The "correct" way of using multilingual support

Question

I just began working with ASP.NET and I'm trying to bring with me some coding standards I find healthy. Among such standards there is the multilingual support and the use of resources for easily handling future changes.

Back when I used to code desktop applications, every text had to be translated, so it was a common practice to have the language files for every languages I would want to offer to the customers. In those files I would map every single text, from button labels to error messages. In ASP.NET, with the help of Visual Studio, I have the resort of using the IDE to generate such Resource Files (from Tools -> Generate Local Resource), but then I would have to fill my webpages with labels - at least that is what I've learned from articles and tutorials. However, such approach looks a bit odd and I'm tempted to guess it doesn't smell that good as well. Now to the question:

1. Should I keep every single text in my website as labels and manage its contents in the resource files? It looks/feels odd especially when considering a text with several paragraphs.

2. Whenever I add/remove something, e.g.: a button, to an aspx file I would have to add it to the resource file as well, because generating the resource file again would simply override all my previous changes to it. That doesn't feel like a reusable code at all for me.

Perhaps I got it all wrong from tutorials as it doesn't seem like a standardized matter - specially if it required recompiling the entire application whenever some change has to be done.

Answer 1

Best practices for ASP.NET Web Forms localization have not really changed much over the years. If you don't have much dynamic content then you can get away with implicit localization and bind web forms controls (form elements and yes, even labels) to resource files. Explicit localization is useful if you want a bit more control over where localized text is rendered in a control with multiple captions or something you've created yourself. You don't need to look very far for instructional steps from MS on how to do either of these.

Walkthrough: Using Resources for Localization with ASP.NET

If your localization requirements are more dynamic, for example, you want to easily provision new languages, centralize resources, or you need to provision new string captions on a new dimension (like per client), then you need to get a bit more creative. .NET allows you to extend the the resource provider and you can implement a database backend that allows for easy administration of localized resources.

Extending the ASP.NET 2.0 Resource-Provider Model, Building a Database Resource Provider

Extending Resource-Provider for storing resources in the database * A more recent implementation

Or you could just roll your own!

I've also dug up a duplicate SO post. It's a few years old, but speaking from experience I believe the advice found on the referenced code project page are still true (for Web Forms): Globalization and localization demystified in ASP.NET 2.0

I hope that helps! If you have any more specific questions regarding localization please add them to your Questions or comments.