Before you begin
The JRas framework that is described in this task and its sub-tasks is deprecated. However, you can achieve similar results using Java logging.Why and when to perform this task
The WebSphere Application Server message logger provides the message and msg methods so the user can log localized messages. In addition, the message logger provides the textMessage method to log messages that are not localized. Applications can use either or both, as appropriate.
The mechanism for providing localized messages is the resource bundle support that is provided by the IBM Developer Kit, Java Technology Edition. If you are not familiar with resource bundles as implemented by the Developer Kit, you can get more information from various texts, or by reading the API documentation for the java.util.ResourceBundle, java.util.ListResourceBundle and java.util.PropertyResourceBundle classes, as well as the java.text.MessageFormat class.
The PropertyResourceBundle class is the preferred mechanism to use. In addition, note that the JRas extensions do not support the extended formatting options such as {1, date} or {0, number, integer} that are provided by the MessageFormat class.
You can forward messages that are written to the internal WebSphere Application Server logs to other processes for display. For example, messages that are displayed on the administrative console, which can be running in a different location than the server process, can be localized using the late binding process. Late binding means that WebSphere Application Server does not localize messages when they are logged, but defers localization to the process that displays the message.
To properly localize the message, the displaying process must have access to the resource bundle where the message text is stored. You must package the resource bundle separately from the application, and install it in a location where the viewing process can access it. If you do not want to take these steps, you can use the early binding technique to localize messages as they are logged.
To create a resource bundle, perform the following steps.
Steps for this task
See the Java documentation for the java.util.Properties class for a full description of the syntax and construction of properties files.
What to do next
The application locates the resource bundle based on the file location relative to any directory in the class path. For instance, if the DefaultMessages.properties property resource bundle is in the baseDir/subDir1/subDir2/resources directory and baseDir is in the class path, the name subdir1.subdir2.resources.DefaultMessage is passed to the message logger to identify the resource bundle.