Develop Reference

Language on Botframework

Im goind through the bot framwork and Im having trouble fixing the global language.
The problem is that I cannot change the backend commands and responses that are built in the framework, they are always in english.
For example, in Formflow, I would like to enter "help" but in other language instead.
Or whenever a question in a QnAbot is not found, I would like the defaul "...Is not a valid query" to be in another lenguage instead
Are different languages built in or do I need to code every commmand translation?

If you’d like to implement localization, you can try to create resource files for language that you want and add&use it in your project. When a form is created, the IFormBuilder.Build method will automatically look for resources that contain your form type name and use them to localize the static strings in your form.
This article describes Localize form content, please refer to it. And you can find these main steps:
Generate a resource file, you can either use IFormBuilder.SaveResources or use the RView tool
After generated a resource file, add it to project and then set the neutral language withe these steps:
Right-click on your project and select Application.
Click Assembly Information.
Select the Neutral Language value that corresponds to the language in which you developed your bot.
After added resource files to project, use the Multilingual App Toolkit (MAT) to localize them.

you can try it by using
var english = new Option();
english.Locale = "en-US";
Reference: GitHub

Language resources files not loaded in class library on other environment

I have a class library project (c#, .net 4.0). It has some WPF user controls which show content in english or spanish according to the culture configured in database.
For doing so, in the main window constructor, I receive a CultureInfo parameter, which I use to set the culture to be used in my Localization namespace, like this:
public MainWindow(Entities.TransactionContext transactionContext, CultureInfo culture)
{
Localization.Resources.Culture = culture;
InitializeComponent();
//Some other unrelated code here
}
That is used from the main program wich calls my dll. In there, a query is made to get the default culture. It can be either "en-US" or "es-MX", then it is send as the second parameter. The first one is not important for now.
As I said, I have a namespace named MyProject.Localization (I'm changing my project name since internal policies, you understand). In that folder, I have three resources files:
Resources.resx
Resources.en-US.resx
Resources.es-MX.resx
Default entries in Resources.resx have values in spanish since, you know, I'm mexican.
Also, in my code, when I need to show a message or set a label text, I use something like this:
this.lblStatusMessage.Content = Localization.Resources.OperationCancelled;
In this example: "OperationCancelled" is an entry that exists in all the resources files. In spanish its value is "Operación Cancelada" and in english it says "Operation Cancelled".
After all this story, this works great in my development environment. I run my test project, I see it in english, then I change the language in database, run it again and boom! spanish.
But.
When I commit changes to this project via SVN, it is then deployed to QA environment by some automated process (it's awesome). And then I test there and I always see the contents in spanish (as the default ones). Even when I change the language on the QA database, it always shows labels and messages in spanish.
I tried some options:
Changed the resources dll's Build Action to Resource instead of Embedded Resource. It didn't work.
Right click->Properties, Resources tab shows no Resources, so I created three resx files there and set custom namespace as MyProject.Localization. Next I excluded my original files since now there was some ambiguity errors. Again it worked in my dev machine but in QA didn't.
Any ideas about this? My hipothesis is that it has something to do with the resx files, maybe they're not included in the final built or something like that, and that's why the app cannot get the localized texts.
Thank you in advance.

Heres my answer based on personal experience: Build action "Embedded Resource" should work. All resources will be included.
Localization.Resources.Culture = culture;
// "Overrides's the current thread's CurrentUICulture property for all
// resources lookups using this this strongly typed resource class."
I havent used this method personally, but this also means it could be changed back to Localization.Resources.Culture = null; without you knowing. Instead look into using System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = culture;. And heres a suggestion of a call if you intend to have an application with multiple languages:
public void SetUICulture(CultureInfo culture)
{
CultureInfo savedUICultureInfo = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture;
try
{
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = uiCultureInfo;
// Do culture-specific stuff...
this.lblStatusMessage.Content = Localization.Resources.OperationCancelled;
}
finally
{
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = savedUICultureInfo
}
}
This is also useful if you later on have several different resource files. In general I would suggest to take a look at what CultureInfo you're actually passing.

