Yesterday I discovered this thread http://blog.hibernate.org/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/2004/06/23#i18n. Gavin King discusses his preferred solution to the problem of using internationalized reference data as UI labels.

Unfortunately I don't understand how to implement the User.current().getLanguage() stuff. So is anybody out there able to send me a complete example of the source code of the LabelUserType and User objects ?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Bertrand GILLIS
bgillis@mainsys.be

Thats just an example "User" class with a static method. Any way you can get the "language setting of the currently logged in user" is fine.

OK. That's what I've guessed.

So in Gavin's example, how can I grab "the language setting of the currently logged in user" in the LabelUserType object when categories are retrieved from the database ?

When I retrieve categories, I don't figure out how is it possible to specify "the language setting of the currently logged user" that must be used in the LabelUserType object. LabelUserType object is referenced only in mapping files.

Well, you have to write that User class yourself or use something similar provided by your security/authorization framework. Really, thats not important for the pattern, you just need that value at this point. How it gets there is a) trivial and b) not related to persistence.

Sorry for my ignorance but it is not so trivial for me...

In my application, a User instance is stored in every new HttpSession when the user is correctly authentified. And I'm also able to retrieve the user's favorite language (locale) from this User instance. So I know how to get "the language setting of the currently logged in user". However I haven't got a clue how to get this User instance from within the LabelUserType class.

well ... there are a lot of ways how to do that ... all are more or less not really beautifull ;-)

One possibility is to store the current User in a ThreadLocal ... then you can
- add a static "getCurrent()"-Method to the User-Object
- or get the currentUser directly from the ThreadLocal ...

I like this versions because you don't have a dependency to the HTTPSession ... i would use the static getCurrent() ...

as an example you can look in the "HibernateUtil"-Class where you can access the current HibernateSession via ThreadLocal ...

Hope it helps ...

gtx
curio

There is a quick & dirty UserSession in CaveatEmptor as well.

Thanks to you both for your help.

Just curious... what are the possible ways if I still want to store User instance in the HttpSession ? I'm using the ActionFilter of appFuse in my application to do that (http://raibledesigns.com/downloads/appfuse/api/org/appfuse/webapp/filter/ActionFilter.java.html)[/url]

you can/should still add the User to your HttpSession ... with "no dependency" i've ment that the caller of "User.getCurrent()" doesn't need to know anything about a HttpSession ... even the implementation of "getCurrent()" needn't .. therefore it would still work if you want to use e.g. a Swing-GUI.

The only one knowing that the current User is in the HttpSession is the one setting the User to the ThreadLocal ...

Sorry for not making my point clearer ...

gtx
curio