How to Set a Global Culture in ASP.NET Core for Multilingual Applications

In today’s globalized world, it’s crucial to develop multilingual applications that cater to a diverse audience. ASP.NET Core is a powerful web framework that facilitates this process by providing several tools to help you set up a global culture for your application. In this article, we will discuss the steps that you can take to set up a global culture in ASP.NET Core for multilingual applications.

1. Understanding the Globalization Process

Globalization refers to the process of designing and developing applications that can work with multiple languages and cultures. In the context of ASP.NET Core, globalization involves setting up the culture information for each request, formatting dates, numbers, and currencies according to the user’s culture. By doing this, we can create an application that is accessible to users from different countries and cultures.

2. Setting Up the Culture Information

The first step in setting up a global culture in ASP.NET Core is to configure the culture information. Culture information includes the language, country/region, and calendar that the user prefers. We can set up the culture information in the ConfigureServices method of the Startup.cs file.

services.Configure(options =>
{
var supportedCultures = new[]
{
new CultureInfo(“en-US”),
new CultureInfo(“es-MX”),
new CultureInfo(“fr-FR”)
};

options.DefaultRequestCulture = new RequestCulture(culture: “en-US”, uiCulture: “en-US”);
options.SupportedCultures = supportedCultures;
options.SupportedUICultures = supportedCultures;

options.RequestCultureProviders = new[]
{
new CookieRequestCultureProvider(),
new AcceptLanguageHeaderRequestCultureProvider()
};
});

In the example above, we are setting up the default request culture to be en-US, with support for es-MX and fr-FR. We are also configuring the RequestCultureProviders to use cookies and accept-language headers.

3. Using Resource Files for Localization

Resource files are files that contain a set of key-value pairs for each language/culture that your application supports. By using resource files, we can easily switch between languages and cultures without changing the application’s code.

To use resource files for localization, we need to create a resource file for each language/culture that we want to support. The resource file must have the same name and be located in the same folder as the default resource file.

For example, if our default resource file is named SharedResources.resx, and we want to add support for Spanish, we would create a file named SharedResources.es.resx. We can add key-value pairs for each resource that we want to localize.

4. Using the IStringLocalizer Interface

In ASP.NET Core, the IStringLocalizer interface is used to get localized strings from resource files. We can use the IStringLocalizer interface to get localized strings in our controller, views, and other classes.

To use the IStringLocalizer interface, we need to inject it into our class constructor. Once we have an instance of the IStringLocalizer interface, we can use it to get a localized string by its key.

public class HomeController : Controller
{
private readonly IStringLocalizer _localizer;

public HomeController(IStringLocalizer localizer)
{
_localizer = localizer;
}

public IActionResult Index()
{
ViewData[“Title”] = _localizer[“Welcome to my Website!”];
ViewData[“Message”] = _localizer[“Hello, world!”];

return View();
}
}

In the example above, we are injecting the IStringLocalizer interface into our HomeController class to get two localized strings. We are assigning the strings to ViewData to display them in our view.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed the steps that you can take to set up a global culture in ASP.NET Core for multilingual applications. We have covered the importance of globalization, setting up the culture information, using resource files for localization, and using the IStringLocalizer interface to get localized strings. By following these steps, you can create a multilingual application that can cater to users from different countries and cultures.

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