Well, at the end it was simple.
This is my explanation, maybe it's incomplete, but I understood it like that and worked for me.
When you use resources files for localization and you build the solution, VS creates a DLL for each of them. They are created in a folder corresponding to its languaje. In my case, two folder were created:
en
es-MX
Inside each folder, ther was a single file: MySolution.resources.dll. Same name in both files. That way, at runtime, the application know which dll to use to load localized texts.
So you need those folders for using localized logic. If they're not present, the app could only use the texts from the default resource file.
In my case, again, when I tested my app, it worked great because the Debug folder had my MySolution.exe file and also the language folders. But it failed at prod environment because the main deployment was not considering those folders.
And also, the deployment configuration was set something like that:
-MainFolder
--MainApp.exe
--MainApp.configfile
--other files
--Folder
----MySolution.dll
----en
------MySolution.resources.dll
----es-MX
------MySolution.resources.dll
So I had to talk with the person in charge of deployments, so that could change to:
-MainFolder
--MainApp.exe
--MainApp.configfile
--other files
--MySolution.dll
--en
----MySolution.resources.dll
--es-MX
----MySolution.resources.dll
That way, my dll could load the language dlls, and the main executable could load everything ok. Happy ending.
I hope I was clear and it can help someone. Cheers.

localize a picturebox image from a resource from a satellite library

I am attempting to write a small program that uses localized resources that depend on the language and culture. You can view a video explanation here.
My two questions are
How can I (from the IDE/Visual Studio) access resources from a satellite DLL
Specifically, how can I access an image for a pictureBox control.
Here are the two Projects:
One is a library and one is a windows form project. I want to reference the resx files from Form1. If this is not the correct way to use this, please explain how I should be creating my satellite DLL.
Here is how I want the Form to look in American Culture:
and here is how I want it to look in Australian Culture:

Please check this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y99d1cd3(v=vs.80).aspx
It is about how to localize a string and from which you will know we use different resource file for different language version.
Here is the description of it from that page:
"In general, you should use forms-based resources for all resources specific to a form in your Windows Forms application. You should use project resources for all non-forms-based user interface strings and images, such as error messages."
Here is way and code about image:
Localization of image resources in Windows Forms
and a step by step solution here:
Proper localization of a WinForms application
I've just completed a C# .Net 3.5 project with a similar problem. We were writing WinForms plugin for an existing multi-lingual application with 8 languages (including English).
This is how we did it:
Create all our forms and UI in the default language, English.
Put all our internal strings in a resource file (stuff not tied directly to a form like custom error messages and dialog box titles etc)
Once we had completed most of the work and testing we localised it.
Each form already had a .resx file but this was empty. We set the property 'Localizable' to true, the .resx file was filled with things like button sizes & strings.
For each of the other languages, we changed the 'Language' property on the form. We chose the basic version of each language eg: 'Spanish' instead of 'Spanish (Chile)' etc. so that it would work for every 'Spanish' dialect, I think.
Then we went through each control, translated its text and resized, if needed. This created a .resx per language and form combination.
We were then left with, for 8 languages, 8 .resx for each form and 8 .resx for the general strings. When compiled the output folder had the .dll we were creating and then a sub folder for each language with a .resources.dll in it.

Is it possible to use resx files for different languages in a windows forms application?

Is it possible to use resx files for different languages in a windows forms application, the same way as in a web project?
I think that you can set the culture of the thread and it should read from the correct file.
The problem I am having is how to create the files for each language in visual studio 2008, feel like there is something very simple that I am missing.
Thanks
Shiraz

You need to include a resource file for each culture you wish to support. These are added to the project in the same location as the main resource file, and must follow a strict naming convention.
The name of the resource file needs to include both the country code and language, for example:
Resources.fr-FR.resx for French (in France)
Resources.fr-CA.resx for French (in Canada)
Resources.es-ES.resx for Spanish (in Spain)
Resources.es-MX.resx for Spanish (in Mexico)
However, if you know that you don't need to support regional variations in a language you can just name the file with the name of that language:
Resources.fr.resx for French
Resources.en.resx for English
Resources.es.resx for Spanish
It will depend on how important it is that you localise for each country and/or how upset your users will be if they see the "wrong" text (e.g. color/colour etc. for US English/UK English)
See here for a list of culture codes.
NOTE: I've not had a chance to verify the code, but it looks complete.

Just add a resource file and change its name to have the language short name.
For example, if the default is Resources.resx, for a resource for Hebrew, the resource will be named Resources.he.resx and for German it will be named Resources.de.resx.

