Best way to implement multi-language globalization in large NET project

Question

I ll soon be working on a large c  project and would like to build in multi-language support from the start  I ve had a play around and can get it working using a separate resource file for each language  then use a resource manager to load up the strings   Are there any other good approaches that I could look into

User · Answer

You can use commercial tools like Sisulizer  It will create satellite assembly for each language  Only thing you should pay attention is not to obfuscate form class names  if you use obfuscator

User · Answer

1 Database  Forms in your app can even re-translate themselves on the fly if corrections are made to the database   We used a system where all the controls were mapped in an XML file  one per form  to language resource IDs  but all the IDs were in the database   Basically  instead of having each control hold the ID  implementing an interface  or using the tag property in VB6   we used the fact that in  NET  the control tree was easily discoverable through reflection   A process when the form loaded would build the XML file if it was missing   The XML file would map the controls to their resource IDs  so this simply needed to be filled in and mapped to the database   This meant that there was no need to change the compiled binary if something was not tagged  or if it needed to be split to another ID  some words in English which might be used as both nouns and verbs might need to translate to two different words in the dictionary and not be re-used  but you might not discover this during initial assignment of IDs    But the fact is that the whole translation process becomes completely independent of your binary  every form has to inherit from a base form which knows how to translate itself and all its controls    The only ones where the app gets more involved is when a phase with insertion points is used   The database translation software was your basic CRUD maintenance screen with various workflow options to facilitate going through the missing translations  etc

User · Answer

Standard resource files are easier  However  if you have any language dependent data such as lookup tables then you will have to manage two resource sets   I haven t done it  but in my next project I would implement a database resource provider  I found how to do it on MSDN   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library aa905797 aspx  I also found this implementation   DBResource Provider

User · Answer

You can use commercial tools like Sisulizer  It will create satellite assembly for each language  Only thing you should pay attention is not to obfuscate form class names  if you use obfuscator

User · Answer

I ve seen projects implemented using a number of different approaches  each have their merits and drawbacks    One did it in the config file  not my favourite  One did it using a database - this worked pretty well  but was a pain in the you know what to maintain  One used resource files the way you re suggesting and I have to say it was my favourite approach  The most basic one did it using an include file full of strings - ugly    I d say the resource method you ve chosen makes a lot of sense   It would be interesting to see other people s answers too as I often wonder if there s a better way of doing things like this   I ve seen numerous resources that all point to the using resources method  including one right here on SO

User · Answer

Standard resource files are easier  However  if you have any language dependent data such as lookup tables then you will have to manage two resource sets   I haven t done it  but in my next project I would implement a database resource provider  I found how to do it on MSDN   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library aa905797 aspx  I also found this implementation   DBResource Provider

User · Answer

I ve seen projects implemented using a number of different approaches  each have their merits and drawbacks    One did it in the config file  not my favourite  One did it using a database - this worked pretty well  but was a pain in the you know what to maintain  One used resource files the way you re suggesting and I have to say it was my favourite approach  The most basic one did it using an include file full of strings - ugly    I d say the resource method you ve chosen makes a lot of sense   It would be interesting to see other people s answers too as I often wonder if there s a better way of doing things like this   I ve seen numerous resources that all point to the using resources method  including one right here on SO

User · Answer

Standard resource files are easier  However  if you have any language dependent data such as lookup tables then you will have to manage two resource sets   I haven t done it  but in my next project I would implement a database resource provider  I found how to do it on MSDN   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library aa905797 aspx  I also found this implementation   DBResource Provider

User · Answer

1 Database  Forms in your app can even re-translate themselves on the fly if corrections are made to the database   We used a system where all the controls were mapped in an XML file  one per form  to language resource IDs  but all the IDs were in the database   Basically  instead of having each control hold the ID  implementing an interface  or using the tag property in VB6   we used the fact that in  NET  the control tree was easily discoverable through reflection   A process when the form loaded would build the XML file if it was missing   The XML file would map the controls to their resource IDs  so this simply needed to be filled in and mapped to the database   This meant that there was no need to change the compiled binary if something was not tagged  or if it needed to be split to another ID  some words in English which might be used as both nouns and verbs might need to translate to two different words in the dictionary and not be re-used  but you might not discover this during initial assignment of IDs    But the fact is that the whole translation process becomes completely independent of your binary  every form has to inherit from a base form which knows how to translate itself and all its controls    The only ones where the app gets more involved is when a phase with insertion points is used   The database translation software was your basic CRUD maintenance screen with various workflow options to facilitate going through the missing translations  etc

User · Answer

I ve seen projects implemented using a number of different approaches  each have their merits and drawbacks    One did it in the config file  not my favourite  One did it using a database - this worked pretty well  but was a pain in the you know what to maintain  One used resource files the way you re suggesting and I have to say it was my favourite approach  The most basic one did it using an include file full of strings - ugly    I d say the resource method you ve chosen makes a lot of sense   It would be interesting to see other people s answers too as I often wonder if there s a better way of doing things like this   I ve seen numerous resources that all point to the using resources method  including one right here on SO

User · Answer

We use a custom provider for multi language support and put all texts in a database table  It works well except we sometimes face caching problems when updating texts in the database without updating the web application

