Localizing Your Application

Liferay’s localization framework helps you create and use localized messages in minutes. You create your messages in a default properties file called Language.properties and localize them in properties files that use the convention Language_xx.properties, where xx is the locale code. After deploying your app, the messages are available to your templates. Liferay’s JSP tags, such as <liferay-ui:message .../> display them in the user’s current locale automatically, without requiring you to access ResourceBundle or Locale objects explicitly. Here are the steps:

Create a default language properties file called Language.properties in your project’s resource bundle folder.

Project Type	Resource Bundle Folder
Bean Portlet	`src/main/resources/content/`
JSF Portlet	`src/main/resources/`
Liferay MVC Portlet	`src/main/resources/content/`
PortletMVC4Spring Portlet	`src/main/java/resources/content/`
Angular Widget	`features/localization/`
React Widget	`features/localization/`
Vue.js Widget	`features/localization/`

Specify your language properties (language keys) using key/value pairs. For example, create a friendly greeting.
```
howdy-partner=Howdy, Partner!
```
Configure your app’s resource bundle and the locales you’re supporting. The locales your Liferay DXP instance supports are specified in its portal properties file (here are Liferay DXP’s default locales. For example, these configurations support translations for English and Spanish locales:

@PortletConfiguration class annotation: Can be used in Portlet 3.0 portlets such as Bean Portlets.
```
@PortletConfiguration (
    ...
    resourceBundle="content.Language",
    supportedLocales = {"en", "es"}
)
```
Portlet descriptor portlet.xml: Can be used in any portlet WAR.
```
<portlet>
...
<supported-locale>en</supported-locale>
<supported-locale>es</supported-locale>
<resource-bundle>content.Language</resource-bundle>
...
</portlet>
```
@Component class annotation: Can be used in a portlet module such as a Liferay MVC Portlet.
```
@Component (
    ...
    property = {
        ...
        "javax.portlet.supported-locale=en",
        "javax.portlet.supported-locale=es",
        "javax.portlet.resource-bundle=content.Language"
    }
)
```
Create language properties for a locale. For demonstration purposes, create one manually. Automatically generating translations is discussed later.

For example, create a Spanish translation by copying Language.properties to Language_es.properties and translating the property values to Spanish.
```
howdy-partner=Hola, Compañero!
```
In your front-end template code, use the language property. For example, a JSP could use the howdy-partner property via the <liferay-ui:message /> tag.
```
<%@ taglib uri="http://liferay.com/tld/ui" prefix="liferay-ui" %> 
...
<liferay-ui:message key="howdy-partner" />
...
```
Tip: The liferay-ui tag library has several tags (e.g., alert, error, and message) that accept language keys.
Deploy your application and view it in different locales. For example, you could view the app locally in Spanish by specifying the es locale code in the URL (e.g., http://localhost:8080/es/...).