Create message catalogs

You can create a catalog several ways:

As a subclass of java.util.ResourceBundle
As a Java properties file

The properties file approach is more common, because properties files can be prepared by people without programming experience and can be added into the application without modifying the application code.

Perform the following steps to create message catalogs:

For each string identified for localization, add a line to the message catalog that lists the string's key and value in the current language.

In a properties file, each line has the following structure:
```
key = string associated with the key
```
Save the catalog, and give it a locale-specific name.

To enable resolution to a specific properties file, the Java API specifies naming conventions for the properties files in a resource bundle as bundleName_localeID.properties. Give the set of message catalogs a collective name (for example, BankingResources).

For information about locale IDs that are recognized by the Java API, see Internationalization resources.

Example: Message catalogs

The following English catalog (BankingResources_en.properties) supports the labels for the list and two list items:

accountString = Accounts
savingsString = Savings
checkingString = Checking

The corresponding German catalog (BankingResources_de.properties) supports the labels as follows:

accountString = Konten
savingsString = Sparkonto
checkingString = Girokonto

Next step: Assemble your application code.