I’ve read tutorials etc on the web about localization in Asp.Net and MVC, but I don’t think I get it. It all seems like a very messy way of handling pages if you do it as described…
Say I have a bunch of views with lots of paragraphs of text. The below would only be a partial example, there would usually be much more on a page:
<div id="homePageSidebar" class="roundedBox">
<div class="infoBoxHeader">
<h2>
<%:Html.ActionLink("Who are we?", "About") %>
</h2>
</div>
<div class="infoBoxContent">
<p>
Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
</p>
<p id="frontpagedesc">
Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
</p>
<p id="frontpagedesc">
Bla bla bla bla <a href="blabla">bla bla bla</a> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla <i>bla bla bla</i> bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
</p>
</div>
</div>
So if I understand correctly, I am supposed to replace the text in each
tag with something like <%=ViewRes.SharedStrings.Blabla_paragraph%>, <%=ViewRes.SharedStrings.Blabla2_paragraph%> etc?
And on top of it, this text (with sometimes rather long paragraphs) should be entered in an editor that seems far from adapted to editing long paragraphs of text (the database-like editor for resource files)?
And then, instead of having easily edited view files I will have files filled with these resource identifiers (which I am sure will seem rather cryptic after a while)? And to edit content, I will have to jump back and forward from the resource file and the view…
And what about links, italics, etc. Will these be hardcoded in raw html in the resource file, or should the text be fragmented even further (text up until a link as one resource, and the link another resource, and the remaining text in the sentence a third resource)? I saw an example in one of the tutorials that looked like that, and this would make it even more absurd.
I find it hard to believe this is really the way you have to do it. So I feel like I’m probably missing something basic? Have I misunderstood the process of localizing an Asp.Net MVC site completely?
No, you are not missing anything. That’s the process involved in localizing an ASP.NET MVC application.