> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Mitchell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 8:33 AM
> To: Struts Developers List; Commons Developers List
> Subject: [Resources] XMLMessageResources and Proposal
>
>
> Martin (and others)
>
> On a suggestion by Craig, I had a look at the commons resources
> XMLMessageResources. It appears (and I could be wrong) that this
> implementation expects a structure similar to this:
> (I couldn't find any samples or test data, so I just guessing
> by browsing
> the code)
>
> <messages>
> <message key="some.key">Some Value</message>
> </messages>
Yep, that's it. Looks pretty lame, huh? ;-) Let me explain my thinking when
I wrote it, which might make it look a little less lame (I hope :).
I figured that there were a few possible approaches to this.
1) Define our own XML format.
2) Pick a standard format.
3) Somehow allow the use of an arbitrary format.
My first inclination was to do (3), because that allows the most flexibility
for people to use whatever they already have, or to define whatever they
want, and then specify a mapping so that we could read it. However, at the
time, I hadn't a clue as to how to go about implementing such a thing. (But
see below.)
My next thought was to go with (2), and I looked at TMX for a while.
However, TMX is a pretty complex format, and it wasn't at all clear to me
that it was (a) appropriate and (b) feasible to use that as the basis for
the kind of message resources we're talking about here. In case you're not
familiar with TMX, you'll find the scoop here:
http://www.lisa.org/tmx/
That left option (1). In implementing that, I decided to follow the KISS
principle, and create a minimal XML format that maps pretty directly to what
is done with property files. My thinking was that, with such a simple
format, it would be straightforward for anyone already using their own
format to write an XSLT stylesheet to convert their existing XML files into
the XMLMessageResources format, most likely to be run as part of their web
app build process.
Some time ago, I sent a message out (to struts-user, I think) about what
people really wanted in an XML message resource implementation. The answers
that came back said we need to do option (3) above. As I said earlier, at
the time I wrote the current code, I had no clue how to do this.
However, that was before the Digester's XML Rules package existed, and also
before Betwixt existed (or at least before I had any idea what it was). With
these tools, I now think we have a good chance at being able to create a
very flexible "use whatever XML format you like" implementation for XML
message resources.
>
> or is it...
>
> <messages>
> <message key="some.key" value="Some Value"/>
> </messages>
>
>
> How do you handle special characters in the values? (<, >, ")
>
>
>
> [Proposal] (Sort of)
> Would it be feasible to allow an open structure?
> What I mean is....what about allowing a structure like this:
>
> <index>
> <heading en="MailReader Demonstration Application Options"
> fr="Options D'Application De Démonstration De MailReader"/>
> <logon en="Log on to the MailReader Demonstration Application"
> fr="Entrez à l'application de démonstration de
> MailReader"/>
> <registration en="Register with the MailReader
> Demonstration Application"
> fr="Inscription à l'application de démonstration
> de MailReader
> "/>
> <title en="MailReader Demonstration Application (Struts 1.1-dev)"
> fr="Application De Démonstration De MailReader
> (Struts 1.1-dev)
> "/>
> <tour en="A Walking Tour of the Example Application"
> fr="Une excursion de marche de l'application d'exemple"/>
> </index>
>
>
Personally, I have always favoured keeping multiple translations in separate
XML files. This avoids issues related to different character encodings
required for different languages. However, I don't recall whether this
matches with TMX or not.
> I have a feature list a mile long that I am working through, so I'm
> nowhere close to being finished.
>
> If I complete this, is it feasible to add it to sandbox
> resources or struts?
> If not, then I will drop it and work on other issues (pending
> Struts bugs).
There was a brief discussion on whether or not we would try to migrate to
Commons Resources for Struts 1.1, but I don't recall the outcome, so I'll
need to go back and dig that up.
--
Martin Cooper
>
>
>
> James Mitchell
> Software Engineer/Struts Evangelist
> http://www.open-tools.org
>
>
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