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NOTE: This material does not necessarily refer to the most recent version of Java. For the most recent FAQs, see here.

General Java I18n

I am involved in developing a package that should support multiple languages like french, german, chinese and Hindi, but I am not sure how to proceed. Can you tell me where to start?
I would like to have one server which serves HTML documents authored in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Is this possible, or do you need a server for every multi-byte language?
Is there is any mechanism that any text entered in a textfield should be converted into unicode according to the locale of the client in jdk1.0. Is there any method similar to getBytes() in java 2 for jdk1.0? Answer
I am using Win NT 4.0 workstation Italian version supp pack 4 . I want use an application on Netscape 4.7, but in the java console the message says "can't find resource for sun.awt.windows.awtLocalization_it_IT". My application will not start. Can you tell me the meaning of the message, or give me a solution to this problem?
In the table:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/intl/locale.doc.html, there is a list of locale codes. Can you tell me where i can find all supported locale and country codes for the most recent releases?
Can you please you tell me how I can find internationalization user groups, so I can send emails for exchanging information?
I have a GUI-Based application which is running on Intel-Solaris-7, using jdk_1.2.2. I installed iso-8859-1 to get rid of some error messages that came up whenever i ran the application. Now, wherever (like JButtons, JComboBoxes but NOT on JTextArea) there is a letter "k", the entire previous characters are crossed out. Can you explain this and help me to find a solution?

Date/Time Format I18n

Could you tell me if there are any Y2K issues when writing a function which uses various date formatting styles and returns a date formatter?
When I try to format a date object to french locale, the date/time format produces an error. For example, the output looks something like: 25 jun 00 22:32:20. Here the error is that the year (2000) is shown as 00. Can you please tell me why this is happening?

Locale Alphabets

Is there a method called something like Locale.getAlphabet() which returns a String or StringBuffer of characters, in their normal sort order for a given locale? If not, is there any way of getting such a method implemented?

General Java I18n

I am involved in developing a package that should support multiple languages like french, german, chinese and Hindi, but I am not sure how to proceed. Can you tell me where to start?
Start by reading some articles about internationalization. You need to register to access this site, but it is free. You can start at the following URL:
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Intl/index.html

There is also a section in the Java Tutorial about internationalization.
- I would like to have one server which serves HTML documents authored in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Is this possible, or do you need a server for every multi-byte language?
- The internationalization support in J2SE is definitely designed to let you write a multilingual server.
  
  I'm less familiar with JSP and JDBC, so I can't tell you whether these extensions are equally multilingual. I'd suggest you write to their feedback addresses:
  jdbc@wombat.eng.sun.com
  java-server-feedback@java.sun.com
  
  There's quite a bit of on-line documentation available about internationalization of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition:
  - http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/guide/internat/ (release 1.2)
  - http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.3/docs/guide/intl/ (release 1.3)
- Is there is any mechanism that any text entered in a textfield should be converted into unicode according to the locale of the client in jdk1.0. Is there any method similar to getBytes() in java 2 for jdk1.0?
- JDK 1.0 had virtually no internationalization support. In most cases, JDK 1.0 could only handle the first 256 characters of Unicode which are the characters used for English. There were also no facilities for converting from other encodings besides Unicode.
  
  Internationalization was first added to the JDK in version 1.1. I would consider 1.1 the bare minimum for doing an international project. Please be aware however that version 1.1 is more than 3 years old and many things have been improved in that time. You should consider using versions 1.2.2 or 1.3 if at all possible.
- I am using Win NT 4.0 workstation Italian version supp pack 4 . I want use an application on Netscape 4.7, but in the java console the message says "can't find resource for sun.awt.windows.awtLocalization_it_IT". My application will not start. Can you tell me the meaning of the message, or give me a solution to this problem?
- I've seen reports about messages like this one several times, but we have never been able to obtain a reproducible case. If your application gets this message consistently, I'd really appreciate if you could send us your application or a simplified version of it that shows the problem.
  
  However, in all reports I've seen so far, this message didn't prevent the application from running. There is probably some other problem that stops your application.
- In the table:
  http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/intl/locale.doc.html, there is a list of locale codes. Can you tell me where i can find all supported locale and country codes for the most recent releases?
- The specification for the Locale class has references to the appropriate web sites:
  http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/util/Locale.html
- Can you please you tell me how I can find internationalization user groups, so I can send emails for exchanging information?
- There is a web page listing Java user groups worldwide:
  http://industry.java.sun.com/jug/
- I have a GUI-Based application which is running on Intel-Solaris-7, using jdk_1.2.2. I installed iso-8859-1 to get rid of some error messages that came up whenever i ran the application. Now, wherever (like JButtons, JComboBoxes but NOT on JTextArea) there is a letter "k", the entire previous characters are crossed out. Can you explain this and help me to find a solution?
- This is a documented bug. To read about it, and it's current status, see BugId# 4346030.
  You need to register to view bugs, but it is free.
Date/Time Format I18n
- Could you tell me if there are any Y2K issues when writing a function which uses various date formatting styles and returns a date formatter?
- If you use the SHORT style, it may lead to problems because it uses only two digits for the year. If you later parse the result using the same format, it has to guess the century - see the javadoc for SimpleDateFormat for details. If a formatted string shows today's date, the parser will guess correctly until the year 2079, and from then on give incorrect results. To protect yourself from that, use the MEDIUM or LONG formats - they use four digits for the year.
- When I try to format a date object to french locale, the date/time format produces an error. For example, the output looks something like: 25 jun 00 22:32:20. Here the error is that the year (2000) is shown as 00. Can you please tell me why this is happening?
- It looks like you're using a pretty old version of the JDK. The predefined date formats were changed quite a while ago to consistently and for all locales use two-digit years for the short format and four-digit years for the medium, long, and full formats.
Locale Alphabets
- I would like to put index buttons, "A", "B", etc. on a page, so that users can click a button and find glossary entries more quickly.
  
  Is there a method called something like Locale.getAlphabet() which returns a String or StringBuffer of characters, in their normal sort order for a given locale? If not, is there any way of getting such a method implemented?
- This is an interesting request. One problem that arises is that not all languages use alphabets. Chinese, Japanese and Korean are the obvious examples of this. Sorting rules for Chinese and Japanese are tricky. Chinese has three different types for indexing/collating: Phonetic based (based on the Romanized pronunciation), Radical-stroke based (based on the elements being decomposed into strokes and radicals and collated according to them), and based on the Number of Strokes (similar to the last one, but grouped according to the total number of strokes of the leading character(s). Japanese is usually sorted phonetically. The problem here is that kanji characters can have multiple pronunciations, depending on context. Alphabet/syllabary hybrids like Hindi may have unusual rules for collation.
  
  The way you divide up your index is probably best left up to your application and it will need to be localized. It may be that the best you can do is put the list of button labels in a resource bundle and let your translators come up with the lists that's best. This is probably a much more flexible approach than generating them from the locale's alphabet.
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