How to get same variable from multiple resource files - c#

I am developing a small project about using multiple language.
I have three resource files
MainForm.resx // Default version => English
MainForm.US.resx // English version
I define
MainForm.JP.resx // Japanese version
I define
I want to get value of each variable (btnCancel, btnLogin, lbPassword, lbUsername, ...)
Now, I do
From MainForm.US.resx, I build to MainForm.US.designer.cs (MainForm_US class)
From MainForm.JP.resx, I build to MainForm.JP.designer.cs (MainForm_JP class)
I make another class MainFormResource.cs. Here, I will check Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.Name value
If is equal "ja-JP", I get value from MainForm.JS.designer.cs (MainForm_JP class)
If is equal "en-US", I get value from MainForm.US.designer.cs (MainForm_US class)
But if my project is large, it will take me more time to do that.
How should I do to get the value of lbUsername, lbPassword, ...?
p/s: I use Windows Form Application in Visual Studio Ultimate 2012

When creating RESX files you only need to activate the automatic code generation on the root file (MainForm.resx in your case).
Visual Studio will generate the code which includes the usage of RescourceManager.
The satellite assemblies will also be generated automatically.
So as NightOwl888 already mentioned, you should read the documentation about using Resx files and globalization / localization features of .NET

Related

C# Localized Resources.resx doesn't allow for other languages

Good evening,
I happen to have an issue with Winforms and Resources.resx.
The app I'm working on is built via 'Winforms App' template selectable via Visual Studio.
The issue I'm having is kind of outside of winforms localization - which I think is important to mention.
Here's my issue:
- I've created a 'HistoryManager' class, which has only one method and one action to perform - add a history to the SQL database.
- I've created Resource.resx file, entered a format string into it under "MsgTaskAdded" which is equal to "Task {0} has been added to {1}".
- The said string adds to the database flawlessly.
Resources.resx works well - if I change MsgTaskAdded resource string, it changes what will be added to database .
Now, the issue I'm having is.
- I've created a Resources.de-DE.resx file, copied strings from Resources.resx and translated to german.
- Changed CurrentThread.CurrentCulture and CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture to 'de-DE'.
As a result, the text added to database is STILL in english, as if the file wasn't found and it fell back into using the default Resources.resx.
Make certain that your Resources.de-DE.resx file is contained within the Properties folder of your project, and that it has a Build Action of Embedded Resource, so that it gets properly associated to your default Resources.resx during compile. The culture settings on CurrentThread also need to happen before the call to the database, ideally somewhere in your static void Main() function before the Application.Run(…) call.
This should produce a culture-specific folder in your bin\<build_configuration> folder that contains a file named <your_app>.resources.dll. If needed, you can crack this open with a tool like ILSpy or Reflector to verify that the translated resources exist in the expected place within the assembly.
Maybe the reason in that how you're changing the thread culture. I did exectly what you did and its worked. That is how I've changed the culture
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE");
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE");
Console.WriteLine(Resources.Hello);
}
it prints "Hallo"
I found a solution.
If you guys ever have issue with the Resources.resx, make sure the localized file isn't: Resources.de-DE.resx or Resources.pl-PL.resx, instead - use only the first bit (Resources.de.resx) and make sure to open the file and set accessors to 'Internal' so it generates you a Designer file with proper code.

How to get localized *.resx Files (embedded Resource)

I have my loacalized *.resx files in another project to which I set a reference (it's a solution with mulltiple projects, so we have a *.Common project where we have styles, localization...). by now I have two *resx:
TextObjects.resx ------> english/invariant
TextObjects.de.resx --> german
How can i get these Files (the cultures of it)? Because I use WPFLocalizeExtension the *.resx-files need to be embedded resources.
I found only a way to watch inside the Resourcefile and get it's Keys, but not how many and which files i have.
Also I face two other problems:
The default invariant Language ist shown as this. Is there a way, without an Converter, to show it as english?
I like do set the systems CurrentCulture as first culture. If there is no localization for that the Extension correctly uses the Invariant Localization. BUT if the language doesn't exist it still get added to the MergedAvailableCultures and is as a result also shown in the ComboBox to which i bound this list. How can I avoid this?

