Plip's Weblog

Phil Winstanley - British Microsoft ASP.NET MVP & ASP Insider.

Problems with the current Localization Framework in ASP.NET and what's coming in ASP.NET 2.0

Localization is an area of the .NET Framework that is very close to my heart.

  • I've suffered having to Restart IIS on machines with hundreds of sites, just to replace one .resource file because "Access is denied" (XCopy my arse.)
  • I've complained at having to recompile a .resource file because someone in marketing wasn't quite happy with the Dutch version of a sentence.
  • I've fumed at the translation people after uploading a resource file, only to discover some of the text was now so long it threw the formatting of a web site out.
  • I've been dismayed at the fact a Text file used to generate .resource files has come back in completely the wrong format meaning I've had to spend an hour or so cleaning it up so that it will compile.

In short, I hate the current implementation of Localization in the .NET Framework.

I'm currently in a very lucky position with .NET 2.0 (and specifically ASP.NET 2.0) in that I'm reviewing the functionality of Localization within the framework, the work the ASP.NET team has done so far is to be honest a *massive* leap in the right direction. However I don't think it's currently addressing the main issue with Localization, which is nothing to do with the Technology, but in fact Developers still have to be involved with the Translation process.

Here's what I'd love to see come out of Microsoft, and perhaps if they can't do it we (the community) could get together and build a Localization Framework that address the problems we as developers face each day. I'm drawing on experience with not only ASP.NET applications but also the development of Computer Games and the Localization issues they face. I'd like to know the problems you've had with Localizing applications in ASP.NET - let me know, we might collectively be able to make a difference for the next version.

Posted: Apr 11 2004, 10:04 AM by Plip | with 8 comment(s)
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Comments

Wilco said:

"I've fumed at the translation people after uploading a resource file, only to discover some of the text was now so long it threw the formatting of a web site out."

I'm not sure if this is a problem in the current localization framework, and if it is, how you would overcome this in a future version. Personally I think there's _generally_ something wrong at the designers (and maybe developers) side if you don't take longer/shorter sentences/whatever into account.
# April 11, 2004 6:01 AM

Plip said:

Wilco,

I see where you're coming from but I'm really referring to the extremes, for example I had a menu item turn from "Used Cars" in to "Used Chrysler Jeep Dodge Cars At all Dealerships in the Netherlands"

Some simple guides with each resource would help greatly, Min Length and Max Length. That's one I learned from my time in the Games industry, different fonts, in different type sets, in different languages could kill a games functionality - sometimes you're stuck with the space you have, for example when you're in a popup window of fixed height and width.

It's even possible to take that to the extent of different fonts and styles as opposed to Fixed Width fonts, with fixed dimensions, using System.Drawing it's possible to build Text validation in to a CMS using fonts and styles used on the web sites them selves.

What do you think? Would MinLength/MaxLength columns inside of the .Resx files be a problem, or helpful? I think it would be a great starting point.
# April 11, 2004 6:07 AM

Wilco said:

Phil,

You're right that in certain situations you have to have a maximum size of texts. Your suggestion to allow constraints on resource objects would make it easier for people to write resource files and make sure it works properly in your application: you sort of define a contract and they have to meet it.
You can have a schema in a resx file, and you should be able to do exactly what you want and more with it.
# April 11, 2004 6:27 AM

Chris said:

I found the whole thing so distasteful I never got passed checking it out. I still to drawing the translation from the content database and building simple CMS for the translators. No compiling, not file format issues, no over run issues, simple and cheap as chips. I doubt anything in v2 could change my mind. This seems like necessary for winforms but a web site probably already is db driven so why bother? Performance?
# April 11, 2004 6:58 AM

Plip said:

Chris for what it's worth I'd love to spend the time and build one with all the contraints and niceties I've mentioned above, it's just matter of finding the itme, I have started one but had to squish it when I borked a SQL Install, so I'm just plucking up the courage to rebuild one.

I'd managed to build a CMS for multiple applications, that it's self was localized - supporting both Binaries and textual content, both plain text and HMTL. I think something like that Database driven would be a great projhect for Source Forge, what do you think?

It would need to use the same rescourceSet, ResourceManager relationship that exists out there today, which isn't too much of a pain to move over to.
# April 11, 2004 7:24 AM

Memmorium said:

     Good idea!

P.S. A U realy girl?

# April 11, 2008 10:36 AM

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# April 12, 2008 8:00 AM

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# June 24, 2009 1:26 AM
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