[RESOLVED] Enumerate installed cultures in satellite assembly

[axplains]

Hello,
I use a satellite assembly to hold all the localization resources in a Visual Basic 2008 application.

How can I list the available languages that exists for the application?
"CultureInfo.GetCultures" retrieves all available cultures in the OS, I only need the list of the ones I have created.
Thank you.

[cicatrix]

What do you mean "created"? How do you create a culture?

[axplains]

I mean, set a form "Localizable = True", then change its "Language" property, then change labels etc. to the new language.
That creates new resource files named by the language/culture, for example:

form1.en-US.resx
form1.fr-FR-resx
form1.it-IT-resx
etc.

I need to enumerate only these languages (English, French, Italian, etc.) and not all available cultures (which is what CultureInfo.GetCultures does).

[cicatrix]

Well, I'm not sure about it, but from all I know, localization takes place automatically basing on the installed UI culture of a user.

If you want to switch culture during run-time then you should do something like this:

For Each c As Control In Me.Controls
            Dim resources As New System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager(GetType(Form1))
            Dim culture As Globalization.CultureInfo = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InstalledUICulture
            resources.ApplyResources(c, c.Name, culture)
Next c

If the installed culture is not found then a fallback culture will be used.
I don't know if there a way to enumerate the localized cultures, but localization data resides in the resource files of your form and I think it should be obvious to a developer which localizations are available.

By the way, I find the localization model provided a bit too heavy. I presumed that a user might want to swtich the ui language even if his installed ui culture says otherwise (for example I use a Russian culture but choose English UI for many programs simply because English words are shorter than Russian and occupy less space). So I always designed my apps in such a way that a user could explicitly assign an UI language which is too cumbersome with the localization model that is offered by Microsoft.
I use simple resource strings and reload them if a user changes language. And of course I can store the list of supported languages somewhere.

[axplains]

Thanks Cicatrix, but I know how to switch culture etc., I save it in My.Settings.

I just wanted to list the evailable cultures so that the user could have a dropdown of the (few) languages of the software, not all of the available languages.

What technique do you use? Something like a database table with all your strings?

[cicatrix]

I said - I use resource files, but any external storage will do. Even plain text files. External files are useful when you plan to add some languages later.

[axplains]

Thanks Cicatrix.
Anyone else knows how to solve my problem please?

[axplains]

Thanks Cicatrix.
Anyone else knows how to solve my problem please?

[cicatrix]

Well, I've finally managed to enumerate the languages basing on the example from here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archiv...25/560838.aspx

But I don't particularly like this method since it takes a lot of time and generates many exceptions which I simply ignore.

The resource model clearly seems to rely on more of a "let the user choose and fall back p.r.n." mechanism than an "enumerate and choose" mechanism.

(Add a combobox named Combobox1 on a form):

Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.Globalization
 
Public Class Form1
 
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
  
        Dim resources As System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager = New System.ComponentModel.ComponentResourceManager(GetType(Form1))
 
        For Each ci As CultureInfo In CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures Or CultureTypes.NeutralCultures)
            Try
                Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.GetSatelliteAssembly(ci)
                Dim str As String = String.Format("{0} ({1})", ci.NativeName, ci.EnglishName)
                ComboBox1.Items.Add(str)
            Catch ex As Exception
                ' Do nothing (no resource exist)
            End Try
        Next
    End Sub
End Class

[axplains]

Thank you, it works (but in fact it is very slow, and enumerates all "installed" languages EXCEPT the default...)
You have been very helpful, thanks.