User · Answer

Use a separate project with Resources I can tell this from out experience  having a current solution with 12 24 projects that includes API  MVC  Project Libraries  Core functionalities   WPF  UWP and Xamarin  It is worth reading this long post as I think it is the best way to do so  With the help of VS tools easily exportable and importable to sent to translation agencies or review by other people  EDIT 02 2018  Still going strong  converting it to a  NET Standard library makes it possible to even use it across  NET Framework and NET Core  I added an extra section for converting it to JSON so for example angular can use it  EDIT 2019  Going forward with Xamarin  this still works across all platforms  E g  Xamarin Forms advices to use resx files as well   I did not develop an app in Xamarin Forms yet  but the documentation  that is way to detailed to just get started  covers it  Xamarin Forms Documentation   Just like converting it to JSON we can also convert it to a  xml file for Xamarin Android  EDIT 2019  2   While upgrading to UWP from WPF  I encountered that in UWP they prefer to use another filetype  resw  which is is in terms of content identical but the usage is different  I found a different way of doing this which  in my opinion  works better then the default solution  EDIT 2020  Updated some suggestions for larger  modulair  projects that might require multiple language projects  So  lets get to it  Pro s  Strongly typed almost everywhere  In WPF you don t have to deal with ResourceDirectories  Supported for ASP NET  Class Libraries  WPF  Xamarin   NET Core   NET Standard as far as I have tested  No extra third-party libraries needed  Supports culture fallback  en-US - gt  en  Not only back-end  works also in XAML for WPF and Xamarin Forms  in  cshtml for MVC  Easily manipulate the language by changing the Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture Search engines can Crawl in different languages and user can send or save language-specific urls   Con s  WPF XAML is sometimes buggy  newly added strings don t show up directly  Rebuild is the temp fix  vs2015   UWP XAML does not show intellisense suggestions and does not show the text while designing  Tell me   Setup Create language project in your solution  give it a name like MyProject Language  Add a folder to it called Resources  and in that folder  create two Resources files   resx   One called Resources resx and another called Resources en resx  or  en-GB resx for specific   In my implementation  I have NL  Dutch  language as the default language  so that goes in my first file  and English goes in my second file  Setup should look like this   The properties for Resources resx must be   Make sure that the custom tool namespace is set to your project namespace  Reason for this is that in WPF  you cannot reference to Resources inside XAML  And inside the resource file  set the access modifier to Public   If you have such a large application  let s say different modules  you can consider creating multiple projects like above  In that case you could prefix your Keys and resource classes with the particular Module  Use the best language editor there is for Visual Studio to combine all files into a single overview  Using in another project Reference to your project  Right click on References - gt  Add Reference - gt  Prjects Solutions  Use namespace in a file  using MyProject Language  Use it like so in back-end  string someText   Resources orderGeneralError  If there is something else called Resources  then just put in the entire namespace  Using in MVC In MVC you can do however you like to set the language  but I used parameterized url s  which can be setup like so  RouteConfig cs Below the other mappings routes MapRoute      name   quot Locolized quot       url   quot  lang   controller   action   id  quot       constraints  new   lang     quot   w 2     w 2 - w 2   quot          en or en-US     defaults  new   controller    quot shop quot   action    quot index quot   id   UrlParameter Optional       FilterConfig cs  might need to be added  if so  add FilterConfig RegisterGlobalFilters GlobalFilters Filters   to the Application start   method in Global asax public class FilterConfig       public static void RegisterGlobalFilters GlobalFilterCollection filters                filters Add new ErrorHandler AiHandleErrorAttribute               filters Add new HandleErrorAttribute             filters Add new LocalizationAttribute  quot nl-NL quot    0            LocalizationAttribute public class LocalizationAttribute   ActionFilterAttribute       private string  DefaultLanguage    quot nl-NL quot       private string   allowedLanguages      quot nl quot    quot en quot          public LocalizationAttribute string defaultLanguage                 DefaultLanguage   defaultLanguage             public override void OnActionExecuting ActionExecutingContext filterContext                string lang    string  filterContext RouteData Values  quot lang quot       DefaultLanguage          LanguageHelper SetLanguage lang            LanguageHelper just sets the Culture info    fixed number and date format for now  this can be improved  public static void SetLanguage LanguageEnum language        string lang    quot  quot       switch  language                case LanguageEnum NL              lang    quot nl-NL quot               break          case LanguageEnum EN              lang    quot en-GB quot               break          case LanguageEnum DE              lang    quot de-DE quot               break            try               NumberFormatInfo numberInfo   CultureInfo CreateSpecificCulture  quot nl-NL quot   NumberFormat          CultureInfo info   new CultureInfo lang           info NumberFormat   numberInfo            later  we will if-else the language here         info DateTimeFormat DateSeparator    quot   quot           info DateTimeFormat ShortDatePattern    quot dd MM yyyy quot           Thread CurrentThread CurrentUICulture   info          Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture   info            catch  Exception                  Usage in  cshtml  using MyProject Language   lt h3 gt  Resources w home header lt  h3 gt   or if you don t want to define usings then just fill in the entire namespace OR you can define the namespace under  Views web config   lt system web webPages razor gt   lt host factoryType  quot System Web Mvc MvcWebRazorHostFactory  System Web Mvc  Version 5 2 3 0  Culture neutral  PublicKeyToken 31BF3856AD364E35 quot    gt   lt pages pageBaseType  quot System Web Mvc WebViewPage quot  gt     lt namespaces gt               lt add namespace  quot MyProject Language quot    gt     lt  namespaces gt   lt  pages gt   lt  system web webPages razor gt   This mvc implementation source tutorial  Awesome tutorial blog Using in class libraries for models Back-end using is the same  but just an example for using in attributes using MyProject Language  namespace MyProject Core Models       public class RegisterViewModel                Required ErrorMessageResourceName    quot accountEmailRequired quot   ErrorMessageResourceType   typeof Resources             EmailAddress           Display Name    quot Email quot            public string Email   get  set             If you have reshaper it will automatically check if the given resource name exists  If you prefer type safety you can use T4 templates to generate an enum Using in WPF  Ofcourse add a reference to your MyProject Language namespace  we know how to use it in back-end  In XAML  inside the header of a Window or UserControl  add a namespace reference called lang like so   lt UserControl x Class  quot Babywatcher App Windows Views LoginView quot           xmlns  quot http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation quot               xmlns x  quot http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml quot               xmlns mc  quot http   schemas openxmlformats org markup-compatibility 2006 quot                xmlns d  quot http   schemas microsoft com expression blend 2008 quot                xmlns local  quot clr-namespace MyProject App Windows Views quot                xmlns lang  quot clr-namespace MyProject Language assembly MyProject Language quot   lt  --this one-- gt               mc Ignorable  quot d quot               d DesignHeight  quot 210 quot  d DesignWidth  quot 300 quot  gt   Then  inside a label       lt Label x Name  quot lblHeader quot  Content  quot  x Static lang Resources w home header  quot  TextBlock FontSize  quot 20 quot  HorizontalAlignment  quot Center quot   gt   Since it is strongly typed you are sure the resource string exists  You might need to recompile the project sometimes during setup  WPF is sometimes buggy with new namespaces  One more thing for WPF  set the language inside the App xaml cs  You can do your own implementation  choose during installation  or let the system decide  public partial class App   Application       protected override void OnStartup StartupEventArgs e                base OnStartup e           SetLanguageDictionary               private void SetLanguageDictionary                 switch  Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture ToString                          case  quot nl-NL quot                   MyProject Language Resources Culture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot nl-NL quot                    break              case  quot en-GB quot                   MyProject Language Resources Culture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot en-GB quot                    break              default   default english because there can be so many different system language  we rather fallback on english in