In my XPages application, I use a managed Java bean (scope = application) for translating strings:
public class Translator extends HashMap<String,String> implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
public String language = "en";
public Translator() { super(); this.init(null); }
public Translator(String language) { super(); this.init(language); }
public boolean init(String language) {
try {
FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
if (language!=null) this.language=language;
Properties data = new Properties();
// load translation strings from properties file in WEB-INF
data.load(new InputStreamReader(context.getExternalContext().getResourceAsStream("WEB-INF/translations_"+this.language+".properties"),"UTF-8"));
super.putAll(new HashMap<String,String>((Map) data));
// serializing the bean to a file on disk > this part of the code is just here to easily test how often the bean is initialized
ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(new FileOutputStream("C:\\dump\\Translator_"+this.language+"_"+new Date().getTime()+".ser"));
out.writeObject(this);
out.close();
return true;
}
catch (Exception e) { return false; }
}
public String getLanguage() { return this.language; }
public boolean setLanguage(String language) { return this.init(language); }
// special get function which is more tolerant than HashMap.get
public String get(Object key) {
String s = (String) key;
if (super.containsKey(s)) return super.get(s);
if (super.containsKey(s.toLowerCase())) return super.get(s.toLowerCase());
String s1 = s.substring(0,1);
if (s1.toLowerCase().equals(s1)) {
s1=super.get(s1.toUpperCase()+s.substring(1));
if (s1!=null) return s1.substring(0,1).toLowerCase()+s1.substring(1);
} else {
s1=super.get(s1.toLowerCase()+s.substring(1));
if (s1!=null) return s1.substring(0,1).toUpperCase()+s1.substring(1);
}
return s;
}
}
I use "extends HashMap" because in this way i only have to write "${myTranslatorBean['someText']}" (expression language) to get the translations into my XPage. The problem is that the bean is re-initialized at EVERY complete refresh or page reload. I tested this by serializing the bean to a unique file on the disk at the end of every initialisiation. In my other managed Java beans (which do not use "extends HashMap") this problem does not occur. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with my code? Thanks in advance.
EDIT: The entry for the managed Java bean in the faces-config.xml looks like this:
<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>myTranslatorBean</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>com.ic.Translator</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>application</managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean>