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2. Using Message and MessageList

2.1 Message

\[http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/resources/apidocs/org/apache/commons/resources/Message.html Message\] is an encapsulation of an individual message stored in a MessageList object, consisting of a message key (to be used to look up message text in an appropriate Resources implentation) plus up to four placeholder objects that can be used for parametric replacement in the message text.

Message

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defines two methods:

• getKey() - return the message key
• getValues() - return an array of replacement values
  

\[http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/resources/apidocs/org/apache/commons/resources/impl/BasicMessage.html BasicMessage\] is a basic implementation of a *Message* and provides convenience constructors for creating a Message with 1, 2, 3 or 4 replacement values.

For example, to create a message with two replacement values (100 and 200 in this case):

        Message message = new BasicMessage("error.range", "100", "200");

2.2 Message List

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\[http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/resources/apidocs/org/apache/commons/resources/MessageList.html MessageList\] a class that encapsulates messages. Messages can be either global or they are specific to a particular bean property. Each individual message is described by a *Message* object. MessageList, as its name implies, has similarities to a _java.util.List_ and provides methods for adding and retrieving messages.

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\[http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/resources/apidocs/org/apache/commons/resources/impl/BasicMessageList.html BasicMessageList\] is a basic implementation of a *MessageList*.

No Format
MessageList list = new BasicMessageList();

Messages can be stored under a Global Message Key or they can be stored under a specific Property Key

No Format
list.add(message); // stored for the Global Message Key list.add("OrderNo", message); // stored for property "OrderNo"

Sets of messages can be retrieved from the list either for a property, for the global message key or all messages:

No Format
Iterator allMsgs = list.get(); Iterator orderNoMsgs = list.get("OrderNo"); Iterator globalMsgs = list.get(getGlobalMessageKey());

2.3 Messages

\[http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/resources/apidocs/org/apache/commons/resources/Messages.html Messages\] is a _wrapper_ around any \[http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/resources/apidocs/org/apache/commons/resources/Resources.html Resources\] object that performs message string lookups from the Resources instance, and parameter replacement via *java.text.MessageFormat*.  For convenience, the same functionality is also available via static methods that accept a Resources parameter.

First you need to create the Messages object...

        Resources resources = factory.getResources("Bar", "file:c:/myapp/foo/Bar");
        Messages messages = new Messages(resources);

For example to retrieve the text for a message key "error.maximum" for the US locale with one replacement argument...

        String text = messages.get(Locale.US, "error.maximum", 1000);

Alternatively you can use the static methods...

        String text = Messages.get(resources, Locale.US, "error.maximum", 1000);

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