Absrtact: This article will be a practical case to analyze how to achieve a ASP.net 2.0 Web site development process of globalization and localization issues.
First, Introduction
Globalization and localization are two important concepts that every developer must know when creating a globalized product or application. Although there are many articles that explain the topic better, I have not seen a comprehensive and comprehensive discussion of all the important concepts of globalization/localization. This article is intended to provide a detailed analysis of the globalization issues involved in developing a Web application using asp.net2.0 through a specific case.
Second, the background theory
Globalization is a phase of application development that is designed to enable programs to be available across multiple cultural areas without regard to language and regional differences. For example, you are developing a small inventory management program, and you live in an area where English is the main language, such as England. Now, if you want to sell your program to another country, say Germany, then you need to make sure that your program is displayed and implemented in German.
Localization is the process of creating content, entering and outputting data using a locale-specific culture and language. Culture will affect date display settings (if mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy), currency display format, and so on. Now, the process of ensuring that our programs can be localized is called internationalization or globalization. In simpler terms, globalization can be defined as a set of activities through which we can ensure that our programs can operate in regions that use different languages and cultures.
Thus, globalization is associated with changes in internal code to support such changes as the use of resource files, and localization is the process of using a specific culture and regional information so that the program can use local languages and cultures. This means translating the string into a specific local language, and to do so, place the language-specific strings in the resource file. Generally, globalization issues should be considered from the primary build and code development phases, and localization is usually implemented later.
Iii. realizing the globalization of ASP.net 2.0 website
Let's start with a simple example. To explain the localization and make things as simple as possible, I used ASP.net and C # to create a new Web site called Testsite (see the source code downloaded in this article); I added a masterpage and a default page. This default page contains a textbox and a Calendar control, which has a double-precision real number that describes the currency. In this case, we'll see the corresponding changes as the user chooses a different language currency format. When I run the application, this default page looks like this:
I have published this test Web application and you can see its functional version at the following URL: http://63.134.215.124/testsite/default.aspx
Iv. Culture and localization
First, let me explain culture and localization first.
In general, language also relies on geography. For example, French is both French and Canadian (in addition, many other countries speak the language). But in terms of language, Canadian French is different from French French. Similarly, there is a certain difference between American English and British English. Therefore, languages often need to be associated with specific regions that speak the language, and this is achieved by using localization (language + geography).
For example, FR is a French-language code, and FR-FR means French for French use. As a result, FR only specifies this language, and FR-FR is localized. Similarly, FR-CA defines another representative of Canadian French and cultural localization. If we only use FR, then it represents only a neutral culture (i.e., regional neutrality).