Accessing localisation ResourceBundle inside JavaFX FXML Controller

Question

I'm trying to add localisation functionality to a JavaFX program using FXML. From what I understand, when you create a FXMLLoader object, you can pass a ResourceBundle into the FXMLLoader's constructor like so:

FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader(Application.class.getResource("main-menu.fxml"),
        ResourceBundle.getBundle("com.example.myApp.MainMenu");

However, I want to be able to access the ResourceBundle inside one of my controllers, so that I can do something like this:

class MainMenuController {
    // ...
    @FXML
    protected void onButtonClick() {
        welcomeText.setText(localisationBundle.getString("greetMessage");
    }
    // ...
}

I have put the following initialize method inside my main menu controller...

@FXML
public void initialize(URL location, ResourceBundle bundle) {
    this.localisationBundle = bundle;
}

...but it does not get invoked when the program is run, and thus localisationBundle is null when my button is pressed. The initialize method only gets invoked when I change its signature to have no parameters. I have seen a suggestion on StackOverflow that my controller should implement Initializable, however the documentation says that this has been superceded.

My question is: Is there a way to get access to the ResourceBundle that is passed to the FXMLLoader's constructor? Is Initializable the only way I can do this or is there a better way?

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

The initialize() method taking the URL and ResourceBundle parameters only gets invoked if you implement Initializable. This interface has not been deprecated, so I think it is fine to use that approach; however it has been superseded by (to quote the documentation

automatic injection of location and resources properties into the controller.

To do this, you need:

public class MainMenuController {

    @FXML
    private ResourceBundle resources ;

    // if needed:
    @FXML
    private URL location ;

    // ...
    @FXML
    protected void onButtonClick() {
        welcomeText.setText(resources.getString("greetMessage");
    }
    // ...
}