Question

I have a WPF application which needs to support localization. I have 2 buttons (add, delete) and a combo box (english, french). When I select french, button’s content should change to (ajouter, effacer).

Now, my question is, what would be the downside or drawback if I manually set the buttons content in code behind? See code below.

private void comboBox_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
  ResourceDictionary currentLanguage = new ResourceDictionary();

  switch (comboBox.Text)
  {
    case "english": 
      currentLanguage.Source = new Uri("../en-US.xaml", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
      break;
    case "france": 
      currentLanguage.Source = new Uri("../fr-FR.xaml", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
      break;
  }

  btnAdd.Content = Resources.GetString("insert");
  btnDelete.Content = Resources.GetString("delete");
}

I know its kind of weird but kindly answer it. Why shouldn’t I localize my application this way.

Thanks!

Answer 1

When swapping resource dictionaries you should utilize using DynamicResources instead of StaticResources Basically in XAML you would do the following:

XAML

  <Button Content="{DynamicResource Insert}"/>
  <Button Content="{DynamicResource Delete}"/>

Where Insert and Delete are in your Resource Dictionaries using the x:Key

When you swap the dictionary then these will dynamically update