Properties Files & Different Locations

[Jason Cavett]

I'm working on an application that, while generic (with respect to the
problem its solving), requires different terminology depending on what
field its being used in. So, I want to provide the ability to skin
the application through a properties file. I currently provide a way
for the user to select a skin (which I hope to have in a ZIP file -
but I haven't determined that yet). I have not yet finished the
skinning feature because of my follow up question...

Using a ResourceBundle, how do I load up that resource so it uses the
skin the user has selected (assume it can be anywhere on the disk).
I've seen something like this when I externalize Strings in Eclipse,
but the messages.properties file is located within Eclipse.

private static final String BUNDLE_NAME =
"com.company.filehandler.messages";
private static final ResourceBundle RESOURCE_BUNDLE =
ResourceBundle .getBundle(BUNDLE_NAME);

I'm unsure of how to pass in the "messages.properties" file that a
user may want from their skin. (It gets even more confusing when I
want to skin the icons as well.)


Thanks for any help or direction.