How to embed links in localized text.

Question

Problem:

I am internationalizing an ASP.Net MVC application, but sentences with linked text have given me pause. Take the following as an example:

• English: "Please login to continue."
• Português: "Entre por favor para continuar."

Note that since "login" is hyperlinked, I must have the translator denote which corresponding word or phrase should be hyperlinked when the text is localized, e.g. Entre.

I can't be the first to have this problem, so what is the best strategy-solution you have seen or used?

Is there a standard for denoting such things for a translator (and a standard way of using the translated results) ... or have I gone down the wrong path in expecting my content and presentation information to be so tightly coupled (although I can't think of any way to remove the coupling in this case).

Current Implementation:

I am currently using local resource files for Views and an extension method on HtmlHelper to get the localized sting:

<%= Html.Resource("LoginMessage")%>

Update: Please see Keith's answer.
I found it most helpful, but the system auto selected another one on Thanksgiving day.

SO really needs a better solution to this problem. At least give posters a few days to review the answers, try the suggestions and make an informed choice on who gets the bounty.

Answer 1

I'd suggest separating the resource into two values, like this
- 1: Please {0} to continue.
- 2: login

or for Português
- 1: {0} por favor para continuar.
- 2: Entre

And then combine them to build the link and message. {0} is substitued for the link/actionlink/whatever you need.

Answer 2

What I'm currently using is he following setup:

I have a global resource file containing my primary texts, named Strings.resx (Strings.NL-nl.resx etc). Next to this I have my global file containing all localizations of my actionlinks. That is: ActionLinks.resx and locals.

Now what I do is, in my Strings.resx I have something like:

Strings.resx

Please {0} to continue

Local language Strings.NL-nl.resx

{0} om verder te gaan

Now the trick is to do something like:

<%= Html.Encode(string.Format(Resources.Strings.ControllernameViewnameKey, 
Html.ActionLink(Resources.ActionLinks.login, "Account", "LogOn")))

If you need more than one variable in your link you can give an array of objects to

 string.Format()

The keynaming is my own convention to understand where the maintext is used (what page). Since my maintexts are very specific. Of course keys can be made yourself.

For more information on how I do it you can have a look at my answer on my own question: here

---

Edit

Of course you can use local files instead of global files but I like my strongly typed resources too much for that :).

Answer 3

I have to agree with other answers - separate in 2.

That said I would add that don't consider the 2 words separated / unrelated. Stick to a simple convention all around like: LoginMessage & LoginMessageLink, corresponding to the whole text of the sentence & the text of the link.

That's neutral & if that's what needed for the language the translator can have the whole sentence be the link.

If you find yourself needing to link several times to the same page, then instead have some markers for it. Like:

English: "Please ##login## to continue."
Português: "##Entre## por favor para continuar."

Answer 4

I'd simply look for custom placeholders that index to the link that you want placed around the text. Eg

"Please #123#login#123# to continue"

If you find #n# in your string, you know that the string that it surrounds should be a link to the url specified by index n in your lookup file (db, or whatever).

Answer 5

I think this comes down to 4 choices:

1. Put a link in your localisation: "Please <a href="#">login</a> to continue"
2. Multiple localisations - either:
   1. "Please {0} to continue" and "login", or
   2. "Please", "login" and " to continue"
3. Markup inside your localisations, for instance:
   1. "Please {0}login{1} to continue"
   2. "Please {start-login}login{end-login} to continue"
   3. "Please <a href="{0}">login</a> to continue"
4. Just don't support it - make the whole sentence a link

I think there is a major reason to avoid 1 - you mix up localisations and application navigation.

Option 2 ends up with multiple resources for each block of text, but as long as you have good ways of managing all your localisations it shouldn't be an issue. It can be a pain for 3rd-party translators though - you need some way to tell them the context or you get some very weird translations of the individual words.

Option 3 is my preferred solution. You still create issues for your translators though - most will not understand your tokens/HTML/markup in the text. Ours already do some HTML, so 3.3 has worked for us.

Option 4 might be worth considering - do you gain enough in having the link embedded in order to make it worth the extra work and maintenance? It's an important question specific to your application: if the whole sentence is the link (rather than just the active verb - which is link best practice) do you really lose enough to make option 2 or 3 worth the additional effort?

I think this might be why there aren't more standardised ways of doing this as for most projects (maybe 9 times out of 10) option 4 is sufficient, so this only ends up as a problem for some special cases. We have a complex application with around 11,000 pieces of localised text and go for 4 the vast majority of the time, and have only 4 or 5 places where we've had to go with 3.3

Our technical implementation is similar to yours:

<%= Html.Localise("Controller/Action/KeyOfTextOnPage") %>

For links we have a specific helper:

<%= Html.LocaliseLink("Controller/Action/KeyOfTextOnPage", "~/link.aspx") %>
<%= Html.LocaliseAction("Controller/Action/KeyOfTextOnPage", "action", "controller") %>