The following steps are pretty easy. In Part 1 I explained how to set up the MasterPage and other pages by creating a BasePage.vb file and using a cookie and sessionobject. Your site should now be ready to use localization.
Part 2 is about adding resourcefiles and using those resources on the different pages (including your MasterPage).

Haven’t read Part 1? Then you have missed something!

Step 1. Folders for your resources

In your solution, you can have 2 different resourcefolder: App_GlobalResources and App_LocalResources. You can add them by rightclicking the solutionfile and choosing “Add ASP.NET Folder”.

The folder GlobalResources is used for resources available to the whole website. I use it for storing my sitemapresources (a detailed tutorial about this feature is on my to-do list).
Naming your global resource files:
name.language.resx or
name.language-culture.resx

LocalResources are used to store items used for a single page or control.
Naming your local resource files:
pageOrControlName.extension.language.resx or
pageOrControlName.extension.language-culture.resx

Step 2. Adding resourcefiles

Say you have 2 languages in your dropdownlist created in Part 1. English, which is the default language and French.
Then create the following files for your MasterPage:
MasterPage.master.resx (default)
MasterPage.master.fr.resx (French)
For the homepage:
Home.aspx.resx
Home.aspx.fr.resx

Every resource in those resx-files has to have a Name and a Value.
Place an asp-label named lblWelcome on your homepage (or MasterPage or other page, the principle is the same so I will only discuss it once).
In the resx-file for the English page type lblWelcome.Text as Name and Welcome as Value. For the French version typ: lblWelcome.Text and Bienvenue as Value.

Step 3. Last step

Change in the aspx-file for your website (eg. Home.aspx) the text of your labelcontrol: from Text=”" to Text=”<%$ Resources:lblWelcome.Text %>”.
It should look similar to this:

<asp:Label ID=”lblWelcome” runat=”server” Text=”<%$ Resources:lblWelcome.Text %>” />

Code sample:

Download the code sample for this tutorial here.
Please report any bugs or problems, it hasn’t been tested on another computer.

End note:

You have (hopefully) succesfull completed the tutorial and are ready to use localization throughout your website!

If you have any remarks or suggestions, please feel free to comment this topic.

– This tutorial is based on several tutorials / workarounds found on the web. –

The Problem:

When using localization you must override the InitializeCulture() method of a page. As seen on the msdn-tutorial: How Do I: Create a Multi-Lingual Site with Localization? (Around the ninth minute).

Apparently you cannot override the InitalizeCulture() method in a MasterPage. Howcome? It derives from UserControl instead of the common WebForms’ System.Web.UI.Page and does not support the InitializeCulture() method.

The Solution:

I found my solution on www.codeproject.com . But it was a C# example so I adapted a bit.

The published solution uses the Session object as storage for the currently selected culture. This will be initialized during Session_Start method that is part of the global.asax file.

If a culture change is requested by the user (through a dropdownlist for example), the MasterPage changes the stored culture in the Session object.

In a BasePage that inherits from Page, the method InitializeCulture is overriden and sets the appropriate culture information stored in the session object to the current thread. Therefore, every Web Form needs to derive from this BasePage.

Step 1. Creating a base page

Under the App_code folder create a new codefile and name it BasePage. This is my code:

Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Globalization

”’ <summary>
”’ Custom base page used for all web forms.
”’ </summary>
Public Class BasePage
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
Protected Overrides Sub InitializeCulture()

‘Set the UICulture and the Culture with a value stored in a Session-object. I called mine “MyCulture”
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = New CultureInfo(Session(“MyCulture”).ToString)
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(Session(“MyCulture”).ToString)
End Sub
End Class

Step 2: Let all pages derive from the BasePage

For every page where you want the localization to work, change Inherits System.Web.UI.Page to Inherits BasePage in the codefile (ex. YourPage.aspx.vb).

