Chapter 7. I18N Actions

Topics in This Chapter

• Overview

• I18N and L10N

• Localization Contexts

• An Overview of the I18N Actions

• Use of <fmt:message>

• Request EncodingRequest Encoding

• I18N Custom Actions

At the end of the 20th century, with the World Wide Web in its infancy, most Web sites were implemented for a single language, but that's starting to change as more Web sites offer content in multiple languages. Web sites that adapt to a reader's native language and customs have an obvious competitive advantage over those that do not.

JSTL provides a number of actions that help you internationalize your Web sites:

• <fmt:setLocale>

• <fmt:setBundle>

• <fmt:bundle>

• <fmt:message>

• <fmt:param>

• <fmt:requestEncoding>

JSTL also provides a handful of actions for formatting and parsing numbers , currencies, percents, and dates in a locale-dependent manner; those actions are discussed in "Formatting Actions" on page 308.

This chapter begins with an overview of the first five actions listed above, followed by an introduction to internationalization concepts, including locales, resource bundles, Unicode, and charsets. Subsequently, we discuss how you can make the most of the JSTL actions listed above.

If you don't know anything about the JSTL internationalization (I18N) actions or if you need to brush up on internationalization, you should read this entire chapter. If you're already familiar with the <fmt:message> action but you're not entirely comfortable with locales, resource bundles, charsets and Unicode, you can probably start reading at "I18N and L10N" on page 258. ^[1] If you've already used the <fmt:message> action and you understand the basics of internationalization, you can begin reading at "Localization Contexts" on page 263.

^[1] The abbreviations I18N and L10N represent the first and last characters and the number of characters in between the words internationalization and localization, respectively.