Developing International Applications with Visual Studio 2005

1
Developing International Applications with Visual
Studio 2005

• Marin Millar
• Globalization Manager
• Microsoft

2
Overview

• Goals
• Introduce new globalization and localization
  features in .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio
  2005
• Topics
• .NET Runtime
• Windows Forms
• ASP .NET

3
.NET Framework 2.0

• Custom Cultures
• Supplementary Character Support
• IDN
• Normalization
• New Calendars
• Resources

4
Custom Cultures

• Custom culture examples
• Replacement Cultures
• Replacing or adding customizations to existing
  cultures
• Ex ja-JP-MyCompany or en-US-24hr
• Supplemental Cultures
• New combination of language and location
• es-US for Spanish in the US
• Tagalog in Guam

5
Custom Culture in 1.0/1.1

• Set CurrentCulture and CurrentUIculture to
  different values
• Example es-US (Spanish-United States)
• set CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture to es (for
  resources)
• set CurrentThread.CurrentCulture to en-US (for
  formatting)
• Disadvantages
• Date text is English, unless DTFI is overridden
• Override CultureInfo to create custom culture
• Existing custom culture sample on GotDotNet
  http//www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Det
  ails.aspx?SampleGuida193b952-2e44-45ed-811d-c1fab
  f2f6e8a
• Disadvantages
• Devs have to create their own implementations.
• Solution is not supported in the CultureInfo
  mechanism
• i.e., not included in cultures list for
  CultureInfo.GetAllCultures
• App domain limitation custom culture must be
  recreated across app domains

6
Custom Cultures in 2.0

• Goal
• Easily define new cultures
• Easily deploy new cultures
• Custom cultures are equivalent to pre-defined
  cultures
• Return all cultures, including custom cultures
• CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.AllAvailableC
  ultures)
• Return custom cultures only
• CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.UserCustomCul
  tures)
• Standardized solution
• No need to make separate DTFI updates change date
  display language
• No limitations across app domains

7
Custom cultures

• Limitations
• String name en-US-MyCompany is unique LCID is
  not
• One LCID per custom culture
• LCID assigned to user-default locale
• Changing the user-default locale to custom
  culture
• String name changes
• LCID does not change
• No UI designer for custom cultures
• Cannot use custom classes for CultureInfo classes
  such as CompareInfo, TextInfo, Calendar
• Can customize cultures to use existing classes

8
Personalize A Culture

• CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder carib new
  CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder(new
  CultureInfo("en-US", false), null, en, US,
  MyCompany")
• carib.DateTimeFormat.LongTimePattern
  HHmmss   
• carib.Register()
• CultureInfo ci new CultureInfo("en-US-MyCompany
  )
• //-OR- Save and register a file
• carib.Save("c\\temp\\myculture.xml")
• CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder.Register(c\\tmp\\myc
  ulture.xml)

9
Create A New Culture

• CultureInfo ciES new CultureInfo("es-ES")
• CultureInfo ciUS new CultureInfo("en-US")
• CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder carib new
  CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder(ciEs, null, "es",
  "US")
• carib.NumberFormat.CurrencySymbol
  ciUS.NumberFormat.CurrencySymbol
• carib.DateTimeFormat ciUS.DateTimeFormat
• carib.DateTimeFormat.DayNames
  ciES.DateTimeFormat.DayNames
• carib.DateTimeFormat.MonthNames
  ciES.DateTimeFormat.MonthNames
• carib.DateTimeFormat.AbbreviatedDayNames
  ciES.DateTimeFormat.AbbreviatedDayNames
• carib.DateTimeFormat.AbbreviatedMonthNames
  ciES.DateTimeFormat.AbbreviatedMonthNames
• carib.Register()
• CultureInfo ci new CultureInfo("es-US")

10
Developing a Custom Culture
Marin Millar Globalization Manager Developer
Division
11
International Domain Names

• New Standard (IDN)
• http//www.ietf.org/html.charters/idn-charter.html
  
• Enables non-ASCII domain names 
• www.loréal.com
• www.???.com
• IDN Mapping class containing IDN conversion APIs
• System.Globalization.IdnMapping
• GetAscii and GetUnicode provide host name
  conversion between native Unicode and Punycode
• Limitations
• This support does not cover IRIs
• Standard is not yet finalized
• Not yet implemented in System.Net URI/IRI classes

12
International Domain Names
Marin Millar Globalization Manager Developer
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Normalization

• Support 4 normalization forms (C,D,KC,KD)
• Composition, shortest form
• Decomposition, longest form
• Normalize strings
• public string Normalize(System.Text.NormalizationF
  orm normalizationForm)
• Verify normalization or normalization form
• public bool IsNormalized(System.Text.Normalization
  Form normalizationForm)
• Implementation conforms to sample in Unicode Tech
  Report 15
• http//www.unicode.org/reports/tr15/.

