How to get the available translations from a dll.

Question

Hi,

Is there a way to get the available resource translations of a .net dll?

Our software is being translated in some different languages, and I would like to give the user the choise of what language the software is in, although I would only like to let them choose only between the languages it has been translated in.

Answer 1

So you need to be able to get the culture of the base dll, and then enumerate all the satellite dlls?

The first part is easy enough (just get the assembly level attribute).

For the latter, there does not appear to be a helper on the class ResourceManager, which means you would need to emulate its probing machanism (including, potentially, all the overrides available with attributes and .config file).

An alternative is to build the list at build or install (latter would work better if additional languages can be added later), creates a list for the .config file.

Answer 2

Hi,

I just got similar problem so just for future reference.

For my software translations are in the program folder, each under their own subfolder named after culture name. Code explains it all:

    private void SettingsForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
   // load default language to the list
        languageList.Add(new Language("English", "en"));
        string fileName = "myProgram.resources.dll";

   // load other languages available in the folder
        DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(Application.StartupPath);
        foreach (DirectoryInfo dir in di.GetDirectories())
        {
            if (File.Exists(dir.FullName + "\\" + fileName))
            {
                try
                {
                    CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo(dir.Name);
                    languageList.Add(new Language(ci.NativeName, ci.Name));
                }
                catch
                {
                    // whatever happens just don't load the language and proceed ;)
                    continue;
                }
            }
        }
    }

It ads some exception handling overhead but how many users will create custom folders in the installation directory with the fake resource named exactly as localization file?? :P