Android: How to get string in specific locale WITHOUT changing the current locale

Question

Use Case: Logging error messages as displayed to the user.

However you don't want to have messages in your log that depend on the locale of the user's device. On the other hand you don't want to change the locale of the user's device just for your (technical) logging. Can this be achieved? I found a couple of potential solutions here on stackoverflow:

• how to get string from different locales in Android?
• Can I access to resources from different locale android?
• android - Get string from default locale using string in specific locale
• maybe even android - Changing Locale within the app itself

However, they all result in changing the locale of my device (until the next configuration change).

Anyway, my current workaround is like so:

public String getStringInDefaultLocale(int resId) {
    Resources currentResources = getResources();
    AssetManager assets = currentResources.getAssets();
    DisplayMetrics metrics = currentResources.getDisplayMetrics();
    Configuration config = new Configuration(
            currentResources.getConfiguration());
    config.locale = DEFAULT_LOCALE;
    /*
     * Note: This (temporiarily) changes the devices locale! TODO find a
     * better way to get the string in the specific locale
     */
    Resources defaultLocaleResources = new Resources(assets, metrics,
            config);
    String string = defaultLocaleResources.getString(resId);
    // Restore device-specific locale
    new Resources(assets, metrics, currentResources.getConfiguration());
    return string;
}

To be honest, I don't like this approach at all. It's not efficient and - thinking about concurrency and all that - it might result in some view in the "wrong" locale.

So - Any ideas? Maybe this could be achieved using ResourceBundles, just like in standard Java?

Answer 1

You can use this for API +17

@NonNull
@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1)
public static String getStringByLocal(Activity context, int id, String locale) {
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration(context.getResources().getConfiguration());
    configuration.setLocale(new Locale(locale));
    return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration).getResources().getString(id);
}

Update (1) : How to support old versions.

@NonNull
public static String getStringByLocal(Activity context, int resId, String locale) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1)
        return getStringByLocalPlus17(context, resId, locale);
    else
        return getStringByLocalBefore17(context, resId, locale);
}

@NonNull
@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1)
private static String getStringByLocalPlus17(Activity context, int resId, String locale) {
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration(context.getResources().getConfiguration());
    configuration.setLocale(new Locale(locale));
    return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration).getResources().getString(resId);
}

private static String getStringByLocalBefore17(Context context,int resId, String language) {
    Resources currentResources = context.getResources();
    AssetManager assets = currentResources.getAssets();
    DisplayMetrics metrics = currentResources.getDisplayMetrics();
    Configuration config = new Configuration(currentResources.getConfiguration());
    Locale locale = new Locale(language);
    Locale.setDefault(locale);
    config.locale = locale;
/*
 * Note: This (temporarily) changes the devices locale! TODO find a
 * better way to get the string in the specific locale
 */
    Resources defaultLocaleResources = new Resources(assets, metrics, config);
    String string = defaultLocaleResources.getString(resId);
    // Restore device-specific locale
    new Resources(assets, metrics, currentResources.getConfiguration());
    return string;
}

Update (2): Check this article

Answer 2

You can save all the strings of the default locale in a Map inside a global class, like Application that is executed when launching the app:

public class DualLocaleApplication extends Application {

    private static Map<Integer, String> defaultLocaleString;

    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        Resources currentResources = getResources();
        AssetManager assets = currentResources.getAssets();
        DisplayMetrics metrics = currentResources.getDisplayMetrics();
        Configuration config = new Configuration(
                currentResources.getConfiguration());
        config.locale = Locale.ENGLISH;
        new Resources(assets, metrics, config);
        defaultLocaleString = new HashMap<Integer, String>();
        Class<?> stringResources = R.string.class;
        for (Field field : stringResources.getFields()) {
            String packageName = getPackageName();
            int resId = getResources().getIdentifier(field.getName(), "string", packageName);
            defaultLocaleString.put(resId, getString(resId));
        }
        // Restore device-specific locale
        new Resources(assets, metrics, currentResources.getConfiguration());
    }

    public static String getStringInDefaultLocale(int resId) {
        return defaultLocaleString.get(resId);
    }

}

This solution is not optimal, but you won't have concurrency problems.

Answer 3

For api +17 we could use this:

public static String getDefaultString(Context context, @StringRes int stringId){
    Resources resources = context.getResources();
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration(resources.getConfiguration());
    Locale defaultLocale = new Locale("en");
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
        LocaleList localeList = new LocaleList(defaultLocale);
        configuration.setLocales(localeList);
        return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration).getString(stringId);
    } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1){
        configuration.setLocale(defaultLocale);
        return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration).getString(stringId);
    }
    return context.getString(stringId);
}

Answer 4

Try this:

  Configuration conf = getResources().getConfiguration();
  conf.locale = new Locale("ar"); // locale I used here is Arabic

  Resources resources = new Resources(getAssets(), getResources().getDisplayMetrics(), conf);
  /* get localized string */
  String appName = resources.getString(R.string.app_name);