Translate asp.net mvc 2 application?

Question

I'm hoping this is a rather simple question, but I'm pretty new to MVC and can't see clearly how it should be done. I have a site that I need to translate to another language. I've tried to search on this, but all I found was pretty complex translations about how to handle strings etc in resx files. That may be something for later, but for now all I want is to be able to let the user switch language (by links I can place in the master page), and then based on that choice have different pages shown in different languages.

From my search it seemed this could be achieved by routing somehow. As suggested in another post:

routes.MapRoute(
"Default", 
"{language}/{controller}/{action}/{id}", 
new { language = "en", controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }
);

And the master page switch links:

<li><%= Html.ActionLink(
    "Spanish", 
    ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString(), 
    new { language = "es" })%></li>
<li><%= Html.ActionLink(
    "French", 
    ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString(), 
    new { language = "fr" })%></li>
<li><%= Html.ActionLink(
    "English", 
    ViewContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString(), 
    new { language = "en" })%></li>

I could try this, but what I don't understand is, what type of routes does this create? Is it "language/controllername/actionname"? And if so, where does it lead? I mean, usually, with just a controller and an action, all I have is one controller and one view, and as long as that view exists it will work. But what is the language in this? Is it just as a folder, so if I have a folder say en-GB/Home such a route would work? That doesn't make sense, so I guess not. So how do I actually make these routes lead somewhere? Where do I place the translated views?

Answer 1

I think using resource files instead will be easier in the long run and not that hard to get going with.

Check out this link for more information.

Here's a quick how to on it.

Here's some gotchas to using resources in .Net MVC with solutions.

Answer 2

re the url, it is like you said / like it reads - language/controllername/actionname

re what it calls - what you need to focus on to understand it is in this bit of the route definition:

new { language = "en", controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }

{controller}/{action}, matches the corresponding controller and action like before. Language and id matches those parameters in the action method you define. Those could also be properties of the (view)model, if that's the parameter you have in the method.

I don't think there is anything automatically hooked for the languages in mvc, so you have to explicitly decide how you want to handle it. One way would be for your action methods to return a view in a subfolder for each language or by adding the language as part of the file name.

Another way to go about it, is to define a handler in the route that sets the thread ui culture as you would in classic asp.net. From then on you use the asp.net mvc resources like in klabranche links.