How to localize a silverlight application

Posted by on April 13, 2010 Leave a comment (10) Go to comments

Introduction:
In this article,i am going to explain about how to localize a silverlight application.Localized resources in Silverlight are very similar to the resource file methods just
given.

Main:
1. After you create your Silverlight project, add a new resource file called, for
example, Resources.resx. This is the default resource file. Visual Studio will
also create a class to access these resources.
2. Add a resource file for each culture you will need, including the appropriate
culture code in the filename, e.g., Resources.it.resx or Resources.
fr-CA.resx.
3. In the project properties, go to the Sliverlight tab, and click the Assembly
Information… button. Select the neutral language for your project (in my
example, this is English, with no country).
4. Now edit the project file manually by right-clicking it in the Solution Explorer
and selecting Unload Project. Right-click the project again and select Edit
project.csproj.
5. Edit the tag to include the non-default cultures you
want. For example:
it;fr-CA
6. Save and close the file.
7. Reload the project by right-clicking the project in Solution Explorer and selecting
Reload Project.
8. Modify each resource file appropriately with translated versions of each
resource. Make sure each resource file’s access modifier is public.
9. Wrap the Visual Studio-generated wrapper class in another class:

//for Silverlight to be able to bind to resources, we need to wrap
//them in another class
public class LocResources
{
public LocResources()
{ }
private static LocSilverlight.Resources resource = new
?Resources();
public LocSilverlight.Resources Resource
{ get { return resource; } }
}

10. Add a reference to the wrapper class to the Application.Resources section of
App.xaml:

<Application xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/
presentation”
xmlns:x=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml”
xmlns:local=”clr-namespace:LocSilverlight”
x:Class=”LocSilverlight.App”>
<Application.Resources>
<local:LocResources x:Key=”LocResources”/>
</Application.Resources>
</Application>
11. Bind UI elements to the resources:
<UserControl x:Class=”LocSilverlight.MainPage”
xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/
?presentation”
xmlns:x=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml”
xmlns:d=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008”
xmlns:mc=”http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/
?markup-compatibility/2006”
xmlns:dataInput=”clr-
?namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=
?System.Windows.Controls.Data.Input”
mc:Ignorable=”d”
d:DesignHeight=”220” d:DesignWidth=”243” >
<Grid x:Name=”LayoutRoot” Background=”White”
Height=”181” Width=”183”>
<dataInput:Label Name=”labelMessage”
Height=”50”
Width=”100”
Margin=”12,12,0,0”
HorizontalAlignment=”Left”
VerticalAlignment=”Top”
Content=”{Binding Path=Resource.Message,
Source={StaticResource
LocResources}}”/>
<Button Name=”button1”
Height=”23”
Width=”75”
Margin=”37,76,0,0”
HorizontalAlignment=”Left”
VerticalAlignment=”Top”
Content=”{Binding Path=Resource.buttonExit,
Source={StaticResource
LocResources}}”/>
</Grid>
</UserControl>