Windows phone Localization Example

In this article we are going to talk about how to localize a Windows Phone application. Basically you need to separate localizable resources from the rest of the code by creating language-specific resource files. Visual Studio uses these files to create assemblies that allow your application to support many languages.

Step1: Create a Windows Phone 7 application project with name WPLocalization

Step2: Add a resource file for the default language of your application. In our case we will add a resource file named AppResources.resx

correspondingly add one more with name AppResources.de-De.resx for localization

tep3: Open the resource file and enter the strings that you want to be localized in the resource file.

Step4:  Copy the resource file once for each additional language that you want your app to support. Note that each resource file must contain the correct culture/language name.  In our case we will use the following name of the file  AppResources.de-DE.resx (for the culture German (Germany)). The general resource file name format is :

<name of main resource>.<culture name>.resx

copy the belo code to MainPage.xaml

<phone:PhoneApplicationPage 

    x:Class="WPLocalization.MainPage"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"

    xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"

    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

    mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="480" d:DesignHeight="768"

    FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"

    FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"

    Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"

    SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait"

    shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True">

    <!--LayoutRoot is the root grid where all page content is placed-->

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>

            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>

        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title-->

        <StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28">

            <TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="{Binding Path=AppResources.AppTitle, Source={StaticResource LocalizedStrings}}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/>

            <TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" 

  Text="{Binding Path=AppResources.Title, Source={StaticResource LocalizedStrings}}" 

  Margin="9,-7,0,0" 

  Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/>

        </StackPanel>

        <!--ContentPanel - place additional content here-->

        <Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0"></Grid>

    </Grid>

    <!--Sample code showing usage of ApplicationBar-->

    <!--<phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>

        <shell:ApplicationBar IsVisible="True" IsMenuEnabled="True">

            <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/Images/appbar_button1.png" Text="Button 1"/>

            <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/Images/appbar_button2.png" Text="Button 2"/>

            <shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems>

                <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="MenuItem 1"/>

                <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="MenuItem 2"/>

            </shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems>

        </shell:ApplicationBar>

    </phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>-->

</phone:PhoneApplicationPage>

copy the below given  code to MainPage.xaml,cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Net;

using System.Windows;

using System.Windows.Controls;

using System.Windows.Documents;

using System.Windows.Input;

using System.Windows.Media;

using System.Windows.Media.Animation;

using System.Windows.Shapes;

using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;

namespace WPLocalization

{

public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage

{

// Constructor

public MainPage()

{

InitializeComponent();

}

}

public class LocalizedStrings

{

public LocalizedStrings()

{

}

private static AppResources localizedResources = new AppResources();

public AppResources AppResources

{

get { return localizedResources; }

}

}

}