14
Supplementary Characters

• v. 1.0, 1.1
• Methods on StringInfo to parse characters and
  walk text elements
• v. 2.0
• Additional methods on StringInfo to find
  surrogate pairs in substrings
• public string SubstringByTextElements(int
  startingTextElement, int lengthInTextElements)
• New property to determine length of strings
  containing surrogate pairs
• public int LengthInTextElements get
• Char.IsLetter recognizes surrogate pairs
• New methods in System.Char class to detect high
  and low surrogate codepoints
• New methods to convert between Unicode and UTF-32
• Use Unicode or UTF-8 for better performance

15
Supplementary Characters
Marin Millar Globalization Manager Developer
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New Calendars

• Enable date conversions between regional
  calendars
• New algorithms include
• UmAlQura calendar
• Implementation of Hijiri calendar
• Jalaali calendar
• Calander used in Farsi communities
• East Asian Lunisolar calendars
• PRC
• Taiwan
• Japan
• Korea

17
Resource Model Additions

• Strongly Typed Resources
• What are they?
• Creates classes containing read-only properties
  for resources
• Benefits
• Provides Intellisense on resource identifiers
• No need to create a ResourceManager
• Eliminates mismatches between code and resource
  identifiers
• No need to cast objects to other types
• Additional fallback resource location
• v. 1.0/1.1 ResourceManager only loaded fallback
  resources from the main assembly
• v. 2.0 Adds ability to build fallback resources
  in a satellite assembly
• public NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute(string
  cultureName, System.Resources.UltimateResourceFall
  backLocation location)

18
Resource Performance Suggestions

• Put satellite assemblies in the GAC
• Satellite assemblies in the GAC are FAR more
  performant
• Use ResourceManager.GetStream for image resources
• Returns an unmanaged memory stream for images
• Far more performant than GetObject
• public System.IO.UnmanagedMemoryStream
  GetStream(string name)
• Use Culture-Neutral Images
• Loading images is expensive
• Using culture-neutral images can save a lot on
  performance
• Use NeutralLanguageResources Attribute
• Specifies the language of the default resources
• Eliminates probing for the neutral language
  resources

19
Strongly Typed Resources
Marin Millar Globalization Manager Developer
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20
Windows Forms Localization 1.0

• Each form has a localizable property
• Create single .resx file per form
• Edit source/localized .resx files in the Windows
  Forms designer or XML editor
• Images serialized into .resx file
• Pulled each localizable property from the .resx
  file
• Built satellite assemblies directly in VS
• Setup projects available in 9 languages

21
Windows Forms Localization 2.0

• Localizable property remains the same
• One .resx file per form
• Images
• Linked into resx files rather than serialized
• Default to app wide .resx file
• Edit source/localized resources in resource
  designer
• New layout functionality reduces resizing during
  localization
• Deploy Click Once projects in any language

22
Localize Without Resizing

• 1.0/1.1
• Use docking and anchoring properties
• 2.0
• Two new controls
• Use TableLayoutPanel for
• Resizing a group of controls proportionally
• Dynamically generating UI with customizable
  fields
• Creating a fixed size UI while still allowing
  localization
• Use FlowLayoutPanel for
• Creating a series of horizontal controls which
  may wrap vertically but arent proportional to
  each other
• Mechanism for bumping controls relative to
  other controls

23
Using Layout Controls
Marin Millar Globalization Manager Developer
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RightToLeft Languages

• v. 1.0/1.1
• Controls supported RightToLeft reading order
• Partial RightToLeft alignment and layout
• v. 2.0
• New RightToLeft behavior for
• Form, Treeview, StatusBar, ListView, Panel,
  ProgressBar, Tab, Splitter
• Controls support full mirroring
• RightToLeft reading order
• RightToLeft alignment
• RightToLeft layout

