Using Resources in Exceptions

Question

I have an app that uses custom Exceptions, such as this:

public class SomeException extends Exception{
    private int         iCode;
    private String      iMessage;

    public SomeException(){
        iCode = 201;
        iMessage = **//Get the localized string R.string.error_201??**
    }


    @Override
    public String getMessage() {
        return iMessage;
    }


    @Override
    public int getCode() {
        return iCode;
    }

}

Obviously, I want lo localize the error message. I have possible solutions but non of them satisfy me.

1) Pass "Context" to the constructor, and do ctx.getString(R.string.error_201) --> Fail, as this Exceptions are sometimes thrown from MODEL classes, so they don't have a Context

2) Pass "Context" when retriveing the message in getMessage() function, --> Fail, It's necesary to override the super method, to work as all other Exceptions.

Solution I have now: All activities in my app have this onCreate:

public void onCreate(...){
    Utils.RESOURCES = getResources();
    ...
}

Very dirty code... I don't like the solution. My question is then,: is there a way to access the resources without the Context? And most important, How would an application such as mine solve this problem?

Answer 1

What about

public class MyException extends Exception {
  private int iCode;

  public MyException(int code) {
    this.iCode = code;
  }

  @Override
  public String getMessage() {
    return "MyException code " + String.valueOf(iCode);
  }

  public String getLocalizedMessage(Context ctx) {
    String message;
    if (iCode == 201)
      message = ctx.getString(R.string.error_201);
    else if (iCode == 202)
      message = ctx.getString(R.string.error_202);
    // ...

  }
}

Even if there was way to access context in different way, you should not do it. If you need to emit exceptions where you cannot pass Context, you should be able to access context before you display such error. I cannot see reason why you should create localized error messages from constructor. You can log to logcat not localized versions if you need. And where you want to display something in UI, you should have context at hand.