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windowslocalizationwindows-runtimestore

WinRT Localization - Multiple Translations per Language

I am building a Windows Store application in XAML/C# for a Windows 8.1 Professional environment.

My project has a requirement that I must support multiple languages in addition to multiple translations for any given language. For example, I may have a label that would be displayed in English or French, but in English it may need to display the word "Title" or the word "Heading" depending on the customer's preferences.

My issue is that I cannot figure out a way to package and switch between multiple resource dictionaries for the same language while still using the built-in localization functionality provided by XAML for WinRT (i.e. using the Uid property on my controls to bind them to a resource dictionary).

I've noticed two functions, ResourceManager.LoadPriFiles and ResourceManager.UnloadPriFiles, that I thought might allow me to swap out resource dictionaries at runtime, but I can't figure out how to get the PRI files to be package outside of the application's main resource map to allow the loading and unloading.

I've also considered creating a custom data binding or converter that I could use to bind the controls' text manually, but that would cost me the ability to see labels at design time in Blend as well as sacrificing the convenience of the built-in localization capabilities.

Another option was to compile a separate instance of the application for each of the custom translations the customer might require, but obviously that's not a very maintainable way of solving the issue...

Finally, I had considered repurposing something like the homeregion qualifier of the ResourceContext to solve the issue; however, that seems very limiting as there are already pre-established homeregions that I would have to choose from. Repurposing fields seems like a bad idea in general.

Solution

  • You can use several resources files and use the PrimaryLanguageOverride property to select a different language than the default one. This will allow you to change the current resources set without doing anything specific.

    You can use a structure like this one for your resources:

    Strings
+- en-US
  +-Resources.resw
+- fr-FR
  +-Resources.resw
+- fr-other
  +-Resources.resw

    Then in you code, you will just have to call any of the following lines :

    Windows.Globalization.ApplicationLanguages.PrimaryLanguageOverride  = "fr-other";
Windows.Globalization.ApplicationLanguages.PrimaryLanguageOverride  = "en-US";
Windows.Globalization.ApplicationLanguages.PrimaryLanguageOverride  = "fr-FR";

    You application will now use the "fr-other" language. You can use up to 8 characters in the second part of the language tag.