Proper localization of a WinForms application

I have a WinForms application which I want to translate into multiple languages. However, I do not have any experience with localizing a WinForms app, and I find very contradictory information about this subject.
Basically, what I want is:
In the source code, I want only one file per language
This file gets compiled into the main application on compilation - no satellite assemblies or external data files after building the application
The user can select the language, I do not need/want auto-detection based on the operating system
This should mainly contain strings and ints, but also a CultureInfo
Most solutions I've seen either have one .resx file per Form and/or external satellite assemblies.
Do I have to roll my own?
Or is there something in the framework already?
.net Framework 3.5 SP1 if that matters.
Edit:
For the most part, Visual Studio already offers support for what I want, but there are two issues. When I set Form.Localizable to true I have this nice Designer support, but this generates one resx per Form. The idea of manually overriding it in InitializeComponent fails because it's designer-written code that will regularly be overwritten.
Theoretically, I only want to :
a) override the creation of the ComponentResourceManager to point it to my global resx and
b) change the call to ApplyResources to the overload that takes a CultureInfo as third parameter.
It seems as if I have to add a function call to my constructor that gets called after InitializeComponent() and overrides its behaviour. That seems terribly inefficient, but Visual Studio is right when it warns about touching InitializeComponent().
At the moment, I am indeed rolling my own WinForms localization Framework...

I've just completed a C# .Net 3.5 project with a similar problem. We were writing WinForms plugin for an existing multi-lingual application with 8 languages (including English).
This is how we did it:
Create all our forms and UI in the default language, English.
Put all our internal strings in a resource file (stuff not tied directly to a form like custom error messages and dialog box titles etc)
Once we had completed most of the work and testing we localised it.
Each form already had a .resx file but this was empty. We set the property 'Localizable' to true, the .resx file was filled with things like button sizes & strings.
For each of the other languages, we changed the 'Language' property on the form. We chose the basic version of each language eg: 'Spanish' instead of 'Spanish (Chile)' etc. so that it would work for every 'Spanish' dialect, I think.
Then we went through each control, translated its text and resized, if needed. This created a .resx per language and form combination.
We were then left with, for 8 languages, 8 .resx for each form and 8 .resx for the general strings. When compiled the output folder had the .dll we were creating and then a sub folder for each language with a .resources.dll in it.
We were able to test the versions of the UI in the designer by just changing the language property to check that we had the correct strings & layout.
All in all once we got our heads around it, it was quite easy and painless.
We didn't need to write any custom tweaks to the form loading

I was asking a similar question about ASP.NET and got a first answer - this tool and its workflow might also be something for you - have a look: Lingobit Localizer
It seems to be able to load your Winforms app and allows you to start translating your labels etc. and see the forms while you do it. Lots of other features, too, like incremental translation and translation memory (if you use the same terms over and over again).
Looks quite promising (for Winforms) - haven't used it myself, though.
Here's an extensive list of potential .NET localization tools - not sure, how well they work and what they cover - have a look, maybe you'll find what you're looking for.
Marc

I dont have a solution for your first and second requirement but keep in mind that localizing a form is not as simple as translating each word. You need to check that each translated text fits in their respective control. Also, maybe you have an icon or an image which need to be change in another culture.
For your point three, you can change the language manually with the following lines:
CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo("fr");
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = ci;

This is a huge subject and there are many ways to accomplish what you want. The framework does provide the basis but a complete solution requires that you implement certain elements yourself.
For example the default framework implementation is to create a .resx file for every resource. In ASP.Net this means each user/server control or page. This doesn't lend itself to easy maintenance and if you want to move resources to a database you need to implement your own provider.
My familiarity with Winforms is limited but if you are using Silverlight or WPF then have a read of Guy Smith-Ferrier's work on the subject at: http://www.guysmithferrier.com/category/Internationalization.aspx. He also has some toolsets that can make your life easier at: http://www.dotneti18n.com/Downloads.aspx.
I've worked with him before and have never come across anyone else with a better depth of understanding of the subject.

What you are asking for:
no satellite resource files
only one size and control placement per form.
lots of languages embedded in the executable.
Is not do-able in vanilla Visual Studio's IDE.
What it would require is some custom work, basically fulfilling all these steps:
Acquire a custom resource manager that handles TMX resource files.
Put all your localizable strings in a TMX file.
Make this TMX file an embedded resource in your project.
In your Form constructor, create your TMX ResourceManager, loading the TMX file from your embedded resources.
In your code, use your tmx ResourceManager instead of the default ResourceManager for getting localized strings.
Let the Form use the default ResourceManager for getting all the designer things except the strings.
Get your TMX file fleshed out with the new language translations.
More can be added in the next release of your project, just by adding them to this TMX file before you compile.
RESOURCES: (not an exhaustive list, by any means)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_Memory_eXchange
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tmx-editor/

The right way to do this is, suppose you want to add Arabic support witch is RightToLeft language:
Double click the form
Set localizable prop. to true
Change Language prop. to Arabic //This will automatically open a new version of the form so you can customize.
Set RightToLeft prop. to Yes
Set RightToLeftLayout prop. to True
Start renaming controls, and save the form.
Handle Messages/Errors in code // Sorry I don't have a quick solution for now, try duplicate them and If/Else the current local.