Localization of Microsoft™ .

NET
Applications
A Guide to using Alchemy CATALYST 4.0 to accelerate revenue growth and
reduce localization costs.

Abstract

The introduction of Microsoft™ .NET has created new and exciting challenges for the LSP (Localization
Service Provider) community and has redefined the technologies and the process of localizing
internet/wireless/mobile and desktop applications.

Existing localization technologies that provide environments for the localization of Microsoft™ Window
application can no longer be used on these newer generation .NET applications. The build, translate and
validate process used by software publishers is also undergoing a remarkable change as the
development community embraces the Microsoft .NET computing paradigm.

Gone are the now familiar and easily translated .RC files. These have been replaced with the more
versatile yet more complex .RESX files. Using XML as a core technology, while Microsoft are
expounding the virtues of this new open-standard, the LSP communities are faced with the difficult
challenge of re-tooling and re-educating their localizers. They are challenged with maintaining the
efficiency and velocity in which they had previously translated Desktop Applications while grappling with
a new technology and localization paradigm.

Alchemy Software Development, the market leader in visual localization environments has just
introduced a .NET Visual Component that allows translators and localizers work in the now familiar and
the highly visual environment of Alchemy CATALYST. Instead of focusing on the complexities of .NET
file formats, localizers and translators can now focus on the quality and precision of their translations,
improving their work efficiency and reducing the cost of translating .NET applications.

Initial tests carried out by customers have demonstrated that using the Alchemy .NET Visual Localization
Component improves the speed and efficiency of translating .NET applications dramatically, improving
quality, reducing costs and making simultaneous release of foreign language applications achievable
Copyright© 2002 Alchemy Software Development Limited. All rights reserved.
The accompanying documentation is the property of Alchemy Software
Development Limited and are copyrighted. Any reproduction in whole or in part is
strictly prohibited.
Microsoft, Visual C++, Windows and Windows NT are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A. and/or other countries.
TMX® is a registered trademark of the Localization Industry Standards Association.
All other product names or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 
XML Technology 

WORKFLOW : MICROSOFT™ WINDOW APPLICATIONS  

WORKFLOW : MICROSOFT™ .NET APPLICATIONS  

Resource Generation Process 

Application Culture Information 

DEVELOPING A .NET APPLICATION  

Creating a Dialog Form Resource 

Creating Multiple Resource Files 

Language .RESX Files 

Selecting the UI Language 

In summary 

LOCALIZING .NET APPLICATION: THE ALCHEMY CATALYST WAY  

Component Plug-In Technology 

Loading and Viewing .RESX Files 

Full XML Editing Environment 

Reducing your costs using Alchemy's Leverage Expert 

Reducing Engineering Costs and Time 

The Complete Solution for .NET Applications 

CONCLUSION  

ABOUT ALCHEMY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIMITED  

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INTRODUCTION The development paradigm has changed! With the introduction of Microsoft .NET
technology, building and deploying Internet and mobile applications has become
easier and less complex. Using one technology framework, an easy to learn
programming language, leveraging open standards such as XML and SOAP, and
integrating it all into one seamless development environment, Microsoft has
released its most ambitious development technology yet.

While fundamental approaches to application design remain somewhat consistent

with the approach traditionally chosen by Desktop Application developers, the LSP
(Localization Service Provider) community face a daunting challenge of upskilling
and retooling their localization teams while embracing this new Microsoft
technology. Coming to grips with the new open standards and learning the nuances
of translating .NET technology will present both a financial and educational
challenge.

But given the new complexity of the .NET localization process, will their clients be
more willing to forgive slower translation and engineering or higher translation
costs? Highly unlikely, so the LSP that learns the quickest and establishes itself as
the experts in .NET technology will gain significant competitive advantage and
strengthen its market position.

Alchemy Software Development has developed a .NET Visual Localization

Component for the market leader in integrated localization environment, Alchemy
CATALYST. It’s the world’s first visual localization for .NET Applications and
provides visual translation tools to help translators and localizers focus on the
quality and precision of their translations rather than the complexities of the .NET
technology.

