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Declarative ASP.NET globalization

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16 Apr 2004CPOL8 min read 220.2K   1.7K   93  
An article on how to implement globalization support for ASP.NET pages through attributes and reflection
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Resources;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Reflection;

namespace GlobalizationModule
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Special LocalizeAttribute for localizing a DataList control.
	/// </summary>
	[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false)]
    public class DataListLocalizer : LocalizeAttribute
	{
		public DataListLocalizer()
		{}

        /// <summary>
        /// Iterate over rows in target DataList and replace strings in column
        /// 'ItemText' with language specific strings from resource.
        /// </summary>
        public override void LocalizeObject(object target, System.Web.UI.Page page)
        {

            // User's page class is superclass of the ASP.NET page class
            Type userPageClass = page.GetType().BaseType;
            // The user's assembly is the one that holds his/her page class
            Assembly targetAssembly = userPageClass.Assembly;

            CultureInfo culture = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture;
            System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataList dl = (System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataList)target;

            DataSet ds = (DataSet)dl.DataSource;
            foreach (DataRow dr in ds.Tables[0].Rows)
            {
                dr["ItemText"] = base.LoadResource(
                    string.Format("{0}.{1}", ResourceName, dr[0]),
                    culture, page, targetAssembly);
            }

            dl.DataBind();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Load string from resource.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="s">Specifies resource to load</param>
        /// <param name="resMan">ResourceManager</param>
        /// <param name="culture">Specifies language</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private string LocalizeString(string resourceName, ResourceManager resMan, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            string localized = string.Format("no resource '{0}.{1}' for language {2}", ResourceName, resourceName, culture.Name);
            try
            {
                localized = resMan.GetString(string.Format("{0}.{1}", ResourceName, resourceName), culture);
            }
            catch (MissingManifestResourceException)
            {}

            return localized;
        }
	}    
}

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License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Web Developer
Finland Finland
Sami Vaaraniemi has been working as a software developer since 1990, primarily on Microsoft technologies. After 12 years of Win32 API and C++ he switched to .NET. He currently works as an independent consultant and can be contacted through his website at www.capehill.net.

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