-Original Message-
From: Martin Cooper [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 2:29 PM
To: 'Struts Developers List'; Commons Developers List
Subject: RE: [Resources] XMLMessageResources and Proposal
-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.keySome Value/message
/messages
Yep, that's it. Looks pretty lame, huh? ;-)
No comment ;)
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 iswhat 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)
/
touren=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 agree, that's why my first implementation did not allow multiple locales
in the same file. In fact, it is configurable to 3 separate formats. (see
below)
I have a feature list a mile long that I am working through, so I'm
nowhere close to being finished.
Ok, here's the Usage on the Sax DefaultHandle subclass:
Usage: java org.apache.struts.util.XMLMessageResourcesHandler mode
fileName locale
where modes include:
-toXML format convert your properties file(s) to xml in
format style
-toProp[erties] formatconvert your existing xml file from format
into properties file
where formats include:
[B]yAttributes convert file(s) from or to the example format
below
[S]eparateFilesconvert file(s) from