XML Technology
At the core of the Microsoft .NET framework is XML, an open Standard supported
by almost all platforms and all major IT players such as IBM, LOTUS, Sun
Microsystems, Oracle and Novell. It offers the ability to store data easily and
describe the relationships between this data in a common, platform-independent
vocabulary. Microsoft has deployed XML as their replacement for the ubiquitous
Window resource file formats (RC, DLG) for Dialogs, Menus and Strings. These
fundamental UI components are now described in a new XML document referred to
as .RESX document.

Building on its robust and superior XML technology, introduced into Alchemy
CATALYST 4.0, Alchemy Software Development have been able to provide a full
XML editing environment coupled with a visual translation environment for these
new Microsoft XML file formats. This ensures faster translation, greater consistency
through the re-use of previous translations and glossary management tools and
reduced localization costs.

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 WORKFLOW : The development and translation process for Microsoft™ Window applications is
MICROSOFT™ WINDOW well known and understood in the localization industry. While some organisations
APPLICATIONS prefer to localize resource files and maintain their translations in eye-readable
source code formats, most organizations now opt to translate the Windows binary
DLLs or EXEs. This speeds up the translation and localization process, reducing
their costs and improving their time-to-market for language products.

The most significant engineering benefit derived from translating binary application
files is the reduction in project complexity due to the vast reduction of files that need
to be processed. Whereas one resource binary file may be made up of 500 smaller
resource files, the engineer only has to work on this one binary file. This enormous
reduction in the number of files reduces the complexity of managing multiple
language translations. Imagine the difference between processing 10 binary DLLs
or their equivalent 5,000 source files!

Regardless of the approach development organizations take, Alchemy CATALYST

provides a completely integrated solution for the translation of source files, binary
Screenshot 1 :Equally at home translating RC and files and ancillary program files such as XML documents, RTF help files and
Binary Files. Installshield Installer files.

RC Representation of a simple dialog box.

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WORKFLOW : The localization process for Microsoft™.NET applications is not well known and
MICROSOFT™ .NET poses significant challenges to the localization service providers.
APPLICATIONS
While the Microsoft™ .NET Framework introduces new technologies making the
implementation of globalization easier from a development point of view, this
technology also redefines the localization workflows.

Microsoft™ .NET Applications can be created using Visual Basic or C#. Application
resources are defined in a new file type called .RESX. These are XML container
documents that describe the elements of the application user interface such as
menus, dialogs and strings. There is one .RESX file for each resource type.

Resource Generation Process

To create embedded resource files, Microsoft VisualStudio .NET follows two
relatively simple steps:-

(1) A .resx file that contains XML-based description of the application

resources is compiled into a .resource file by using the ResGen tool. This
tool comes as part of the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK. The .resource
file created contains binary resources only.

(2) The .resource file is embedded into an assembly 1using either the
assembly linker tool or language compiler (such as CSC for the C#
Compiler.)

1 Assembly is the technical term used by Microsoft to describe the combination of application code and application

resources that are combined together to form a single .NET application.

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Application Culture Information
An application culture represents information about specific locales including the
writing system, collation system, calendar used, currency, date and time formats
etc. The .NET Framework provides a CultureInfo class to provide easy
programmatic access to these language and text processing fundamentals.

Within this CultureInfo class, the UICulture data member determines how the
application resources will be loaded. In effect this data member specifies the
language of the user interface of a .NET application. By changing this data member,
the developer can switch the UI language of his .NET application.

By default, if the developer does not set his/her UICulture value, a .NET application
will set it to the system-installed language, which is the language of the operating
system’s resources.

Once the UICulture is set, a .NET application will load and display the specified
language user interface. It will locate the language files for the user interface of a
.NET application by loading satellite resource dlls. Using the RFC 1766 standard,
these satellite resource dlls are stored in a pre-determined directory structure off the
root from which the .NET application is launched.

Arrangement of Satellite directory structure containing .NET application resource DLLs.

By enforcing this directory structure, Microsoft has developed a mechanism to have

multi-lingual applications reside on servers. The application user interface will be set
at runtime when the .NET application requests information regarding the UICulture
of a client machine.

