Question

I’m in the process of translating a WPF window. I’m using WPF Localize Extension . So far I only have a Spanish translation for testing purposes in <Resource>.es.resx file . At design time translations work . So I guess I’m on the right track .

I have included menu items to translate the GUI dynamically at run time . Initially I tried this (naïve) command …

public class CmdTranslateUI : ICommand
{
    bool ICommand.CanExecute(object parameter)
    {
        // TODO: Query available translations
        return true;
    }

    public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged;

    void ICommand.Execute(object parameter)
    {
        LocalizeDictionary.Instance.Culture = new CultureInfo(
            (string) parameter);
    }
}

… and menu items for each language are bound to it in XAML this way .

<MenuItem Header="Español" CommandParameter="es-ES">
    <MenuItem.Command>
        <l:CmdTranslateUI />
    </MenuItem.Command>
</MenuItem>

The fact is that such approach is not working . Culture info remains set to "en-US" anyway . I read that on setting LocalizeDictionary.Instance.Culture its DictionaryEvent is triggered, so I thought this would update the GUI automatically . Obviously I’m wrong .

On the other hand , it seems current thread’s culture won’t influence library behavior either.

So I ask …

Q:

• What’s the recommended approach to translate a window at run time with WPF Localize Extension ?
• How could I list available translations ?

Thanks in advance .

Answer 1

It seems I introduced a typo by accident last time I compiled the library (or I had ghosts in my HDD / CPU) . Language switching is working now after setting LocalizeDictionary.Instance.SetCurrentThreadCulture .

Just for the record , this is what command class mentioned above should look like

public class CmdTranslateUI : ICommand
{
    bool ICommand.CanExecute(object parameter)
    {
        CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo((string)parameter);

        foreach (CultureInfo c in ResxLocalizationProvider.Instance.AvailableCultures)
        {
            if (ci.Name == c.Name)
                return true;
            else if (ci.Parent.Name == c.Name)
                return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged;

    void ICommand.Execute(object parameter)
    {
        LocalizeDictionary.Instance.SetCurrentThreadCulture = true;
        LocalizeDictionary.Instance.Culture = new CultureInfo(
            (string) parameter);
    }
}

… at least that’s a simple approach that will work as long as resource files l10n provider is active.