Question

Is it acceptable to create large static resource files? For example:

public class Resources {
    public static String STRING1 = "xxx";
    public static String STRING2 = "xxx";
    ...
    public static String STRINGN = "xxx";
}

I want to have a large file that will have a list of all of the strings that the application will use. Will this cause problems? I’m not entirely sure how static classes are held in memory, so I don’t know if this causes memory issues. Is it too “ugly” or not good form? Is there a better way to do it?

Answer 1

I would save language files and such things in the filesystem as plain text (or some special format). Then you can change the text, etc. easily. Then you can write a static class (LanguageFactory) to get your strings.

Example language file:

English language file

!–OutGameMenu Strings–!

joinGame = Join Game
createGame = Create Game

LanguageFactory:

public class LanguageFactory {
    private static final String PREFIX = "/languages/";
    public static final int ENGLISH = 1;
    public static final int GERMAN = 2;
    public static final int DEFAULT = ENGLISH;
    //List of available InProperties:

    public static final String JOIN_GAME = "joinGame";
    public static final String CREATE_GAME = "createGame";

    private static Properties language;

    public static String getString(String text){
        if(language == null){
            setLanguage(DEFAULT);
        }
        return language.getProperty(text);
    }

    public static void setLanguage(int language){
        switch (language) {
        case ENGLISH:
            setLanguage("en.lang");
            break;
        case GERMAN:
            setLanguage("de.lang");
            break;
        }
    }

    private static void setLanguage(String path){
        language = new Properties();
        try {
            InputStream fi = LanguageFactory.class.getResourceAsStream((PREFIX+path));
            language.load(fi);
            fi.close();
        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}