Can we skip ResourceManager?

I've working on a project where I'm using ResourceManager extensively and this question just crossed my mind.
Can we read from .resx files without using ResourceManager? I mean, is there another way?
ResourceManager is a convenience class, it works very well with the way the build system supports .resx files. No, it is not a strict necessity.
A .NET assembly has the generic capability of embedding arbitrary data into the manifest of the assembly. Just a blob of bytes, it can be anything you want. Directly supported by the build system as well, just add a file to your project and set its Build Action to "Embedded Resource". At runtime, you retrieve the data in that file with Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream().
You can stop right there, but that's just a single file, it doesn't scale very well if you have many small resources you want to embed. Which is where a .resx file starts, it is an XML file that contains resources in a friendly format. One that gives you a fighting chance to recover the source again when the original got lost.
But an XML format is not a very good format for resource data, it is bulky and it is expensive to find data back. So .NET has resgen.exe, a build tool that turns the XML file into a binary file, a .resources file. Compact and easy to find stuff back. And fit to be embedded directly as a single manifest resource.
What you don't want to do is having to read the .resources data yourself. You'll want to use a helper class that can find specific resources back from the blob of bytes. You want use the ResourceReader class, its GetResourceData() lets you specify the resource name and it will spit the resource type and data back out.
You can stop right there, but an app often has a need for different sets of resources. A very common localization need. Which is what satellite assemblies are all about, different assemblies that contain nothing but resources, each for a specific culture. They are separate so you don't pay for the virtual memory that's required to store all the localized resources when you need only one set of them. What's needed here is a helper class that automatically locates and loads the correct satellite assembly and retrieves the resource for you, based on the current culture.
That helper class is ResourceManager.
If you choose to skip the use of the ResourceManager you can let Visual Studio handle code generation for you. Ultimately the generated code uses a ResourceManager, but you're no longer writing that code manually. Additionally, you get compile-time checking since you're referencing a generated static class.
If you add a resource file to your project and double click it from the Solution Explorer, Visual Studio presents you with a dialog where you can enter a name for a resource, and its value. The dialog presents you with options to add resources as strings, images, audio, etc. (look at the dropdowns at the top of the dialog). Next, to get the code generation bit, you need to set the Access Modifier to either "Public" or "Internal". The third option is "No code generation."
For example, add a resource file called "MyResources", then add a string resource with the name Greeting and a value of Hello! With one of the former two options selected for code generation (start off with public to test it, restrict the access as needed), you should now be able to reference the resources from your code via MyResources.Greeting. If you don't see it right away, make sure you've saved the file and try compiling.
string greeting = MyResources.Greeting; // "Hello!"
If you add other resource types (image, audio, etc.) then the return types will differ, of course.
At this point you could inspect the generated .cs file and see that the generated code is using a ResourceManager. The other use for resource files is localization. Let's say you wanted a Spanish version of MyResources. You would add a new file called MyResources.es.resx, where es corresponds to the language code desired (Spanish in this case). Now add the same resource name of Greeting with a Spanish value of Hola!.
If you change the thread culture to Spanish, referencing the resource will now return the Spanish version:
string defaultGreeting = MyResources.Greeting; // "Hello!"
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("es");
string spanishGreeting = MyResources.Greeting; // "Hola!"
Note that you only really need to set the access modifier to one of the code generation options for your default resource file (i.e., MyResources.resx), not for all the other localized versions you add. There's no harm in doing so, but in my opinion it's cleaner to have the main file generated while the others just have the resource values desired without code generation.
Well, Resources are compiled into the assembly. You could try to read the assembly by reading the bytes (or the IL), and extract the resources from there.
ResourceManager does this all for you, so I could not think of any reason you want to do this... Maybe one, if you don't want to load the assembly in memory, you could do it without ResourceManager.
Ref Microsoft: Represents a resource manager that provides convenient access to culture-specific resources at run time.
I expect, I'd you use multi Lang, you will get a more consistent result and better compatibility.
IMHO

