Introduction
I've recently been delving into some globalization (or globalisation for us Brits) and didn't particularly like .NET's way of quietly making you split your resources up.
Perhaps I'd better explain this. The Windows Forms designer includes good support for localization, you can utilise this by setting the Localizable
property of the Form
to true
and changing the Language
and simply type away. If, however, you need to include separate messages into your program, you must create a separate resource file and load things from there.
Now I'd assume (read: I haven't checked) that .NET lumps all these resources together when it compiles the application, but supposing you want someone else to translate stuff for you, you must manage several files: one for your custom messages and one for every form in the application.
So in summary, I wanted a solution in which I'd only have to manage one resource file per supported language.
Localizer
Localizer
is a simple Component
which implements the IExtenderProvider
interface. It provides a property called ResourceID
. There is only one important property for the component, ResourceManager
. This can be set to point to an instance of your project resource manager, wherever that may be.
By setting the ResourceManager
property, you enable Localizer
to lookup localized strings based on the ResourceID
of each control and set the Text
property of that control.
Example
To use Localizer
you can simply add a reference to the assembly and drop the component onto the form. Once that is done, somewhere you must set the ResourceManager
property. Once this is done, no more is required at runtime because changing the ResourceManager
automatically refreshes all the Control.Text
properties.
You can assign a ResourceID
to each control you wish to be localized. Note: If the ResourceID
is an empty string, then the text will always remain as the text specified in the designer or code.
In VS2005, perhaps the simplest solution to adding localized strings is to simply add more .resx
files to the project, naming them in the pattern seen in the screenshot. Visual Studio will then perform the necessary operations to compile and embed these resources.
The final stage would be to put the translated strings / messages for each ResourceID
into each of the .resx
files.
Demo Application
A simple demonstration application has been included which dynamically changes the text of controls based on the CurrentUICulture
. There is a textbox to change this culture while the application is running.
Summary
As usual, I welcome any suggestions for improvements, bug fixes and the usual stuff that we have to deal with in our daily lives as developers.
History
- 16th July, 2007: Initial post
Ed is a student who due to a form of cancer (now clear) took a year out before going to Imperial College, London to study Electronic Engineering.
His interests include shooting (clay-pigeon (shotgun), air-rifle and rifle), playing with his three labradors (Sandy, Rosie and Tundra), programming (most experienced in C# and C, although those are not the only ones), walking (has completed Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award), playing games and reading.
He lives in two places on a 57 acre farm in West Waleswith the rest of the family during the holidays; and Greater London during term time.
Languages and Technologies: C#, C, VB6, VB.NET, XAML, (X)HTML, CSS, XSLT, Assembler (PIC), ASP.NET, WPF, Windows.Forms, ASP, VBScript, JavaScript, Pascal / Delphi, XML
Current Stuff:
1st Year MEng Electronics Engineering (Imperial College, London)