JSTL fmt:message and resource bundle result in ???hello?

Question

i am trying to use JSLT. i followed some instructions.

1. i've installed a tomcat on xamppp activated it with the control panel and it's working fine on port 8080.
2. in the WEB-INF\lib directory i've added a "jstl-1.2.jar" file and a Messages_en_US.properties

this is my test.jsp:

<fmt:setLocale value="en_US" scope="application"/>
<fmt:setBundle basename="Messages"/>
<fmt:message key="welcome" />

<h1>test</h1>

<p>Counting to three:</p>
<% for (int i=1; i<4; i++) { %>
<p>This number is <%= i %>.</p>
<% } %>
<p>Done counting.</p>

the counting worked so my jsp is valid. but the welcome just shows ???welcome???.

what am i doing wrong? am i putting the bundles in the right directory? i tried putting the messages bundle in classes and in WEB-INF - no help. i also tried restarting the server - it didn't help.

how can i use string bundles? how can i use several bundles?

cheers,

Solution

A number of things could happen.

When you say

<fmt:setLocale value="en_US" ... />

it means that you should have Messages_en.properties or Messages_en-US.properties. Using

<fmt:setBundle basename="Messages" var="msg" />

you should assign the loaded messages into a variable inside the current scope. When you need to print a message, then, you should use

<fmt:message key="welcome" bundle="${msg}" />

to display the message.