本地化asp.net下拉列表

Question

I want to create a multilingual ASP.NET web form with some dropdownlist (DDL) items. The DDLs need to be populated from an easily maintained source (eg in web.config or better still, in .resx files). The DDL list items must use a name/value pair.

The end result should be something like this...

When the UI culture is en-GB...

    <select id="MyDDL">
        <option value="1">Dog</option>
        <option value="2">Cat</option>
    </select>

When the UI culture is fr-FR...

    <select id="MyDDL">
        <option value="1">Chien</option>
        <option value="2">Chat</option>
    </select>

What is the most elegant way to achieve the desired result?

Answer 1

Create two resource files in App_GlobalResources folder. Name them like

Main.fr-FR.resx

Main.resx

Then in UI set value using resource file like:

<select id="MyDDL">
    <option value="1"><%=Resources.Main.value1 %></option>
    <option value="2"><%=Resources.Main.Value2 %></option>
</select>

Finally set the UI culture in the config and test.

Answer 2

You need to have a resource file (. resx ) for each language (including English) with culture name in file name.

Eg

Site.resx (default) Site.fr-FR.resx (for french)

In these resource files map your English words to the French (or any other language you want). Then set the culture in your master page or in a base class.

Here's a complete example how you Globalize your application.

Answer 3

For security reasons I ended up using external .csv files to hold the language for dropdown lists.

My .csv file looks like this...

ID,Col1_english,Col1_irish
0,-- Select an option --,-- Roghnaigh --
64,Suggestion,Moladh a dhéanamh
59,Complaint,Gearán
61,Praise,Moladh a thabhairt

I use it populate the DropDownList1 like this...

DropDownList1.DataSource = new DataSet().GetDataFromCSV("Sentiments",Server.MapPath(my_CSV_path));
DropDownList1.DataValueField = "ID";
DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Col1_english";

The GetDataFromCSV extension method...

public static DataSet GetDataFromCSV(this DataSet ds, string data_table_name,string csv_file_path)
    {
         string strLine;
         string[] strArray;
         char[] charArray = new char[] {','};
         DataTable dt = ds.Tables.Add(data_table_name);
         FileStream aFile = new FileStream(csv_file_path,FileMode.Open);
         StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(aFile);

         strLine = sr.ReadLine();

         strArray = strLine.Split(charArray);

         for(int x=0;x<=strArray.GetUpperBound(0);x++) 
         {
            dt.Columns.Add(strArray[x].Trim());
         }

         strLine = sr.ReadLine();
         while(strLine != null) {
            strArray = strLine.Split(charArray);
            DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
            for(int i=0;i<=strArray.GetUpperBound(0);i++) 
            {
               dr[i] = strArray[i].Trim();
            }
            dt.Rows.Add(dr);
            strLine = sr.ReadLine();
         }
         sr.Close();
         return ds;
    }

during Page_Load I then read from CurrentCulture and switch the DropDownList1.DataTextField value accordingly.

It's not elegant but works well because I need non technical people to keep the DropDownList text, and translations, up to date and can't use a database.

Thanks @Saminda & @Sam - you were both on the right track to that elusive elegant solution.