jsf2 f:selectItem itemLabel complex i18n render - jsf

Question

I've a f:selectitem with its itemLabel and i want to render the label so "pretty"!
The problem:
<p:selectOneRadio id="selectRadio" value="#{somebean.somevalue}" layout="pageDirection" >
<f:selectItem itemLabel="#{msg['message.1']}" itemValue="1" />
<f:selectItem itemLabel="#{msg['message.2']}" itemValue="2" />
</p:selectOneRadio>
My properties i18n file:
message.1=some message by {0}
message.2=another message by {0}
I want to do a inline replacement of {0} by #{somebean.theUser}
The result should be something like this (bold included):
some message by <b>HUSTON</b>
In tag file i should do something like this (or in similar way)
<f:selectItem itemLabel="#{msg['message.1']{'<b>'+somebean.theUser+'</b>'}}" itemValue="1" />
In other words, i want to add the i18n string param replacement directly into itemLabel tag.
I've try with <f:facet name="itemLabel"> but nothing.
Someone can help me?
Thanks in advice,
Agharta

Answer 1

JSF won't let you do that from the markup side. There is no way to use for example <h:outputFormat /> for it.
Instead you need to simply create a bean, that will read the contents from properties file and format accordingly:
<p:selectOneRadio id="selectRadio" value="#{somebean.somevalue}" layout="pageDirection" >
<f:selectItem itemLabel="#{helperbean.someMessage}" itemValue="1" />
<f:selectItem itemLabel="#{helperbean.anotherMessage}" itemValue="2" />
</p:selectOneRadio>
That was JSF part, in your bean:
public String getSomeMessage() {
// Actually you need some common access helper, it is just simplified example
String messagePattern = null;
try {
ResourceBundle rb = ResourceBundle.getBundle("path/to/properties/file");
String messagePattern = rb.getString("message.1");
return MessageFormat.format(messagePattern, somebean.getTheUser());
} catch (MissingResourceException mre) {
logger.warn("Missing resource file or resource key", mre);
return "!message.1!"; // That will show you where the problem is
}
}
Few additional points regarding Localizability:
Please use meaningful key names. Something like "message.1" gives no context to translators. I don't know what you are up to, but maybe "some-module.select.message.radio.message.sent.by.pattern" will be something better - the translator needs to know a) where it will be displayed, b) what is the purpose of this text (whether it is some description, message pattern, general text, window/dialog title, button caption, etc.). Be sure to provide them such context.
Be sure to include formatting tags into the message itself. That means, the message should look like message.1=some message by <b>{0}</b> in your properties file. You'd be surprised how often these kind of tags need to be removed (or replaced with other emphasis means). You should be especially careful, since you seem to be doing something with RTL languages and bolded fonts does not work with them very well.