IntelliJ IDEA 2023.3 Help

Resource bundles

A resource bundle is a set of properties files with the same base name and a language-specific suffix. For example, if you create file_en.properties and file_de.properties, IntelliJ IDEA will recognize and combine them into a resource bundle.

IntelliJ IDEA marks resource bundles with the following icon: The resource bundle icon.

Create a new resource bundle

  1. In the Project tool window, select the directory where the new resource bundle should be created.

  2. In the main menu, go to File | New | Resource Bundle, or press Alt+Insert and click Resource Bundle.

  3. In the Create Resource Bundle dialog, specify the base name of the resource bundle.

    If necessary, select the Use XML-based properties files.

  4. In the dialog, you may also define the additional locales you want to include.

    By default, the list of locales includes the Default locale which is defined by a properties file without a language-specific suffix.

    To add locales, click the Add button and type the comma-separated suffixes of the required locales.

    If you already have properties files created in your project, those locales will appear as suggestions.

  5. Click OK when ready.

    Create resource bundle dialog

A new node Resource Bundle '<base_name>' appears in the Project tool window:

Resource bundle

By default, the bundle contains properties files for all specified locales. You can dissociate it to show only the properties files without the bundle.

Dissociate a resource bundle

  1. Right-click the resource bundle you want to dissociate.

  2. From the context menu, click Dissociate Resource Bundle.

Combine several properties files into a resource bundle

  1. Select the properties files to be combined.

  2. Right-click the selection.

  3. From the context menu, click Combine to Resource Bundle.

  4. Specify the base name of the resource bundle.

Editing resource bundles

Once you create several properties files with the same name and different locale suffixes, IntelliJ IDEA automatically recognizes them and groups them in the Project view into a resource bundle.

Resource bundle

The Resource Bundle Editor plugin provides an editor for convenient editing of localizable strings in properties files.

Open the Resource Bundle editor

Do one of the following:

  • Select a resource bundle in the Project tool window, and press F4.

  • Open a properties file that is a part of a bundle and click the Resource Bundle tab at the bottom of the editor:

    Resource bundle editor tab

Edit property keys

  1. Open a properties file.

  2. Add, change, or delete keys as required. IntelliJ IDEA reflects the changes in the Resource Bundle editor.

Use the Resource Bundle editor to change property values, which will ensure that you edit the entire set of property files simultaneously. IntelliJ IDEA creates respective records in each file of the bundle.

Edit property values

  1. Select the property key in the left pane of the resource bundle editor.

  2. In the target locale frame, edit the value as required. IntelliJ IDEA updates the respective properties file accordingly.

    Resource bundle editor

Here, you can also add new properties (use the the Property button button), sort, and group properties.

When editing a resource bundle, keep the following in mind:

  • IntelliJ IDEA highlights properties with no values or those omitted in one of the properties files.

  • To convert between escape sequences (for example, \u00df) and unicode literals (corresponding national characters, such as ß) in properties files and in the Resource Bundle editor, select the Transparent native-to-ascii conversion checkbox on the File Encoding page of the IDE settings.

    For more information, refer to Encoding.

  • It is possible to encode non-ASCII symbols using both uppercase and lowercase hex sequences (for example, \u00E3 and \u00e3). By default, IntelliJ IDEA supports only uppercase sequences. To use lowercase hex sequences, set the idea.native2ascii.lowercase property in the idea.properties file to true.

    For more information, refer to Platform properties.

Productivity tips

Copy property keys and values

  • When editing properties files, you can press Alt+Enter to use the context actions for copying the key or value of the property at the caret to the clipboard.

    Context actions to copy the key and value of a property
Last modified: 19 March 2024