IT Bytes

After a recent post about how to allow the Resource Manager to use a non-supported culture I wondered how difficult it would be to support the usual  localisation binding. So, in the great tradition of computer science I wanted to bind to Klingon. Whilst I can see that the correct solution would involve writing a custom tool I wanted a quick ‘hack’ and this is what I’m presenting here. To keep the post size down, I’m assuming you’ve followed the previous project and have that project available.

1. Create the Klingon resx. Copy AppResource.en-GB.resx over to AppResources.klingon.resx
2. Add the custom tool PublicResXFileCodeGenerator to AppResources.klingon.resx (see the properties of the file)
3. Write some klingon – open the resx and change the ApplicationTitle to the following Klingon (it’s not rude) – TLHO’
4. Create a new String Library class;

 public class AlienLocalizedStrings
    {
        private static AppResources_klingon _localizedResources; 
        static AlienLocalizedStrings()
        {
            _localizedResources =  new AppResources_klingon();
            Type type = _localizedResources.GetType();
            FieldInfo info = type.GetField("resourceMan", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.SetField);
            info.SetValue(null, new AlienResourceManager("klingon"));
        }
        public AppResources_klingon LocalizedResources { get { return _localizedResources; } }
    }

5. Add the resource to App.xaml

    <Application.Resources>
        <local:LocalizedStrings  x:Key="LocalizedStrings"/>
        <local:AlienLocalizedStrings x:Key="AlienLocalizedStrings"/>
    </Application.Resources>

6. Now you can bind to Klingon, e.g.

 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=LocalizedResources.ApplicationTitle , Source={StaticResource AlienLocalizedStrings}}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Margin="12,0"/>

The solution works pretty well, obviously the string component is hardcoded to ‘klingon’ which isn’t ideal but I’m sure that can also be resolved with a little more effort. Enjoy Klingon on the phone