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This page provides a brief overview of:
- What is locale?
- Which locale parameters are directly configurable in Magnolia.
What is locale?
Locale is more often associated with the language parameter, which is usually defined by a two-, three- or four-letter language code, standardized under ISO 639. See the IANA Language Subtag Registry for a complete list of available language codes and language variants.
Nevertheless, the set of locale parameters is much broader than just the parameter for language. Any operation that requires a locale to perform its task is locale-sensitive. For example, even displaying a number may be a locale-sensitive operation: the number should be formatted according to the conventions of the user's native country, region, or culture.
Locale-sensitive parameters
The following is a list of the most common parameters that one should be aware of when implementing a locale-sensitive operation:
- Language
- For instance, British English:
en_GB
vs American English:en_US
. - See the AdminCentral and public locales page for configuration in Magnolia and java.util.Locale .
- For instance, British English:
- Time zone
- Nine standard time zones in the USA, for example.
- See the Time zone subpage and java.util.TimeZone .
- Nine standard time zones in the USA, for example.
- Date-time format
- UK:
14 March 2016
vs US:March 14, 2016
. For details see java.text.DateFormat .
- UK:
- Number format
- English:
3.14
vs Czech:3,14
, for details see java.text.NumberFormat .
- English:
- Paper size
- US, Canada and other countries:
ANSI Letter
vsISO A4
in many other nations.
- US, Canada and other countries:
- Currency format
- Please refer to Currency codes - ISO 4217, listing currency codes used in banking and business globally.
Further resources
- Internationalization: Understanding Locale in the Java Platform (by John O'Conner)
- Locale (computer software) (Wikipedia)
- Decimal mark: Influence of calculators and computers (Wikipedia)
- Writing paper and certain classes of printed matter - ISO 216:2007
- Country Codes - ISO 3166