this case                  MyProject Language Resources Culture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot en-GB quot                    break                             Using in UWP In UWP  Microsoft uses this solution  meaning you will need to create new resource files  Plus you can not re-use the text either because they want you to set the x Uid of your control in XAML to a key in your resources  And in your resources you have to do Example Text to fill a TextBlock s text  I didn t like that solution at all because I want to re-use my resource files  Eventually I came up with the following solution  I just found this out today  2019-09-26  so I might come back with something else if it turns out this doesn t work as desired  Add this to your project  using Windows UI Xaml Resources   public class MyXamlResourceLoader   CustomXamlResourceLoader       protected override object GetResource string resourceId  string objectType  string propertyName  string propertyType                return MyProject Language Resources ResourceManager GetString resourceId            Add this to App xaml cs in the constructor  CustomXamlResourceLoader Current   new MyXamlResourceLoader     Where ever you want to in your app  use this to change the language  ApplicationLanguages PrimaryLanguageOverride    quot nl quot   Frame Navigate this GetType      The last line is needed to refresh the UI  While I am still working on this project I noticed that I needed to do this 2 times  I might end up with a language selection at the first time the user is starting  But since this will be distributed via Windows Store  the language is usually equal to the system language  Then use in XAML   lt TextBlock Text  quot  CustomResource ExampleResourceKey  quot  gt  lt  TextBlock gt   Using it in Angular  convert to JSON  Now days it is more common to have a framework like Angular in combination with components  so without cshtml  Translations are stored in json files  I am not going to cover how that works  I would just highly recommend ngx-translate instead of the angular multi-translation  So if you want to convert translations to a JSON file  it is pretty easy  I use a T4 template script that converts the Resources file to a json file  I recommend installing T4 editor to read the syntax and use it correctly because you need to do some modifications  Only 1 thing to note  It is not possible to generate the data  copy it  clean the data and generate it for another language  So you have to copy below code as many times as languages you have and change the entry before    choose language here   Currently no time to fix this but probably will update later  if interested   Path  MyProject Language T4 CreateLocalizationEN tt  lt    template debug  quot false quot  hostspecific  quot true quot  language  quot C  quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Core quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Windows Forms quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Linq quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Text quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections Generic quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Resources quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System IO quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System ComponentModel Design quot    gt   lt    output extension  quot  json quot    gt   lt     var fileNameNl    quot    Resources Resources resx quot   var fileNameEn    quot    Resources Resources en resx quot   var fileNameDe    quot    Resources Resources de resx quot   var fileNameTr    quot    Resources Resources tr resx quot    var fileResultName    quot    T4 CreateLocalizationEN json quot    choose language here var fileResultPath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   fileResultName     var fileDestinationPath    quot       MyProject Web ClientApp app i18n  quot    var fileNameDestNl    quot nl json quot   var fileNameDestEn    quot en json quot   var fileNameDestDe    quot de json quot   var fileNameDestTr    quot tr json quot    var pathBaseDestination   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot    ToString    ToString     string   fileNamesResx   new string    fileNameEn      choose language here string   fileNamesDest   new string    fileNameDestEn      choose language here  for int x   0  x  lt  fileNamesResx Length  x          var currentFileNameResx   fileNamesResx x       var currentFileNameDest   fileNamesDest x       var currentPathResx   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   currentFileNameResx       var currentPathDest  pathBaseDestination    quot  MyProject Web ClientApp app i18n  quot    currentFileNameDest      using var reader   new ResXResourceReader currentPathResx                 reader UseResXDataNodes   true    gt             lt               foreach DictionaryEntry entry in reader                                var name   entry Key                  var node    ResXDataNode entry Value                  var value   node GetValue  ITypeResolutionService  null                     if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  n quot    quot  quot                     if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  r quot    quot  quot      gt               quot  lt   name  gt  quot    quot  lt   value  gt  quot    lt                         gt           quot WEBSHOP LASTELEMENT quot    quot just ignore this  for testing purpose quot             lt             File Copy fileResultPath  currentPathDest  true         gt   If you have a modulair application and you followed my suggestion to create multiple language projects  then you will have to create a T4 file for each of them  Make sure the json files are logically defined  it doesn t have to be en json  it can also be example-en json  To combine multiple json files for using with ngx-translate  follow the instructions here Use in Xamarin Android As explained above in the updates  I use the same method as I have done with Angular JSON  But Android uses XML files  so I wrote a T4 file that generates those XML files  Path  MyProject Language T4 CreateAppLocalizationEN tt    template debug  quot false quot  hostspecific  quot true quot  language  quot C  quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Core quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Windows Forms quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Linq quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Text quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections Generic quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Resources quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System IO quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System ComponentModel Design quot    gt   lt    output extension  quot  xml quot    gt   lt   var fileName    quot    Resources Resources en resx quot   var fileResultName    quot    T4 CreateAppLocalizationEN xml quot   var fileResultRexPath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   fileName   var fileResultPath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   fileResultName        var fileNameDest    quot strings xml quot        var pathBaseDestination   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot    ToString    ToString         var currentPathDest  pathBaseDestination    quot  MyProject App AndroidApp Resources values-en  quot    fileNameDest       using var reader   new ResXResourceReader fileResultRexPath                 reader UseResXDataNodes   true            gt           lt resources gt           lt                    foreach DictionaryEntry entry in reader                                        var name   entry Key                        if  name ToString   Contains  quot WEBSHOP  quot    amp  amp   name ToString   Contains  quot DASHBOARD  quot     only include keys with these prefixes  or the country ones                                                  if name ToString   Length    2                                                        continue                                                                        var node    ResXDataNode entry Value                      var value   node GetValue  ITypeResolutionService  null                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  n quot    quot  quot                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  r quot    quot  quot                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  amp  quot    quot  amp amp  quot                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  lt  lt  quot    quot  quot                           if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot   quot    quot    quot      gt                 lt string name  quot  lt   name  gt  quot  gt  quot  lt   value  gt  quot  lt  string gt   lt                             gt               lt string name  quot WEBSHOP LASTELEMENT quot  gt just ignore this lt  string gt   lt             gt           lt  resources gt           lt           File Copy fileResultPath  currentPathDest  true            gt   Android works with values-xx folders  so above is for English for in the values-en folder  But you also have to generate a default which goes into the values folder  Just copy above T4 template and change the folder in the above code  There you go  you can now use one single resource file for all your projects  This makes it very easy exporting everything to an excl document and let someone translate it and import it again  Special thanks to this amazing VS extension which works awesome with resx files  Consider donating to him for his awesome work  I have nothing to do with that  I just love the extension

