When you want to create other locales for JasperReports Server, translation is only one aspect of localization. Creating a locale includes these tasks:

The tasks in this section require you to edit these files:

About Properties Files

Resource bundles for JasperReports Server and Jaspersoft OLAP are Java properties files found in the .../WEB-INF/bundles directory. The properties files contain all the labels and messages used in JasperReports Server and Jaspersoft OLAP.

A bundle includes a default locale (for example, jasperserver_messages.properties), which is written in U.S. English. Then it consists of all the properties files with the same base name, but different locale (such as jasperserver_messages_fr.properties). Each file translates all of the strings of the default file into the language given by the locale. The Java programming language has rules for specifying locales and alternate locales and determining which locale in the bundle to use.

The standalone import and export tools have their own bundles located outside of the web app. The following bundles are located in the WAR file distribution package, under the buildomatic folder. This location also holds a copy of all bundles listed in the table above.

If you use the JasperReports Server portlet to display JasperReports Server content in a portal (such as Liferay), the deployed portlet includes properties files, as well:

Jaspersoft iReport Designer (iReport) and the iReport Plug-in for JasperReports Server (iReport plug-in) have their own resource bundles, including:

Creating a Resource Bundle

Create a resource bundle by making a copy of each *.properties file, using the following syntax for the copy’s file name:

<default_file_name>_<locale>.properties

where

<default_file_name> is the name of the default version of the properties file, and

<locale> is a Java-compliant locale identifier.

For example, consider the core JasperReports Server resource bundle. For various locales, it might be named as follows:

For a list of Java-compliant locales, please refer to the Java web site.

To create a new JasperReports Server resource bundle:

Some of the strings in the properties files are date formats and format masks that may need to be edited for the new locale. For more information, refer to Setting Date and Datetime Formats.

Setting Date and Datetime Formats

Each locale may have its own rules for displaying dates and datetime values. System date and datetime formatting is controlled by four patterns that are specified in the jasperserver_config_<locale>.properties file associated with a particular locale.

For example in the English resource bundle, the four entries are:

The first two keys are used to parse and format dates and datetime values using an internal java.util.DateFormat object across the whole application. These patterns should be non-localized date patterns, in accordance with the Java Development Kit (JDK) syntax.

The other two keys are used by the calendar control, which formats the user-selected date and datetime values in accordance with its own pattern syntax.

To change the system date and datetime formatting for a new locale, edit the strings specified by these keys.

Setting Data Format Masks

Each locale may have its own format masks that determine how numbers appear in the Ad Hoc Editor. To make the data format masks vary by locale, you must create an adhoc_masks file for the new locale. To do so, copy the file adhoc_masks.properties to a new name that specifies the new locale and change the masks defined in the new file. For example, the French file would be named adhoc_masks_fr.properties.

Customize the available data format masks for dates, integers, and decimals by editing the existing masking entries or adding new ones. The default entries are given in the following table:

The data format masks for each type are numbered consecutively from zero; create new masks by adding new entries. The keys of the new entries must follow the convention established in the default entries. For example, a new decimal data format mask might have this ID:

Date format masks are implemented using java.text.SimpleDateFormat and JasperReports extensions that provide access to predefined localized data format masks. New datetime masks must be specified in one of the following formats:

Both integer and decimal data format masks are implemented with java.text.DecimalFormat, which localizes characters in the format specification. For example, consider the case of the digit grouping symbol (thousands separator): in French, it is a space; in U.S. English, it is a comma. DecimalFormat handles both cases: if the number pattern #,##0 is used, the number 6000 appears as 6 000 in the French locale and as 6,000 in the U.S. English locale.

For more information about Java’s handling of decimal and date format masks, see: