I have an application in ASP.Net in AngularJS, until then that my application had the need only in Brazil, but recently the company where I work needs to make this site available to other countries in other languages like Spanish and English.
I have never worked with International applications, so there will be many doubts and difficulties.
I'll start with the difficulties:
- My application has fixed texts in the html, database and code, how can I translate all these fronts? Is there a component that translates everything into the client? (Javascript, AngularJS, etc ...).
- Development time for this change (Too much code to change).
Questions: - Decimal, Date and Time, how to work with these values in an International application? (My application has many logs and values to display and insert)
I'm researching a lot but really needed a hint of where I could go.
Thank you, I'll wait!
I would start searching for "Localization". There is something called "AspNetBoilerplate" that has implemented localization into there project. Here is their link: https://aspnetboilerplate.com/ and here is document on how to use it within their project: https://aspnetboilerplate.com/Pages/Documents/Localization. You can easily download a free project and see what they did to implement it.
They have different localization files based on language being used. The language being used is a setting in the DB based upon the tenant that logs in. All static text looks up to its respective localization file (See their .Core project under "Localization" to see all their files).
As far as DateTimes/Decimals/etc, I would have extension methods that looked up the cached localization being used and format respectively.
By no means am I recommending you use this software but rather see how they implemented it within their project. Also, know that I have only had to do this once and there may be numerous other ways to accomplish this goal.
Related
I'm still pretty new to asp.net web forms. I have a requirement to make app available in two languages. Everything that has to be translated is static content. Can you point me to good reading resource on this topic or perhaps explain shortly how is this best done?
Video tutorial from microsoft asp.net team : http://www.asp.net/web-forms/videos/how-do-i/how-do-i-create-a-multi-lingual-site-with-localization
Here is another useful link : http://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/archive/2010/11/23/multi-lingual-web-applications-using-asp-net-4.aspx
The articles that were listed in the other answers are all great resources.
Here is a quick summary of some things to consider:
Any static text that will be "user facing" should be stored in resource files. In ASP .NET these files typically take the form of .resx files where the name of the file corresponds to the name of the page in which it is consumed. There are plenty of great articles out there for how to create and maintain these files. For each new language needed, you create a separate ..resx file. So if your "default" English text for a page is stored in 'MyPage.aspx.resx', you would store the Brazilian Portuguese translation in 'MyPage.aspx.pt-BR.resx'.
When creating your "default" resource entries (sometimes referred to as messages), it's important to try and keep your messages organized as complete sentences/thoughts, as those will be easier to translate to other languages. There are some great general guidelines for structuring localizable messages on the mediawiki.org site: MediaWiki - Internationalization Hints
You'll want to be very careful with respect to things like date and number parsing and formatting. The .NET framework provides good facilities for parsing and formatting dates and numbers in a variety of different cultural contexts. Most .Parse and .Format methods accept an instance of the CultureInfo class that it can use to inform .NET about how the number or date should be formatted.
Related to the above: I've found it easier to prefer ISO-friendly date formats whenever possible. Most people that see: '2010-03-05' would know that it represents March 5, 2010 while '03-05-2010' could be interpreted as March 5, 2010 or May 3, 2010, depending on where you're from. Again, the .NET framework provides facilities for you to properly format this date based on the culture preferences of the current user, but I've often found it easier to just pick a standard format that is internationally recognized whenever possible to make your life easier.
These are very high-level guidelines and there are a lot of other things to take into consideration when localizing software. I definitely recommend that you check out the articles linked in other answers, but some of the stuff I've listed above have bitten me in the past.
The .Net Framework supports Internationalization API which is known as Globalization and Localization. Globalization/Localization includes the country/region, calendars, number format, currency format, date format, resources, text encoding etc. Have a look at MSDN article on ASP.NET Globalization and Localization
I have been trying to get culture specific resources to work on an asp.net mvc 3 application.
If I have a LanguageResources.resx and a LanguageResources.en-UK.resx in my App_GlobalResources folder then I get an error "The namespace 'Resources' already contains a definition for 'LanguageResources'"
This is the end of a long line of issues that I have had with trying to get culture specific resources to work. I must say, I'm not impressed with the documentation Microsoft provide for using this feature.
I'm considering using a database table to store my culture specific strings instead, then I can just build a dictionary of all the values that will be available to my controller and views.
Has anyone else made such a decision, or have any direct knowledge on performance issues related to using a database for culture specific strings?
Has anyone else given up on resources too?
I must admit, I tried to reproduce your defect and I was successful. It looks like, Visual Studio generates additional class when you add something.en-UK.resx. Strange. It should not allow you to add anything like this in the first place for there is no such culture.
How to resolve the problem? Just add LanguageResources.en-GB.resx and delete
LanguageResources.en-GB.resx. That helps.
I would not use database for storing language-related resources, unless they are changing very frequently or must be entered by end users (i.e. there are some kind of templates).
Using the database hurts Localizability and requires much effort. It is hard to design correctly (I have seen a lot of mistakes in that area). Don't go that road unless you really have to.
I'm conducting a project in which a website should have multi-language support.
Now, this website is supposed to serve about 500K+ visitors a day, so it must be super-efficient.
I've created a table of parameters {[ID],[Name]} AND a linkage-table {[objectID],[parameterID],[languageID],[value]}. I think it's the best way to deploy multi-language support while having the privilege to translate different parameters for each language.
As far as I know, server's memory is much faster than a physical HDD. Therefore, I'm planning to store ASP.NET Application State objects for my translation architecture.
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178594.aspx)
How does my plan sound so far? any suggestions?
If you are planning on making an app that support multiple languages, your instant reflex should be let .net do the work for you. What i'm reading in your question is that you are setting up something to support that. You should know that localization is the way to go when you want to develop a multi-language environment.
Take a look at this msdn article, it should give you a general idea on the topic.
So, localizing an application can be divided into two parts:
Localizing business logic entities.
Localizing everything else.
In the question I see words which are related to business entity localization. For that purpose I agree with the concept to have separation between entities and their localizations.
Part 1 - Localizing entities:
Personally I do this way in database:
table Entity {EntityID, Name} -this is the entity-related table.
table EntityByLang {EntityID, LanguageID, Name} -this is the localized version of the table for each supported language.
This way allows me to have default values for each localizable property like Name and its localization, if such is available in the localized table. What's left here up to you is - you need to implement the data-access-layer which takes the Name localized for the current user language, or the default value (if language or the translation is not available for the given language).
Part 2 - Localizing everything else:
Here, with no alternatives in terms of the performance, I would recommend using some kind of static resources. Personally I live with static resources available for standard asp.net applications.
From the architectural point of view, don't directly refer to localization code from your UI code, like this (which I don't like):
var translation = HttpContext.Current.GetGlobalResourceObject("hello");
//excuse me, if I don't exactly remember the GetGlobalResourceObject() method name...
Instead, I would recommend using this kind of approach:
var translation = AppContext.GetLocalizationService().Translate("hello");
Where: AppContext - some kind of facade/factory (in fact, implementation of abstract facade/factory). GetLocalizationService - initially returns some kind of ILocalizationService, when implemented it returns StaticResLocalizationService (which implements ILocalizationService). This way allowing switching from one kind of localization to another. And particularly StaticResLocalizationService works with asp.net static resources
Sorry for messy sample codes, but I hope you understand my approach.
I hope this helps!
I would suggest to create custom resource provider, you can read more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa905797.aspx
with this model you can leverage existing asp .net localization functionality
For many years I have had an objective of moving out of ASP/VBScript to a "better" language - my preference would be C# as I have skills in C - but I would consider other languages too (including PHP etc. so not just DotNet)
Objective is to have the code base in a language which does more for us. I hate the lack of data typing in VBScript, I would like a number of different "container objects" - rather than just a Dictionary Object, and so on - in fact I wonder why, having moved from Basic to C in the 80's, and then C++ a while after that, I managed to move "back" to Basic in to 00's.
(I could program the container objects in VBScript, but my instinct is that they would be slow in operation; we have a significant cache of "snippets" of HTML used in the rendering of the page, the ASP Application Object is a pretty blunt instrument!)
My ASP/VBScript is a single large application that is basically an "engine" to deliver web content.
It has been many years in the making, and now the ASP code changes seldom. (So I do need to justify moving it at all, or just living with VBScript "for ever")
It is driven from data in an MS SQL database.
There is only one .ASP page (made up of several include files).
Based on the query string parameters Skin and CMS templates for the page are loaded from database and suitable database Sprocs are run to acquire data which is merged into the CMS templates.
Data about the page (methods to use, etc.) is also retrieved from the database, along with details of access permissions and so on.
From what I have read some these things may make migration easier:
ASP sessions are not used - a session cookie is used to retrieve session data from the DB (so I could easily share a session half-and-half with ASPX
The VBScript uses OPTION EXPLICIT throughout, so all variables are predefined.
All output is via Response.Write (in fact most content is merged into a single variable and then output). There is no mix of HTML and <% server code %>.
I have some VBScript classes, but not many.
I have lots of VBScript functions, and a few Subroutines.
I have a test suite. This catches screen shots from the browser and graphically compares them with master images - thus I have the ability to do a regression test.
I don't have the resource to do a complete rewrite; maintenance of the existing code needs to continue during migration; but having said that 99% of our work is in CMS or SQL Sprocs, so the changes to ASP code are infrequent.
I have read of MS's utility to migrate ASP code to VB.NET. Given that my code is 100% VBScript and no mix of HTML/Script I would appreciate opinions on whether this would help me a lot or a little?
I would be happy to refactor STAYING IN VBscript with a view to making the migration to DotNet easier later on (but I'd need to know what my objectives were in doing that :) ). I could, for example, move some/all the functions to a COM object, and could probably do that piecemeal?
Thanks for your help
I have a large ASP classic intranet that I was maintaining until last year, and it was getting old, but new pieces were still being added in ASP classic because there was so much library code invested already. You already have a good setup if you are not changing the ASP code often and have some form of testing in place. (I have to admit it's the first time I have heard of the screenshot approach). If everything is driven off the DataBase and working. don't break it.
PHP will give you same problem of variant types, but will give you a world of options and choices that makes ASP classic seem like a childs toy. Out the box PHP does everything I've ever needed to do.
ASP.net is a BIG framework. Understanding it properly and fully is not an easy task, and it surprises me very often. it tries to do things for developers coming from a forms environment automatically that get very obtrusive when you come from a very precise rendering methodology like you sound you have. I found myself fighting the technology all the time, until ASP.net MVC came around. It fit my mind better because of how it worked and did what I asked it to, and nothing more. C# is an awesome language, with brilliant features and the DOT.net framework lets you do anything, if you can just find the right pieces. There is so much of it you will find yourself occasionally writing something that has been done in the framework already, only to find it just after finishing your own implementation.
Actually migrating could lead to some interesting problems. Even though you CAN run a ASP.net page much like an ASP classic page, you will loose many of the benefits of the environment as it is intended. That being said, I did do some test towards looking at migrating the site in question to ASP.net and managed to find ways around most of the stumbling blocks and reached the conclusion that such a migration would in fact be "mere work". The sheer quantity of man-hours it would take to do such a migration though made the undertaking infeasible.
Personally I would not suggest such a migration unless you have a few ASP.net projects under you belt successfully and are aware of the gotchas that asp.net brings with-it.
I have not seen the ASP to ASP.net conversion tool you speak of, but would love to get a link to it.
If you are staying in VBScript and are not aware of the AXE (ASP Xtreme Evolution) project here I can highly suggest looking into it for inspiration on getting past/around several of the ASP classic "limitations" and for the library of functionality it provides.
If you are looking for a way to justify the project to management, it will become increasingly more difficult to find classic ASP developers to continue maintaining the application. Any developer that has a choice would probably not choose to maintain an application built using VBScript. Developers that do take the job might consider it temporary and continue to look for other work.
Although I haven't heard anything from Microsoft, it can't be too many years before they decide to retire classic ASP entirely.
How should I store (and present) the text on a website intended for worldwide use, with several languages? The content is mostly in the form of 500+ word articles, although I will need to translate tiny snippets of text on each page too (such as "print this article" or "back to menu").
I know there are several CMS packages that handle multiple languages, but I have to integrate with our existing ASP systems too, so I am ignoring such solutions.
One concern I have is that Google should be able to find the pages, even for foreign users. I am less concerned about issues with processing dates and currencies.
I worry that, left to my own devices, I will invent a way of doing this which work, but eventually lead to disaster! I want to know what professional solutions you have actually used on real projects, not untried ideas! Thanks very much.
I looked at RESX files, but felt they were unsuitable for all but the most trivial translation solutions (I will elaborate if anyone wants to know).
Google will help me with translating the text, but not storing/presenting it.
Has anyone worked on a multi-language project that relied on their own code for presentation?
Any thoughts on serving up content in the following ways, and which is best?
http://www.website.com/text/view.asp?id=12345&lang=fr
http://www.website.com/text/12345/bonjour_mes_amis.htm
http://fr.website.com/text/12345
(these are not real URLs, i was just showing examples)
Firstly put all code for all languages under one domain - it will help your google-rank.
We have a fully multi-lingual system, with localisations stored in a database but cached with the web application.
Wherever we want a localisation to appear we use:
<%$ Resources: LanguageProvider, Path/To/Localisation %>
Then in our web.config:
<globalization resourceProviderFactoryType="FactoryClassName, AssemblyName"/>
FactoryClassName then implements ResourceProviderFactory to provide the actual dynamic functionality. Localisations are stored in the DB with a string key "Path/To/Localisation"
It is important to cache the localised values - you don't want to have lots of DB lookups on each page, and we cache thousands of localised strings with no performance issues.
Use the user's current browser localisation to choose what language to serve up.
You might want to check GNU Gettext project out - at least something to start with.
Edited to add info about projects:
I've worked on several multilingual projects using Gettext technology in different technologies, including C++/MFC and J2EE/JSP, and it worked all fine. However, you need to write/find your own code to display the localized data of course.
If you are using .Net, I would recommend going with one or more resource files (.resx). There is plenty of documentation on this on MSDN.
As with most general programming questions, it depends on your needs.
For static text, I would use RESX files. For me, as .Net programmer, they are easy to use and the .Net Framework has good support for them.
For any dynamic text, I tend to store such information in the database, especially if the site maintainer is going to be a non-developer. In the past I've used two approaches, adding a language column and creating different entries for the different languages or creating a separate table to store the language specific text.
The table for the first approach might look something like this:
Article Id | Language Id | Language Specific Article Text | Created By | Created Date
This works for situations where you can create different entries for a given article and you don't need to keep any data associated with these different entries in sync (such as an Updated timestamp).
The other approach is to have two separate tables, one for non-language specific text (id, created date, created user, updated date, etc) and another table containing the language specific text. So the tables might look something like this:
First Table: Article Id | Created By | Created Date | Updated By | Updated Date
Second Table: Article Id | Language Id | Language Specific Article Text
For me, the question comes down to updating the non-language dependent data. If you are updating that data then I would lean towards the second approach, otherwise I would go with the first approach as I view that as simpler (can't forget the KISS principle).
If you're just worried about the article content being translated, and do not need a fully integrated option, I have used google translation in the past and it works great on a smaller scale.
Wonderful question.
I solved this problem for the website I made (link in my profile) with a homemade Python 3 script that translates the general template on the fly and inserts a specific content page from a language requested (or guessed by Apache from Accept-Language).
It was fun since I got to learn Python and write my own mini-library for creating content pages. One downside was that our hosting didn't have Python 3, but I made my script generate static HTML (the original one was examining User-agent) and then upload it to server. That works so far and making a new language version of the site is now a breeze :)
The biggest downside of this method is that it is time-consuming to write things from scratch. So if you want, drop me line and I'll help you use my script :)
As for the URL format, I use site.com/content/example.fr since this allows Apache to perform language negotiation in case somebody asks for /content/example and has a browser tell that it likes French language. When you do this Apache also adds .html or whatever as a bonus.
So when a request is for example and I have files
example.fr
example.en
example.vi
Apache will automatically proceed with example.vi for a person with Vietnamese-configured browser or example.en for a person with German-configured browser. Pretty useful.