For example:

Partial Class Your_Class
Inherits BasePage

End Class

Instead of:

Partial Class Your_Class
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

End Class

Step 3: Create a Global.asax file

Create a file under the root-folder and name it: Global.asax
Remove all the code and type: <%@ Application CodeBehind=”Global.asax.vb” Inherits=”Global2″ Language=”VB” %>

Under the App_Code folder create a file and name it Global.asax.vb.
Some remarks about the code:
- Use Global2 as classname because Global is a reserved word.
- Only the Session_Start method is necessary.
- I use a cookie (otmData) to store the users’ preference which is put in a Sessionvariable called MyCulture

‘Global.asax.vb codebehind file

Imports System.Web
Imports System.Web.SessionState
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Globalization

Public Class Global2
Inherits System.Web.HttpApplication

Sub Session_Start(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal E As EventArgs)

If Not Request.Cookies(“otmData”) Is Nothing Then
‘If a cookie exists, set the session-object with the data from the cookie.
Session(“MyCulture”) = Server.HtmlEncode(Request.Cookies(“otmData”)(“languagePref”))
Else
‘If the cookie doen’t exist (user visits the website for the first time) set the session-object to the default value, in this case English. And ‘create the cookie.
Session(“MyCulture”) = “en”
Dim aCookie As New HttpCookie(“otmData”)
aCookie.Values(“languagePref”) = Session(“MyCulture”)
aCookie.Expires = System.DateTime.Now.AddDays(21)
Response.Cookies.Add(aCookie)
End If
End Sub
End Class

Step 4: Dropdownlist on the masterpage

In my masterpage I created a dropdownlist which is populated with data from a sql-database. You can of course add items to the ddl manualy.
Make sure that the AutoPostBack-value is set to True.
<asp:DropDownList ID=”ddlLanguage” runat=”server” AutoPostBack=”True” DataSourceID=”ObjectDataSource1″ DataTextField=”desc_language” DataValueField=”culture” />

The needed code for the selectedIndexChanged method:

Protected Sub ddlLanguage_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ddlLanguage.SelectedIndexChanged
‘if the session differs from the value in the ddl, the session-object is changed and the cookie is created
If Not Session(“MyCulture”) = ddlLanguage.SelectedValue Then
Session(“MyCulture”) = ddlLanguage.SelectedValue
Dim aCookie As New HttpCookie(“otmData”)
aCookie.Values(“languagePref”) = Session(“MyCulture”)
aCookie.Expires = System.DateTime.Now.AddDays(21)
Response.Cookies.Add(aCookie)
End If

‘Reload the page
Response.Redirect(Request.Url.ToString)
End Sub

End note:

All is set now to use resourcefiles for the masterpage and all other pages.
Continue with the second part of the tutorial were you can also download the vb-code.

When working in a skinfile you may have noticed (well, at least I did) that IntelliSense isn’t working.
I found a workaround googling the net and I also found the reason why IntelliSense isn’t enabled by default.

The purpose of a skin-file is that you first create your asp-controls on a page. Then to edit them the way you want and afterwards placing them in a skin-file. The result is that you practically don’t have to type anything in the skinfile and you can use the control with the same style on different pages.

An example:
I first created a label on my homepage.
<asp:Label LabelID=”Label1″ runat=”server” Font-Size=”Medium” ForeColor=”White” Font-Bold=”False” />
Copy and pasted it in the skinfile, changed LabelID to SkinID and gave it a meaningfull name (menuHeader)
<asp:Label SkinID=”menuHeader” runat=”server” Font-Size=”Medium” ForeColor=”White” Font-Bold=”False” />
Back to the page. Add the SkinID to the labels you want the style being applied to.
<asp:Label ID=”lblLogIn” runat=”server” SkinID=”menuHeader” Text=”Login here” />
<asp:Label ID=”Label1″ runat=”server” SkinID=”menuHeader” Text=”Welcome!” />

So that’s it, pretty simple hé?

If you still want to use IntelliSense in a skinfile (which I don’t really advise) use the following solution:

1. Go to Tools->Options menu.
2. Pick Text Editor -> File Extesion.
3. Type skin in Extesion text box.
4. Select User Control Editor from Editor dropdown.
5. Click Add and then Ok to close dialog and re-open your skin files.

Source: Techphile Blogspot

When running your version of VSWD as a normal user, debugging won’t occur.

The only way I found to solve this is by running the program as the Administrator: Rightclick the program and select: “Run as Administrator..” in the contextmenu.

For other problems go to this msnd-page: Visual Studio Issues on Windows Vista

Welcome to my little blog!

Ever needed some help when creating a website in visual studio?

Here I will post several usefull links and add some of my own comments.