Bringing Internationalization to Mobile Phones with JSR-238
Jere Käpyaho - Nokia Corporation
Intended Audience: Software Engineers, Systems Analysts, Testers
Session Level: Intermediate
The most popular application programming environment for mobile phones is the MID Profile of Java 2, Micro Edition (MIDP). It is available in millions of handsets from Nokia and other mobile phone manufacturers. MIDP applications, called "MIDlets", can easily be downloaded over the air to phones.
Neither MIDP nor its underlying Connected, Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) include internationalization services, since concerns for excessive memory footprint demanded the pruning of many features typically found in desktop Java.
Nokia has made an effort to bring the appropriate internationalization capabilities to mobile phones running MIDP over CLDC. The result of that effort is a specification called the Mobile Internationalization API, also known as JSR-238, developed in cooperation with interested parties in the Java Community Process (JCP).
We present the major features of the JSR-238 API that help MIDlet programmers create properly internationalized MIDP applications. We describe what went into JSR-238, and how the result differs from the Java I18N APIs found in Java 2, Standard Edition. We also examine the API design process and the decisions made, and present programming examples that use the API in actual MIDlets.
At the time of writing this abstract JSR-238 is approaching the final stages of the JCP process. It is expected to be finalized by IUC 27.
Attendees should be familiar with Java and preferably also MIDP.