User · Answer

I don t think there is a  best way    It really will depend on the technologies and type of application you are building    Webapps can store the information in the database as other posters have suggested  but I recommend using seperate resource files  That is resource files seperate from your source   Seperate resource files reduces contention for the same files and as your project grows you may find localization will be done seperatly from business logic    Programmers and Translators    Microsoft WinForm and WPF gurus recommend using seperate resource assemblies customized to each locale   WPF s ability to size UI elements to content lowers the layout work required eg   japanese words are much shorter than english    If you are considering WPF  I suggest reading this msdn article To be truthful I found the WPF localization tools  msbuild  locbaml   and maybe an excel spreadsheet  tedious to use  but it does work   Something only slightly related  A common problem I face is integrating legacy systems that send error messages  usually in english   not error codes   This forces either changes to legacy systems  or mapping backend strings to my own error codes and then to localized strings   yech   Error codes are localizations friend

User · Answer

You can use commercial tools like Sisulizer  It will create satellite assembly for each language  Only thing you should pay attention is not to obfuscate form class names  if you use obfuscator

User · Answer

We use a custom provider for multi language support and put all texts in a database table  It works well except we sometimes face caching problems when updating texts in the database without updating the web application

User · Answer

We use a custom provider for multi language support and put all texts in a database table  It works well except we sometimes face caching problems when updating texts in the database without updating the web application

User · Answer

I don t think there is a  best way    It really will depend on the technologies and type of application you are building    Webapps can store the information in the database as other posters have suggested  but I recommend using seperate resource files  That is resource files seperate from your source   Seperate resource files reduces contention for the same files and as your project grows you may find localization will be done seperatly from business logic    Programmers and Translators    Microsoft WinForm and WPF gurus recommend using seperate resource assemblies customized to each locale   WPF s ability to size UI elements to content lowers the layout work required eg   japanese words are much shorter than english    If you are considering WPF  I suggest reading this msdn article To be truthful I found the WPF localization tools  msbuild  locbaml   and maybe an excel spreadsheet  tedious to use  but it does work   Something only slightly related  A common problem I face is integrating legacy systems that send error messages  usually in english   not error codes   This forces either changes to legacy systems  or mapping backend strings to my own error codes and then to localized strings   yech   Error codes are localizations friend