Multilanguage application in C#

I am currently building an application in C# which supports French, English and Spanish. I am using resource files (.resx) to store my text following this method I found online. Right now, the resource files I have are the following : TextLabels.resx, TextLabels.en.resx, TextLabels.fr.resx and TextLabels.es.resx.
I use the following method to link my the resource to my form :
manager = new ResourceManager("MyProject.TextLabels", typeof(MyForm).Assembly);
to change the labels when I have selected a new language, I created a refresh method changes the Text attributes of my containers with the method :
Text = manager.GetString("MY_STRING_VARIABLE", culture);
Also, I make sure to change the culture used when the user clicks on the desired using the following method :
culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("es"); //changes the culture to spanish
So here is my problem : I use a 64 bit Windows 7 computer installed in English (I am not sure if it matters) and this method works fine, all my labels are changed in the desired language. The problem occurs when I try use my project on my colleague's computer which is a Windows 7 32 bits computer in French. Using his computer, it looks as if the program (that I have compiled with Visual Studio 2012) can only find the default resource file (TextLabels.resx). So I am at a loss here and wondering 1. Is the 32 bit system or French installation of Windows the reason of my problem or is it something else and how can I make my application work on his machine?
If you are generating localized binaries, be sure that they get deployed with the app.
They would be in the /bin/Debug and /bin/Release folders.

Localization using resource file

I use a *.resx file for the localization purpose. The Name - it's a phrase or word in English. The Value - the translation to another language of that phrase. I choose this approach to have a one localization file for the whole application. And anyone who have this file can make translation by themselves.
But in the Visual Studio 2010 resx editor, each record with name which have spaces in it, have a warning: "The resource name is not a valid identifier."
Though it compiles and works, but please tell me if I am doing something wrong here.
First of all, the idea of the resx files is to have a separate resource file for each culture. You can provide the new translation by creating a new file with different values for the same keys.
For example, you can create Forms.en-GB.resx, Forms.pl-PL.resx, Forms.de-DE.resx and the appropriate file will be picked up based on the current UI culture without you having to do anything (except ensuring relevant culture is set).
Visual Studio will generate a resource class that contains all your key/value pairs from resource file as properties - that makes it easier to use in code. The warning you get means that the keys you've provided in resource file are not a valid identifiers (they contain spaces). You might want to use _ instead of space in the keys.
If you don't want to use the generated class you can ignore this warning - your resx files are fine and can be used directly. You can remove ResXFileCodeGenerator from 'Custom Tool' property of your resx file (properties windows) or set 'Access Modifier' to 'No code generation' in resx file editor if you do not need to generate a class, but you will still get the warning.
The strength of localization with resx files is that the culture on your computer decides what language your application should be in. If you keep to one resx file, according to me, you ignore it's power. Instead, try making a resx file for each language you want to integrate. for example: the default language is english, then you have a default page localization.resx where you only keep english sentences. Say you need a French translation, make another resx file called localization.fr-FR.resx. So users who have the fr-FR culture enabled on there computer will have that language on the program without any code specific work. If someone with a culture not integrated in your application starts the program, it will look for it, and if it doesn't find it, it chooses the default, ie english, one.
So to my opinion, don't use 1 resx file for different languages, but use the powers given in the framework.
I suppose it works, but it's not really the strategy you are supposed to follow.
Take a look here; the basic idea is that you take advantage of the controls in .NET to automatically get the correct localisation themselves, so you kind of don't need to worry about doing the translating.
Though, I don't use this all the time, and I do somewhat do as you do, but I tend to use an identifier, so I may have:
UserWelcome Hey, {name}, thanks for dropping by ...
And then I'll translate that. It's helpful because it allows generality in the languages (say, for example, some languages should be greeted formally, and others not, you don't want to be contrained by a direct translation of, "You", say).
Hope this is clear.
If what you've got works, then I suppose that's something, but it's not the "general" way of doing it.

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