What is the best way to localize a WPF application, sans LocBAML?

Question

There seems to be no good way to localize a WPF application. MSDN seems to think that littering my XAML with x:Uid's, generating CSV files, and then generating new assemblies (using their sample code!) is the answer. Worse, this process doesn't address how to localize images, binary blobs (say, PDF files), or strings that are embedded in code.

So, how might you localize an application that:

1. Contains several assemblies
2. Contains images and other binary blobs (eg: PDF docs) that need to be localized
3. Has string data that isn't in XAML (eg: MessageBox.Show("Hello World");)

Answer 1

Not an expert here, but "littering" your xaml with x:Uids is not worse than "littering" your Windows Forms code with all the string table nonsense you have to do for localizing them.

As far as I understand, WPF apps still support "all the Framework CLR resources including string tables, images, and so forth." which means you can have localized resources.

Of course, it would be much simpler if you created a markup extension that handled much of this nonsense for you. You can find an example of someone doing this here. And here's another, similar solution.

Answer 2

You can use the old "ResX" files which support all of your mentioned scenarios. How this can be accomplished in a WPF application is explained here:

WPF Application Framework (WAF) => See Localization Sample

Answer 3

You should have a look at the article and code available here. It describes different ways of localizing WPF apps, using LocBaml, custom markup extensions, or attached properties. IMHO the best solution is to use the markup extensions and Resx resources. The code contains a localization framework for doing that.