User · Answer

1 Database  Forms in your app can even re-translate themselves on the fly if corrections are made to the database   We used a system where all the controls were mapped in an XML file  one per form  to language resource IDs  but all the IDs were in the database   Basically  instead of having each control hold the ID  implementing an interface  or using the tag property in VB6   we used the fact that in  NET  the control tree was easily discoverable through reflection   A process when the form loaded would build the XML file if it was missing   The XML file would map the controls to their resource IDs  so this simply needed to be filled in and mapped to the database   This meant that there was no need to change the compiled binary if something was not tagged  or if it needed to be split to another ID  some words in English which might be used as both nouns and verbs might need to translate to two different words in the dictionary and not be re-used  but you might not discover this during initial assignment of IDs    But the fact is that the whole translation process becomes completely independent of your binary  every form has to inherit from a base form which knows how to translate itself and all its controls    The only ones where the app gets more involved is when a phase with insertion points is used   The database translation software was your basic CRUD maintenance screen with various workflow options to facilitate going through the missing translations  etc

User · Answer

Standard resource files are easier  However  if you have any language dependent data such as lookup tables then you will have to manage two resource sets   I haven t done it  but in my next project I would implement a database resource provider  I found how to do it on MSDN   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library aa905797 aspx  I also found this implementation   DBResource Provider

User · Answer

I don t think there is a  best way    It really will depend on the technologies and type of application you are building    Webapps can store the information in the database as other posters have suggested  but I recommend using seperate resource files  That is resource files seperate from your source   Seperate resource files reduces contention for the same files and as your project grows you may find localization will be done seperatly from business logic    Programmers and Translators    Microsoft WinForm and WPF gurus recommend using seperate resource assemblies customized to each locale   WPF s ability to size UI elements to content lowers the layout work required eg   japanese words are much shorter than english    If you are considering WPF  I suggest reading this msdn article To be truthful I found the WPF localization tools  msbuild  locbaml   and maybe an excel spreadsheet  tedious to use  but it does work   Something only slightly related  A common problem I face is integrating legacy systems that send error messages  usually in english   not error codes   This forces either changes to legacy systems  or mapping backend strings to my own error codes and then to localized strings   yech   Error codes are localizations friend

User · Answer

You can use commercial tools like Sisulizer  It will create satellite assembly for each language  Only thing you should pay attention is not to obfuscate form class names  if you use obfuscator

User · Answer

Most opensource projects use GetText for this purpose  I don t know how and if it s ever been used on a  Net project before

