ASP Net MVC - Localization of Validation Messages

Question

I ran into a problem with localization of validation messages in my asp net mvc 5 application.

I use this for localization:

Route Config:

[Internationalization]
public class RouteConfig
{
    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapRoute("DefaultLocalized",
        "{language}-{culture}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
        new
        {
            controller = "Home",
            action = "Index",
            id = "",
            language = "de",
            culture = "DE"
        });

        routes.MapRoute(
            name: "Default",
            url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
        );
    }
}

LocalizationAttribute:

 class InternationalizationAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        string language = (string)filterContext.RouteData.Values["language"] ?? "de";
        string culture = (string)filterContext.RouteData.Values["culture"] ?? "DE";

        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(string.Format("{0}-{1}", language, culture));
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(string.Format("{0}-{1}", language, culture));
    }
}

Example of model property:

    [Display(Order = 0, ResourceType = typeof(resourceProjectName.ApplicationStrings), Name = "LabelText")] // this works
    [Required(ErrorMessageResourceType = typeof(resourceProjectName.ApplicationStrings), ErrorMessageResourceName = "ValidationText")] //this does not work
    public string Property { get; set; }

Html example:

This is inside a Html.BeginForm. The validation messages are shown after a POST request, if something is missing or not valid.

<div>
<div class="form-group row">
    <div>
        @Html.LabelFor(x => x.Property)
    </div>
    <div class="col-sm-6">
        @Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Property, new { @class = "form-control" })
    </div>
    @if (ViewData.ModelState.Where(i => i.Key.Equals("Property")).Any(x => x.Value.Errors.Any()))
    {
        <div class="col-sm-6">
            @Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.Property, "", new { @class = "alert-validation alert-danger" })
        </div>
    }
</div>
</div>

Web.config:

<globalization culture="auto" uiCulture="auto" enableClientBasedCulture="true"/>

Localization works for everything on the website except for validation messages.

It always shows the resource string that matches the browsers language settings, although the user navigated to e.g.: site.de/en-EN/test.

Is there a problem with the web.config? I tried to set enableClientBasedCulture to false, but the problem still occured.

Kind regards, Martin

Answer 1

I have found a solution to my problem here: http://afana.me/post/aspnet-mvc-internationalization.aspx

What i did was to remove my "Internationalization" Attribute and create a "BaseController" class that basically does the same thing as the "Internationalization" Attribute on each request.

Basecontroller:

 public class BaseController : Controller
{
    protected override IAsyncResult BeginExecuteCore(AsyncCallback callback, object state)
    {
        //Localization in Base controller:

        string language = (string)RouteData.Values["language"] ?? "de";
        string culture = (string)RouteData.Values["culture"] ?? "DE";

        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(string.Format("{0}-{1}", language, culture));
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(string.Format("{0}-{1}", language, culture));


        return base.BeginExecuteCore(callback, state);
    }
}

Localization works now for labels and validation messages.