Setting the default locale

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This topic only applies to BAW, and is located in the BAW repository. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15
The locale that your work portal, Workplace or Process Portal, applies when the user has set no preference is the locale of the Java™ virtual machine (JVM). By changing the JVM locale, you change the default locale.

Before you begin

The locale that you want for Workplace or Process Portal must be listed in the available.locales mashups custom property.

About this task

Note: The set-user-locale-preference-on-login property for Heritage Process Portal (deprecated) is not available for Process Portal.
You can read more information about localization and custom properties.

Procedure

To change the default locale for the JVM on a WebSphere® Application Server server:

  1. Log in to the WebSphere Administrative Console.
  2. Go to Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers and select your application server.
  3. Under Server Infrastructure, expand Java and Process Management, then click Process Definition > Java Virtual Machine.
  4. In the Generic JVM arguments field, add the following parameters: -Duser.language=<language_code> -Duser.country=<country_code> -Duser.timezone=<timezone>. For example, -Duser.language=en -Duser.country=US -Duser.timezone=America/New_York.
  5. Click OK and Save to master configuration.
  6. Restart the application server.
    • If the locale is listed, you have nothing more to do.
    • If the language is listed but not the country variant, the country variant might still be partially supported (date formats should be). Add the ll-cc code (lowercase and dash separator) to the list in available.locales.
      Note: Language support also extends to specific countries. For example, different locale options are provided for English (en_US, en_CA), French (fr and fr_CA), and Portuguese (pt and pt_BR). If you add a locale for a language variant, such as British or Australian English, or Colombian or Mexican Spanish, you must update the available.locales mashup configuration property from the WebSphere Application Server administration console. Make sure that you write the values for this property in lowercase, separate the value elements with a dash (-), and separate the values with commas, as follows: en-gb,en-au,es-co,es-mx
    • If a language is not listed, it is not supported.