User · Answer

Use a separate project with Resources I can tell this from out experience  having a current solution with 12 24 projects that includes API  MVC  Project Libraries  Core functionalities   WPF  UWP and Xamarin  It is worth reading this long post as I think it is the best way to do so  With the help of VS tools easily exportable and importable to sent to translation agencies or review by other people  EDIT 02 2018  Still going strong  converting it to a  NET Standard library makes it possible to even use it across  NET Framework and NET Core  I added an extra section for converting it to JSON so for example angular can use it  EDIT 2019  Going forward with Xamarin  this still works across all platforms  E g  Xamarin Forms advices to use resx files as well   I did not develop an app in Xamarin Forms yet  but the documentation  that is way to detailed to just get started  covers it  Xamarin Forms Documentation   Just like converting it to JSON we can also convert it to a  xml file for Xamarin Android  EDIT 2019  2   While upgrading to UWP from WPF  I encountered that in UWP they prefer to use another filetype  resw  which is is in terms of content identical but the usage is different  I found a different way of doing this which  in my opinion  works better then the default solution  EDIT 2020  Updated some suggestions for larger  modulair  projects that might require multiple language projects  So  lets get to it  Pro s  Strongly typed almost everywhere  In WPF you don t have to deal with ResourceDirectories  Supported for ASP NET  Class Libraries  WPF  Xamarin   NET Core   NET Standard as far as I have tested  No extra third-party libraries needed  Supports culture fallback  en-US - gt  en  Not only back-end  works also in XAML for WPF and Xamarin Forms  in  cshtml for MVC  Easily manipulate the language by changing the Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture Search engines can Crawl in different languages and user can send or save language-specific urls   Con s  WPF XAML is sometimes buggy  newly added strings don t show up directly  Rebuild is the temp fix  vs2015   UWP XAML does not show intellisense suggestions and does not show the text while designing  Tell me   Setup Create language project in your solution  give it a name like MyProject Language  Add a folder to it called Resources  and in that folder  create two Resources files   resx   One called Resources resx and another called Resources en resx  or  en-GB resx for specific   In my implementation  I have NL  Dutch  language as the default language  so that goes in my first file  and English goes in my second file  Setup should look like this   The properties for Resources resx must be   Make sure that the custom tool namespace is set to your project namespace  Reason for this is that in WPF  you cannot reference to Resources inside XAML  And inside the resource file  set the access modifier to Public   If you have such a large application  let s say different modules  you can consider creating multiple projects like above  In that case you could prefix your Keys and resource classes with the particular Module  Use the best language editor there is for Visual Studio to combine all files into a single overview  Using in another project Reference to your project  Right click on References - gt  Add Reference - gt  Prjects Solutions  Use namespace in a file  using MyProject Language  Use it like so in back-end  string someText   Resources orderGeneralError  If there is something else called Resources  then just put in the entire namespace  Using in MVC In MVC you can do however you like to set the language  but I used parameterized url s  which can be setup like so  RouteConfig cs Below the other mappings routes MapRoute      name   quot Locolized quot       url   quot  lang   controller   action   id  quot       constraints  new   lang     quot   w 2     w 2 - w 2   quot          en or en-US     defaults  new   controller    quot shop quot   action    quot index quot   id   UrlParameter Optional       FilterConfig cs  might need to be added  if so  add FilterConfig RegisterGlobalFilters GlobalFilters Filters   to the Application start   method in Global asax public class FilterConfig       public static void RegisterGlobalFilters GlobalFilterCollection filters                filters Add new ErrorHandler AiHandleErrorAttribute               filters Add new HandleErrorAttribute             filters Add new LocalizationAttribute  quot nl-NL quot    0            LocalizationAttribute public class LocalizationAttribute   ActionFilterAttribute       private string  DefaultLanguage    quot nl-NL quot       private string   allowedLanguages      quot nl quot    quot en quot          public LocalizationAttribute string defaultLanguage                 DefaultLanguage   defaultLanguage             public override void OnActionExecuting ActionExecutingContext filterContext                string lang    string  filterContext RouteData Values  quot lang quot       DefaultLanguage          LanguageHelper SetLanguage lang            LanguageHelper just sets the Culture info    fixed number and date format for now  this can be improved  public static void SetLanguage LanguageEnum language        string lang    quot  quot       switch  language                case LanguageEnum NL              lang    quot nl-NL quot               break          case LanguageEnum EN              lang    quot en-GB quot               break          case LanguageEnum DE              lang    quot de-DE quot               break            try               NumberFormatInfo numberInfo   CultureInfo CreateSpecificCulture  quot nl-NL quot   NumberFormat          CultureInfo info   new CultureInfo lang           info NumberFormat   numberInfo            later  we will if-else the language here         info DateTimeFormat DateSeparator    quot   quot           info DateTimeFormat ShortDatePattern    quot dd MM yyyy quot           Thread CurrentThread CurrentUICulture   info          Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture   info            catch  Exception                  Usage in  cshtml  using MyProject Language   lt h3 gt  Resources w home header lt  h3 gt   or if you don t want to define usings then just fill in the entire namespace OR you can define the namespace under  Views web config   lt system web webPages razor gt   lt host factoryType  quot System Web Mvc MvcWebRazorHostFactory  System Web Mvc  Version 5 2 3 0  Culture neutral  PublicKeyToken 31BF3856AD364E35 quot    gt   lt pages pageBaseType  quot System Web Mvc WebViewPage quot  gt     lt namespaces gt               lt add namespace  quot MyProject Language quot    gt     lt  namespaces gt   lt  pages gt   lt  system web webPages razor gt   This mvc implementation source tutorial  Awesome tutorial blog Using in class libraries for models Back-end using is the same  but just an example for using in attributes using MyProject Language  namespace MyProject Core Models       public class RegisterViewModel                Required ErrorMessageResourceName    quot accountEmailRequired quot   ErrorMessageResourceType   typeof Resources             EmailAddress           Display Name    quot Email quot            public string Email   get  set             If you have reshaper it will automatically check if the given resource name exists  If you prefer type safety you can use T4 templates to generate an enum Using in WPF  Ofcourse add a reference to your MyProject Language namespace  we know how to use it in back-end  In XAML  inside the header of a Window or UserControl  add a namespace reference called lang like so   lt UserControl x Class  quot Babywatcher App Windows Views LoginView quot           xmlns  quot http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation quot               xmlns x  quot http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml quot               xmlns mc  quot http   schemas openxmlformats org markup-compatibility 2006 quot                xmlns d  quot http   schemas microsoft com expression blend 2008 quot                xmlns local  quot clr-namespace MyProject App Windows Views quot                xmlns lang  quot clr-namespace MyProject Language assembly MyProject Language quot   lt  --this one-- gt               mc Ignorable  quot d quot               d DesignHeight  quot 210 quot  d DesignWidth  quot 300 quot  gt   Then  inside a label       lt Label x Name  quot lblHeader quot  Content  quot  x Static lang Resources w home header  quot  TextBlock FontSize  quot 20 quot  HorizontalAlignment  quot Center quot   gt   Since it is strongly typed you are sure the resource string exists  You might need to recompile the project sometimes during setup  WPF is sometimes buggy with new namespaces  One more thing for WPF  set the language inside the App xaml cs  You can do your own implementation  choose during installation  or let the system decide  public partial class App   Application       protected override void OnStartup StartupEventArgs e                base OnStartup e           SetLanguageDictionary               private void SetLanguageDictionary                 switch  Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture ToString                          case  quot nl-NL quot                   MyProject Language Resources Culture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot nl-NL quot                    break              case  quot en-GB quot                   MyProject Language Resources Culture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot en-GB quot                    break              default   default english because there can be so many different system language  we rather fallback on english in this case                  MyProject Language Resources Culture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot en-GB quot                    break                             Using in UWP In UWP  Microsoft uses this solution  meaning you will need to create new resource files  Plus you can not re-use the text either because they want you to set the x Uid of your control in XAML to a key in your resources  And in your resources you have to do Example Text to fill a TextBlock s text  I didn t like that solution at all because I want to re-use my resource files  Eventually I came up with the following solution  I just found this out today  2019-09-26  so I might come back with something else if it turns out this doesn t work as desired  Add this to your project  using Windows UI Xaml Resources   public class MyXamlResourceLoader   CustomXamlResourceLoader       protected override object GetResource string resourceId  string objectType  string propertyName  string propertyType                return MyProject Language Resources ResourceManager GetString resourceId            Add this to App xaml cs in the constructor  CustomXamlResourceLoader Current   new MyXamlResourceLoader     Where ever you want to in your app  use this to change the language  ApplicationLanguages PrimaryLanguageOverride    quot nl quot   Frame Navigate this GetType      The last line is needed to refresh the UI  While I am still working on this project I noticed that I needed to do this 2 times  I might end up with a language selection at the first time the user is starting  But since this will be distributed via Windows Store  the language is usually equal to the system language  Then use in XAML   lt TextBlock Text  quot  CustomResource ExampleResourceKey  quot  gt  lt  TextBlock gt   Using it in Angular  convert to JSON  Now days it is more common to have a framework like Angular in combination with components  so without cshtml  Translations are stored in json files  I am not going to cover how that works  I would just highly recommend ngx-translate instead of the angular multi-translation  So if you want to convert translations to a JSON file  it is pretty easy  I use a T4 template script that converts the Resources file to a json file  I recommend installing T4 editor to read the syntax and use it correctly because you need to do some modifications  Only 1 thing to note  It is not possible to generate the data  copy it  clean the data and generate it for another language  So you have to copy below code as many times as languages you have and change the entry before    choose language here   Currently no time to fix this but probably will update later  if interested   Path  MyProject Language T4 CreateLocalizationEN tt  lt    template debug  quot false quot  hostspecific  quot true quot  language  quot C  quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Core quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Windows Forms quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Linq quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Text quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections Generic quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Resources quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System IO quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System ComponentModel Design quot    gt   lt    output extension  quot  json quot    gt   lt     var fileNameNl    quot    Resources Resources resx quot   var fileNameEn    quot    Resources Resources en resx quot   var fileNameDe    quot    Resources Resources de resx quot   var fileNameTr    quot    Resources Resources tr resx quot    var fileResultName    quot    T4 CreateLocalizationEN json quot    choose language here var fileResultPath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   fileResultName     var fileDestinationPath    quot       MyProject Web ClientApp app i18n  quot    var fileNameDestNl    quot nl json quot   var fileNameDestEn    quot en json quot   var fileNameDestDe    quot de json quot   var fileNameDestTr    quot tr json quot    var pathBaseDestination   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot    ToString    ToString     string   fileNamesResx   new string    fileNameEn      choose language here string   fileNamesDest   new string    fileNameDestEn      choose language here  for int x   0  x  lt  fileNamesResx Length  x          var currentFileNameResx   fileNamesResx x       var currentFileNameDest   fileNamesDest x       var currentPathResx   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   currentFileNameResx       var currentPathDest  pathBaseDestination    quot  MyProject Web ClientApp app i18n  quot    currentFileNameDest      using var reader   new ResXResourceReader currentPathResx                 reader UseResXDataNodes   true    gt             lt               foreach DictionaryEntry entry in reader                                var name   entry Key                  var node    ResXDataNode entry Value                  var value   node GetValue  ITypeResolutionService  null                     if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  n quot    quot  quot                     if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  r quot    quot  quot      gt               quot  lt   name  gt  quot    quot  lt   value  gt  quot    lt                         gt           quot WEBSHOP LASTELEMENT quot    quot just ignore this  for testing purpose quot             lt             File Copy fileResultPath  currentPathDest  true         gt   If you have a modulair application and you followed my suggestion to create multiple language projects  then you will have to create a T4 file for each of them  Make sure the json files are logically defined  it doesn t have to be en json  it can also be example-en json  To combine multiple json files for using with ngx-translate  follow the instructions here Use in Xamarin Android As explained above in the updates  I use the same method as I have done with Angular JSON  But Android uses XML files  so I wrote a T4 file that generates those XML files  Path  MyProject Language T4 CreateAppLocalizationEN tt    template debug  quot false quot  hostspecific  quot true quot  language  quot C  quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Core quot    gt   lt    assembly name  quot System Windows Forms quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Linq quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Text quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections Generic quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Resources quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System Collections quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System IO quot    gt   lt    import namespace  quot System ComponentModel Design quot    gt   lt    output extension  quot  xml quot    gt   lt   var fileName    quot    Resources Resources en resx quot   var fileResultName    quot    T4 CreateAppLocalizationEN xml quot   var fileResultRexPath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   fileName   var fileResultPath   Path Combine Path GetDirectoryName this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot      quot MyProject Language quot   fileResultName        var fileNameDest    quot strings xml quot        var pathBaseDestination   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent this Host ResolvePath  quot  quot    ToString    ToString         var currentPathDest  pathBaseDestination    quot  MyProject App AndroidApp Resources values-en  quot    fileNameDest       using var reader   new ResXResourceReader fileResultRexPath                 reader UseResXDataNodes   true            gt           lt resources gt           lt                    foreach DictionaryEntry entry in reader                                        var name   entry Key                        if  name ToString   Contains  quot WEBSHOP  quot    amp  amp   name ToString   Contains  quot DASHBOARD  quot     only include keys with these prefixes  or the country ones                                                  if name ToString   Length    2                                                        continue                                                                        var node    ResXDataNode entry Value                      var value   node GetValue  ITypeResolutionService  null                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  n quot    quot  quot                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  r quot    quot  quot                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  amp  quot    quot  amp amp  quot                         if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot  lt  lt  quot    quot  quot                           if   String IsNullOrEmpty value ToString     value   value ToString   Replace  quot   quot    quot    quot      gt                 lt string name  quot  lt   name  gt  quot  gt  quot  lt   value  gt  quot  lt  string gt   lt                             gt               lt string name  quot WEBSHOP LASTELEMENT quot  gt just ignore this lt  string gt   lt             gt           lt  resources gt           lt           File Copy fileResultPath  currentPathDest  true            gt   Android works with values-xx folders  so above is for English for in the values-en folder  But you also have to generate a default which goes into the values folder  Just copy above T4 template and change the folder in the above code  There you go  you can now use one single resource file for all your projects  This makes it very easy exporting everything to an excl document and let someone translate it and import it again  Special thanks to this amazing VS extension which works awesome with resx files  Consider donating to him for his awesome work  I have nothing to do with that  I just love the extension

