Internationalization service
In a distributed client-server environment, application processes can run on different machines, configured for different locales, corresponding to different cultural conventions; they can also be located across geographical boundaries. For an understanding of how these differences impact application development, read Internationalization.
J2EE provides support for application components that run on computers with differing endian architecture and code sets. It does not provide dedicated support for application components that run on computers with different locales or time zones.
The internationalization service addresses the challenges posed by locale and time zone mismatch without incurring the limitations of conventional techniques. The service systematically manages the distribution of internationalization contexts across the various components of EJB applications, including client applications, enterprise beans, and servlets.
The service works by associating an internationalization context with every service request within an application. When a client-side component calls a business method, the internationalization service interposes by obtaining the internationalization context associated with the current client-side process and by attaching that context to the outgoing request. On the server side, the internationalization service again interposes by detaching the context from the incoming request and associating it with the server-side process on which the business method will run, effectively scoping the context to the business method. For HTTP requests, the caller context is constructed from the HTTP attributes and default values. The service propagates internationalization context on subsequent business method invocations in the same manner, which distributes the context of the originating request over the entire chain of business method invocations.
This basic operation of scoping and propagation is defined precisely by internationalization context management policies. Internationalization policies specify whether an application component or its hosting J2EE container are to manage internationalization context. For container-managed components, the policy indicates which internationalization context the container scopes to invocations on that component. Server components configured to manage internationalization context, as well as EJB clients, must use the internationalization context API to manage the internationalization context elements scoped to their invocations.
Every application component has a default policy, which can be overridden and tailored for servlets and enterprise beans at assembly time.
At run time, application components can use the internationalization context API to get any element of the internationalization contexts scoped to an invocation. To programmatically access context elements, application components first resolve an internationalization context API reference, then call the appropriate API method to access the various context elements, such as the caller locale or the invocation time zone. These elements can be used in calls to Java 2 SDK internationalization API methods; for example, to perform localizations such as formatting messages, configuring dates, or comparing strings.
See Also
Internationalization
Related Tasks
Assembling internationalized applications
Administering the internationalization service
Task overview: Internationalizing application components (internationalization service)