25
Click Once

• New deployment mechanism
• Deploy multiple languages from a single project
• Language property determines
• language satellite assemblies
• language external dependencies
• Click once language resources (.xml files)
• Can extend ClickOnce resource languages by
  localizing setup.xml

26
ASP .NET Localization

• v. 1.0/1.1
• Used .NET resource model
• No design time assistance
• v. 2.0
• Uses .NET resource model
• Provides a simple declarative model for
  localization
• Design time resource generation
• Edit using VS resource editor
• Server side compile of .resx files
• Tag to auto-detect browser culture

27
Handling Cultures

• v. 1.0/1.1
• Write code to detect browser language
• Specify preferred culture in web.config, page or
  code
• 2.0
• Use auto to automatically detect browser
  language

lt_at_ Page cultureautofr uicultureautofr-FR
.. gt
28
Resources

• Resource format
• Use .resx for authoring
• .NET xml based resource format
• Global Application Resources
• Use for global strings or images
• Stored in \Resources folder
• Strongly-typed, available to all pages through
  Resources member.
• Local Resources
• Use for page resources
• Stored in \LocalResources folder
• Generated through the designer

29
Handling Local Resources

• Declaratively
• Explicit or non-explicit expressions
• Programmatically
• System.Web.UI.TemplateControl.GetPageResourceObjec
  t()

foo.aspx \LocalResources foo.aspx.resx
foo.aspx.fr.resx Declaratively ltasplabel
runatserver idfoo textlt
ResourcesTitle, Welcome gt /gt ltasplabel
runatserver metaResourceKeyTitleKey
gt Programmatically foo.Text
(string)GetPageResourceObject(Title, Welcome)
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Bi-directionality

• Direction property on ltasppanelgt
• Marked Localizable(true)
• Designer service generates property value in RESX
• Can be explicitly defined
• Can be auto assigned through non-explicit
  expression handling

ltasppanel runatserver metaresourcekeyMainTi
tle /gt ltdata nameMainTitle.Direction
type.. ContentDirectiongt ltvaluegtRightToLeftlt/
valuegt lt/datagt
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ASP .NET Localization
Marin Millar Globalization Manager Developer
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32

• Microsoft Newsgroup
• microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization
• Localization Partner Program
• http//www.vsippartners.com/programs/localization
• More Articles and Code
• http//www.microsoft.com/globaldev
• http//www.dotnetdashboard.net/Sessions/globalizat
  ion.aspx
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/community/author
  s/mlb/default.aspx?pull/library/en-us/dnaspp/html
  /aspnet-globalarchi.asp

33
Expressions

• Declarative syntax
• Access local or app resources
• Interpreted at runtime
• Tool handling in control designers and
  Expressions (binding)
• Runtime parse-time feature but also support
  no-compile
• Explicit and non-explicit forms

Explicit form lt Resourcesclass,key,default
gt ltasplabel runatserver textlt
ResourcesMainTitle gt /gt ltaspbutton
runatserver textlt ResourcesMyStrings,OK_Ke
y gt/gt Non-explicit form MetaResourceKeykeyp
refix ltasplabel runatserver
metaresourcekeyMainTitle /gt
34
Explicit Expressions

• Used on any control or object property
• Fine-grained handling for properties which are
  not localizable by default
• Access application or local resources
• Runtime
• Used to obtain resource value and perform
  property assignment
• Design-time
• Developer can create expressions against control
  properties in Expressions dialog

35
Non-explicit Expressions

• Used to partially or fully localize an object
  with minimal syntax
• Controls, sub-objects, page directive
• Only used to access local resources
• Generated by the designer

36
Non-explicit Expressions

• Runtime Default RESX interrogated for keyprefix
  and properties set
• Key filter, keyprefix, control property,
  sub-property
• Design-time
• Control properties marked Localizable(true) are
  pushed to RESX

ltasplabel runatserver metaresourcekeyMainTi
tle /gt ltdata nameMainTitle.Textgt
ltvaluegtWelcome to the sitelt/valuegt lt/datagt ltdata
nameMainTitle.Font.Bold type.. Booleangt
ltvaluegttruelt/valuegt lt/datagt