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I d go with the multiple resource files   It shouldn t be that hard to configure  In fact I recently answered a similar question on setting a global language based resource files in conjunction with form language resource files   Localization in Visual Studio 2008  I would consider that the best approach at least for WinForm development

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Most opensource projects use GetText for this purpose  I don t know how and if it s ever been used on a  Net project before

User · Answer

I don t think there is a  best way    It really will depend on the technologies and type of application you are building    Webapps can store the information in the database as other posters have suggested  but I recommend using seperate resource files  That is resource files seperate from your source   Seperate resource files reduces contention for the same files and as your project grows you may find localization will be done seperatly from business logic    Programmers and Translators    Microsoft WinForm and WPF gurus recommend using seperate resource assemblies customized to each locale   WPF s ability to size UI elements to content lowers the layout work required eg   japanese words are much shorter than english    If you are considering WPF  I suggest reading this msdn article To be truthful I found the WPF localization tools  msbuild  locbaml   and maybe an excel spreadsheet  tedious to use  but it does work   Something only slightly related  A common problem I face is integrating legacy systems that send error messages  usually in english   not error codes   This forces either changes to legacy systems  or mapping backend strings to my own error codes and then to localized strings   yech   Error codes are localizations friend

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We use a custom provider for multi language support and put all texts in a database table  It works well except we sometimes face caching problems when updating texts in the database without updating the web application

User · Answer

1 Database  Forms in your app can even re-translate themselves on the fly if corrections are made to the database   We used a system where all the controls were mapped in an XML file  one per form  to language resource IDs  but all the IDs were in the database   Basically  instead of having each control hold the ID  implementing an interface  or using the tag property in VB6   we used the fact that in  NET  the control tree was easily discoverable through reflection   A process when the form loaded would build the XML file if it was missing   The XML file would map the controls to their resource IDs  so this simply needed to be filled in and mapped to the database   This meant that there was no need to change the compiled binary if something was not tagged  or if it needed to be split to another ID  some words in English which might be used as both nouns and verbs might need to translate to two different words in the dictionary and not be re-used  but you might not discover this during initial assignment of IDs    But the fact is that the whole translation process becomes completely independent of your binary  every form has to inherit from a base form which knows how to translate itself and all its controls    The only ones where the app gets more involved is when a phase with insertion points is used   The database translation software was your basic CRUD maintenance screen with various workflow options to facilitate going through the missing translations  etc

User · Answer

I d go with the multiple resource files   It shouldn t be that hard to configure  In fact I recently answered a similar question on setting a global language based resource files in conjunction with form language resource files   Localization in Visual Studio 2008  I would consider that the best approach at least for WinForm development

User · Answer

I  ve been searching and I  ve found this  If your using WPF or Silverlight your aproach could be use WPF LocalizationExtension for many reasons  IT  s Open Source It  s FREE  and will stay free  is in a real stabel state In a Windows Application you could do someting like this  public partial class App   Application            public App                                         protected override void OnStartup StartupEventArgs e                      Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot de-DE quot                 Thread CurrentThread CurrentUICulture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot de-DE quot                    FrameworkElement LanguageProperty OverrideMetadata                  typeof FrameworkElement                   new FrameworkPropertyMetadata                      XmlLanguage GetLanguage CultureInfo CurrentCulture IetfLanguageTag                 base OnStartup e                 And I think on a Wep Page the aproach could be the same  Good Luck

User · Answer

I d go with the multiple resource files   It shouldn t be that hard to configure  In fact I recently answered a similar question on setting a global language based resource files in conjunction with form language resource files   Localization in Visual Studio 2008  I would consider that the best approach at least for WinForm development

User · Answer

I  ve been searching and I  ve found this  If your using WPF or Silverlight your aproach could be use WPF LocalizationExtension for many reasons  IT  s Open Source It  s FREE  and will stay free  is in a real stabel state In a Windows Application you could do someting like this  public partial class App   Application            public App                                         protected override void OnStartup StartupEventArgs e                      Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot de-DE quot                 Thread CurrentThread CurrentUICulture   new System Globalization CultureInfo  quot de-DE quot                    FrameworkElement LanguageProperty OverrideMetadata                  typeof FrameworkElement                   new FrameworkPropertyMetadata                      XmlLanguage GetLanguage CultureInfo CurrentCulture IetfLanguageTag                 base OnStartup e                 And I think on a Wep Page the aproach could be the same  Good Luck

User · Answer

Most opensource projects use GetText for this purpose  I don t know how and if it s ever been used on a  Net project before

User · Answer

Most opensource projects use GetText for this purpose  I don t know how and if it s ever been used on a  Net project before

User · Answer

I ve seen projects implemented using a number of different approaches  each have their merits and drawbacks    One did it in the config file  not my favourite  One did it using a database - this worked pretty well  but was a pain in the you know what to maintain  One used resource files the way you re suggesting and I have to say it was my favourite approach  The most basic one did it using an include file full of strings - ugly    I d say the resource method you ve chosen makes a lot of sense   It would be interesting to see other people s answers too as I often wonder if there s a better way of doing things like this   I ve seen numerous resources that all point to the using resources method  including one right here on SO

User · Answer

I d go with the multiple resource files   It shouldn t be that hard to configure  In fact I recently answered a similar question on setting a global language based resource files in conjunction with form language resource files   Localization in Visual Studio 2008  I would consider that the best approach at least for WinForm development

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