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Java Interface Definition Language 163
Java Interface Definition Language
In software development, Java Interface Definition Language, or Java IDL, is an implementation of the CORBA
specification and enables interoperability and connectivity with heterogeneous objects. It is basically an Object
Request Broker provided with JDK. The Java IDL enables distributed Web applications to transparently invoke
operations on remote network services using the industry standards IDL and IIOP from OMG.
External links
• Sun Developer Network: Core Java: Java IDL [1]
References
[1] http:/ / java. sun. com/ products/ jdk/ idl/
Java resource bundle
A resource bundle is a Java .properties file that contains locale-specific data [1] . It is a way of internationalising a
Java application by making the code locale-independent.
Naming a resource bundle
Resource bundles have a naming convention to identify them when they deal with different languages. The file name
is followed by an underscore and a two-letter language code (ISO 639-2 code) that specifies the language that the
resource bundle deals with. So, for example, an application that supports Spanish and French can have these resource
bundles, respectively:
resbund_es.properties
resbund_fr.properties
This can also be followed by another underscore and a two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1). In this case, an
application that supports British English and US English respectively will have the following files:
resbund_en_GB.properties
resbund_en_US.properties
Content of a resource bundle
Resource bundles are essentially text files. The most common type of content in a resource bundle is a list of strings.
Each string has a “key” to identify it, which is the same in all the different resource bundles. When writing the code
for the application, only the key is mentioned (this is why we say that the code is locale-independent). Using the
methods provided in the Java API for the ResourceBundle class [2] , we can access the string (i.e. the "value")
associated with the key. Depending on which locale the application is handling, it will call the adequate resource
bundle at runtime [3] .
For instance, our resource bundle for the UK English locale can contain “firstKey = Localisation” and our US
English one can contain “firstKey = Localization”. We will refer only to “firstKey” in the code and, according to the
current locale settings, the application will use either “Localization” or “Localisation”.