I've been worked with localization and globalization for a while now. During that period I faced issues and learned many things about the subject. Here I am going to share some of my own ideas and tips to avoid falling in certain issues. It worth to mention that I am talking from GUI point of view and not Application Data point of view.

Consider using Resource Files ".resx" or Database:

Well this is a matter of your needs. But I highly recommends to always consider ASP.NET Resource Provider. Then it doesn't matter to work with ".resx" of Database. By default ASP.NET has a provider for XML based resources which is resource files ".resx" But also you can get a great Database Resource Provider for free from here.

Actually to choose between both you should think about that all your UI localizable terms should be stored in one central location. I mean, do not put some in resource file and some other in Database. Like you define labels on resource files and grid headers in database!! or maybe error or information messages. Just build it right from the beginning and define one central location.

More...

The scenario here is I want to apply localization to my web application and place language selection on MasterPage. I have made my own solution and applied this with assistance of cookies. View demo.

I'll demonstrate that in my sample. The sample has a MasterPage bellow is a snippet from its ASPX code:

   1: <form id="form1" runat="server">

   2:     <div>

   3:         <asp:DropDownList ID="cmbCulture" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True" 

   4:             OnSelectedIndexChanged="cmbCulture_SelectedIndexChanged">

   5:             <asp:ListItem Value="en-US">English</asp:ListItem>

   6:             <asp:ListItem Value="ar-EG">Arabic</asp:ListItem>

   7:             <asp:ListItem Value="de-DE">German</asp:ListItem>

   8:         </asp:DropDownList>        

   9:         <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="cph" runat="server"/>

  10:     </div>

  11: </form>

Simply when the user selects his language from the DropDownList the page post backs and change the language. More...

As I was working on multingual User Interface project; it was needed to generate resource files for all aspx & ascx files.
I knew that VS.NET 2005 has a local resource file generator. But it was weird when I select my ASPX page or user control and go to Tool menu and find that there are no Generate Local Resources command on the menu!

It didn't take so much time, I found the solution on ASP.NET Forums. It was simple: "he menu 'Tools > Generate Local Resources' is available when you display an aspx page or ascx". Also you must switch to design veiw before you Generate your local resources.

Last year I wrote an article about how to build multi-languange web sites with ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio.Net 2005. This is a bookmark to the articles (C#,VB.NET) [poste migrated from old blog]

Introduction: In order to reach international markets through the Internet, supporting different cultures through our applications is essential for being successful. The .NET Framework 2.0 as well as 1.x comes with an integrated infrastructure for creating international applications. Basically, the CLR supports a mechanism for packaging and deploying resources with any type of application. The CLR and the base class library of the .NET Framework come with several classes for managing and accessing resources in applications. These classes are located in the System.Resources and System.Globalization namespaces. Here we will explore the necessary details for working with resources in ASP.NET applications and for creating international ASP.NET applications based on embedded resources and the integrated localization support.

Assumptions: This article assumes that you already know how to build web forms and to use controls and validation controls.

Localization and resource files: Localization support in .Net Framework 2.0 in general and in ASP.Net 2.0 specifically become much more easier and brings fun during localization process. Usually resources are created for every culture the application should support. More specifically, each Web Form -Page- in your web site should have a resources for every culture -language- it should support. For example:If you have a web form with name default.aspx and your web site support English, German and Arabic, then you should have 3 resource files for each culture. The CLR defines a behavior for finding culture-specific resources. With that said, every set of resources has to define a base name that is specified through the first part of the name of the resource file. The second part of the name defines the culture. If the culture portion in the name is not specified, the resources defined in the resource file are used as default resources. For example:Your page name is default.aspx., you have 3 resource files as mentioned earlier, each one resource file should be named as:default.aspx.en-US.resx, default.aspx.de-DE.resx and default.aspx.ar-EG.resx. Not here that we are using United States English, German's Gemran, and Egyptian's Arabic. You can use general English or general German or general Arabic like this:default.aspx.en.resx, default.aspx.de.resx and default.aspx.ar.resx. Also you can use another specific culture like using Switzerland German culture this way: default.aspx.de-CH.resx. For list of supported cultures in .Net Framework return to MSDN.

Read the complete article at C-SharpCorner.com
Read the VB.Net version as VBDotNetHeaven.com