[opencms-dev] Problems with labels in workplace_ru.properties

[Paul-Inge Flakstad]

Self-replying :)

Given that my assumptions are correct: 
The workplace_xx.properties files are read during the workplace initialization, using the default encoding of the JVM, which typically depends upon the locale and charset of the underlying operating system.

In my case, the workplace_ru.properties file is read as ISO-8859-1, and as a result, no strings fetched using CmsJspActionElement#label(String) make any sense - it's all gibberish.

The solution is something along the lines of this:

    public String labelUnicode(String key) {
        String jvmDefaultCharsetName = Charset.defaultCharset().displayName();
        try {
            return new String(this.label(key).getBytes(jvmDefaultCharsetName), "UTF-8");
        } catch (java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            return new String("[Default label: " + this.label(key) + "]");
        }
    }

This seems to be working just perfectly. I don't have to think about character encoding since utf-8 is the default encoding all over OpenCms (I can just leave the "content-encoding" property blank), and I can even mix special characters from different languages all in one .properties file.

I would even propose to add a method, like the one suggested above, to CmsJspActionElement. (I'm pretty sure I attempted every single possibility within OpenCms to get the correct strings from my workplace_ru.properties returned, using the "standard" label(String), but never got anything but strange symbols. If someone for some reason _needs_ to have their JVM default encoding set to ISO-8859-1, while at the same time supporting a multilanguage OpenCms system, there seems to be no method native to OpenCms that enables getting correct russian (for example) strings from the workplace_xx.properties files.)

Cheers,
Paul

PS: I know I should propably set the JVM default encoding manually to UTF-8 instead, but I'm unsure of any possible side-effects. So until then, this is a pretty decent workaround.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org 
> [mailto:opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org] On Behalf Of 
> Paul-Inge Flakstad
> Sent: 29. september 2009 22:57
> To: The OpenCms mailing list
> Subject: [opencms-dev] Problems with labels in workplace_ru.properties
> 
> Hi all
> 
> In one of our multilanguage sites, Russian and English 
> content is mixed. Everything's working as expected (since 
> we're using UTF-8 encoding), but all the labels read from 
> workplace_ru.properties, using 
> CmsJspActionElement#label(String), is just gibberish... 
> 
> As a workaround, I created my own label(String, Locale) 
> method that does nothing more than simply read the value 
> straight out from the workplace_ru.properties file. When 
> using this method to access the labels, everything is OK, but 
> the .properties file is "parsed" upon each invocation, so 
> it's not desirable to keep using it.
> 
> I've tried this:
> Set the HTML charset to utf-8.
> Set the JSP pageEncoding to utf-8. 
> Set the OpenCms <defaultcontentencoding> to utf-8.
> I also checked the HTTP response header, it also says utf-8.
> 
> Also, I been experimenting with different constellations of 
> encodings (including Cyrillic iso-8859-5), but to no avail.
> 
> Can anyone please provide some insight?
> 
> (Just so there's no mistake, I'm reading the labels from the 
> .properties file to use them as text on a web-page, not in 
> the OpenCms workplace. Things like "Photo:", "Published by " 
> and alike.)
> 
> Cheers,
> Paul
> 
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