplified way ?

(2) Do I need to call javascript reload to reload the page as soon as user clicks on "japanese" link.

CEHJ

There are standard, best practices for i18n, which you should follow. No need to reinvent the wheel:

http://www.roseindia.net/struts/strutsinternationalization.shtml

cofactor

ASKER

>>>There are standard, best practices for i18n, which you should follow. No need to reinvent the wheel:

they are using multiple properties file ( each property file for each language) whereas I'll be using database(each column value for each language).

how do you make it dB drivern /?

Pramod Kumar

Normally a user will not frequent change the language page to page from english to japaness and vis-versa.

I would suggest to introduce another getter method for project name which will return the value as per language. By this, you need to use only one method in your jsp.

Project Name: <%=proj.getProjectName(langKey)%>

String projectID
String projectNameEnglish
String projectNameJapanese
String projectName;

public String getProjectName(String lagKey)
{
	if(langKey.equals("en")
	{
		return projectNameEnglish;
	}
	else if(langKey.equals("jp")
	{
		return projectNameJapanese;
	}
	return null;
}

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cofactor

ASKER

Problem with this approach is, this involves lots of JSP scriplets....code is going to become messy.

I'm looking for a solution with JSTL or Sturts tags. Can this be made with using JSTL or Struts tags ? Need a small sample to start with.

CEHJ

>>how do you make it dB drivern /?

I don't know the answer to that offhand - but there probably is one ;)

Pramod Kumar

I don't see lots of JSP scriptlets and just one line for one field:
<%=proj.getProjectName(langKey)%>

CEHJ

It would seem the 'proper' way to do it would be to use the new ResourceBundle.Control class to allow the bundle to be loaded from a db. The Javadoc gives clues on this:

http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/ResourceBundle.Control.html

cofactor

ASKER

>>>><%=proj.getProjectName(langKey)%>

what is the equivalent code in JSTL ?

>>>>It would seem the 'proper' way to do it would be to use the new ResourceBundle.Control class to allow

Thanks for the info. Will look out for examples.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

CEHJ

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Pramod Kumar

<jsp:useBean id="proj" class="bean.ProjectVO"/>

Project Name: <jsp:getProperty name="proj" property="projectName"/>

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CEHJ