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package com.sun.enterprise.util;

/**
 * A local string manager.
 * This interface describes the access to i18n messages for classes that need
 * them.
 */

public interface LocalStringManager {

    /**
     * Get a localized string.
     * Strings are stored in a single property file per package named
     * LocalStrings[_locale].properties. Starting from the class of the
     * caller, we walk up the class hierarchy until we find a package
     * resource bundle that provides a value for the requested key.
     *
     * <p>This simplifies access to resources, at the cost of checking for
     * the resource bundle of several classes upon each call. However, due
     * to the caching performed by <tt>ResourceBundle</tt> this seems 
     * reasonable.
     *
     * <p>Due to that, sub-classes <strong>must</strong> make sure they don't
     * have conflicting resource naming.
     * @param callerClass The object making the call, to allow per-package
     * resource bundles
     * @param key The name of the resource to fetch
     * @param defaultValue The default return value if not found
     * @return The localized value for the resource
     */
    public String getLocalString(
	Class callerClass,
	String key,
	String defaultValue
    );

    /**
     * Get a local string for the caller and format the arguments accordingly.
     * @param callerClass The caller (to walk through its class hierarchy)
     * @param key The key to the local format string
     * @param fmt The default format if not found in the resources
     * @param arguments The set of arguments to provide to the formatter
     * @return A formatted localized string
     */
    public String getLocalString(
	Class callerClass,
	String key,
	String defaultFormat,
	Object arguments[]
    );
}