DEV382 Building International Applications with the.NET Framework Christian Nagel Microsoft Regional Director Global Knowledge

Christian Nagel Trainings, Consulting, Coaching Software Architect, Developer Global Knowledge –

Agenda Globalization and Localization Resource model Localization using Windows Forms Localization with ASP.NET Web Applications Demos

Key Terms Globalization (Internationalization) Create applications that support multiple cultures Character encodings Date, time, numeric, currency formats Localization (Translation) Customize applicatons for a given culture Resources

Unicode Issues 64K characters is not enough Chinese has over 80,000 characters Represented by supplemental characters (surrogate pairs) Supporting these is a requirement for EA markets Problems: Searching Composition | Decomposition

Combining Characters Some characters can be expressed: As pre-composed characters As base character + combining character(s) ǭǭ U+01EDU+01ED ̄̄ǫǫ U+01EBU+01EBU+0304U+0304 == == ̄̄ ̨ ̨ U+0328U+0328U+0304U+0304 oo U+006FU+006F

String Handling Use strings whenever possible (no individual characters) Rely on the StringInfo methods to handle surrogates and combining characters StringInfo::ParseCombiningCharacters StringInfo::GetTextEnumerator

System.Globalization Namespace Culture-aware string comparisons Date & Time formatting Numeric formatting Calendars

CultureInfo Invariant culture Culture-invariant default Neutral culture Based on language Resource only UI Culture only Specific culture Based on language and region Resource and Formatting specificsinvariant de de-AT de-CH de-DE de-LI de-LU en

Culture and UICulture CurrentUICulture Dependent on the operating system Can be set on Windows XP and Windows 2000 MUI CurrentCulture Picked up from GetUserDefaultLCID Control Panel | Regional Options Only specific cultures can be assigned

Invariant Culture CultureInfo.InvariantCulture Neither a neutral nor a specific culture Loosely associated with the English language Uses of the Invariant Culture Storing data Transferring data across the network For UI, prefer culture-sensitive formatting

Regions Class: RegionInfo IsMetric CurrencySymbol ISOCurrencySymbol

Culture-Aware Classes Calendar classes Gregorian, Hebrew, Hijiri, Japanese, Julian, Korean, Taiwin, Thai Buddhist DateTime, DateTimeFormatInfo NumberFormatInfo CompareInfo

Cultures and Regions Date/Time Formatting Number Formatting CultureInfo, RegionInfo demo demo

Setting the Culture Explicitely Culture of the Thread Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("fr-FR"); Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("es-ES"); Individual API string s = DateTime.Now.ToString("D", new CultureInfo("de-AT"));

Culture Specific Formatting: Text Output Any API wich takes a culture, or an IFormatProvider Default culture setting of the thread textBox1.Text = DateTime.Today.ToString("D"); textBox2.Text = floatNumber.ToString("N"); Specific culture setting textBox1.Text = DateTime.Today.ToString("D", new CultureInfo("es-ES")); textBox2.Text = floatNumber.ToString("N", new CultureInfo("de-AT"));

Culture Specific Formatting: Text Input Default culture setting for the thread string input = DateTime.Parse(textBox1.Text); NumberStyles allows setting for decimal point, exponent, currency, whitespaces, hex numbers... Double.TryParse(textBox2.Text, NumberStyles.AllowDecimalPoint | NumberStyles.AllowThousands, cultureInfo, out result);

Setting the Culture with ASP.NET Applications Web Config File Page Directive Programmatically using IE Settings demo demo

Resources Localization of User Interfaces XML or Binary Resource Files Add texts, pictures, or any serializable object Save resource information in Resource Files, Satellite Assemblies, or custom stores Tools: resgen, Visual Studio.NET

Resource Fallback Resources and Cultures Main Assembly CodeCode Default resources (fallback)Default resources (fallback)Greeting=“Hello”Farewell=“Goodbye” Logo= Logo= French No codeNo code “fr” resources“fr” resources Greeting = “Bonjour” Farewell = “Au revoir” French (France) (fr-FR) No codeNo code “fr-FR” resources“fr-FR” resourcesGreeting=“Salut”

Resource Manager Provides access to culture-correct resources Sources File-based Resources Assemblies, Satellite Assemblies Custom Resource Readers (e.g. Database- access)

Resource Sources File-based Resources Don't use them with ASP.NET Applications (files are locked) Additional languages can be added easily Satellite Assemblies Resource-only language-specific assembly Custom ResourceReader Read from custom data stores

Using Resources with Windows Forms Applications Visual Studio.NET Designer Support Windows Resource Localization Editor demo demo

Localizing ASP.NET Applications Different Pages for Every Language Fast access More maintenance needed Satellite Assemblies Don't use resource files with ASP.NET! Custom Resource Reader Store localized resources in the database

Creating a Custom ResourceReader Read Resources from a Database for ASP.NET demo demo

Summary The.NET Framework provides great support for localization and globalization Use System.Globalization to globalize applications Use System.Resources to localize applications Similar.NET Framework support for Windows Forms and ASP.NET

Questions? Questions?

Ask The Experts Get Your Questions Answered Thursday 11:00-14:00 Friday 11:00-13:30

Community Resources Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Newsgroups Converse online with Microsoft Newsgroups, including Worldwide User Groups Meet and learn with your peers

Suggested Reading And Resources The tools you need to put technology to work! TITLEAvailable Today Developing International Software, Second Edition: Microsoft Press books are 20% off at the TechEd Bookstore Also buy any TWO Microsoft Press books and get a FREE T-Shirt

evaluations evaluations

© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This presentation is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.