Using this mechanism, it is possible for an application to reside on a server and

different client machines to launch this application using unique and different
language User Interfaces. And remember you get this multi-lingual application
without having to write one line of code, it’s part and parcel of the .NET Framework!

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DEVELOPING A .NET Let’s now take a closer look at the Microsoft VisualStudio IDE and how it supports
APPLICATION building and deploying .NET applications.

Creating a Dialog Form Resource

As a dialog form (or Winform) is created, a resource RESX file is created within
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.

Figure: C# Source file with embedded text for a button on a dialog panel. (Embedded text is
highlighted)

However the text strings of this Winform are not stored in the RESX file! They are
stored in the method InitializeComponent within a C# code file. This code is then
compiled into an .NET application binary file.

Obviously, this does not help the localization process, as the text strings are
essentially ‘hard-coded’ within the application’s data segments. To efficiently
translate this WinForm we need to use a method that externalizes the text strings
into an eternal file. This file then can be translated without the need to edit or
recompile the C# or VB source code.

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 Specifying a resource for localization

Luckily Microsoft VisualStudio .NET comes with a feature to automatically create

these externalized resource files. The developer must mark all WinForms as being
Localizable. This instructs the Microsoft .NET IDE to extract the text and other UI
elements of the application and store them in external RESX files.

Figure 1: Marking a Winform as Localizable

Figure : C# method that extracts text from external resource file. (RESX) (Statement that extracts
strings from external resource file is highlighted.)

VisualStudio .NET provides the same mechanism for storing external resources, for
both C# and VB .NET, so the localization of any application developed using these
programming languages should be symmetrical.

If you compare the two code fragments above, you see the difference in the C#
code once you change the Localizable property of a WinForm. In the first instance
the text strings are hard-coded into the C# code. This makes localization difficult
and costly. In the second instance, the C# code is modified and uses the C#
methods of extracting strings from an external resource file.

Creating Multiple Resource Files

For each localizable WinForm, a new .RESX file is created. So for example, if you
specify that a Winform is to be translated into French and German, Microsoft
VisualStudio .NET will create two additional .RESX file for these languages.

To see this is action, simply click on a WinForm and change its Localizable
property to TRUE. Then select the language you wish this WinForm to be localized
into.

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For each language that you select, a new RESX file will be created by the Microsoft
IDE. They are given a pre-determined file name based on the name of the original
base RESX file with a language code appended to it. So if the original RESX file
was called MainForm.RESX, the German variant of this would be named
MainForm_de.RESX, the French variant of this would be named
MainForm_fr.RESX and so on.

While Microsoft VisualStudio .NET creates all these variant RESX files for the
developer, it should be pointed out that this process has to be repeated for each
WinForm in an application. With large applications it is not unreasonable to
anticipate that this process will prove to be cumbersome and time consuming.
Imagine the overhead for a developer if he has to manage 500 base RESX files with
20 variants for each file within the one application! A whopping 10,000 files need to
be maintained!

Language .RESX Files

These language .RESX files are highly optimized to reduce storage space and
tranmission time over the internet. These files only contain the changes, or deltas,
between the base RESX and their language counterpart. While this may seem
elegant in terms of economy of disk space, in reality this poses a significant
challenge for the localization teams, as each language RESX file is initially created
with no content! This means that they cannot be localized without references being
made to the original or invariant resource file created by Microsoft VisualStudio.

To see all these invariant and language . RESX files within the Microsoft IDE, click
on the Show All Files icon to see these file in the Solution Explorer tool bar.

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 Click on Show All Files to see all Files within an application solution.

When the .NET application is compiled, Microsoft VisualStudio .NET will create a
number of language DLLs called Satellite Assemblies. These Satellite Assemblies
enable the developer to switch the UI language of an application dynamically at run
time simply by setting the UICulture data member within the CultureInfo class.

Selecting the UI Language

A developer can select the language of an application by specifying the language of

the current thread in the application constructor code, using a statement similar to
the following:-

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture=new CultureInfo("de-DE");

This sets the application language to German and loads the UI strings from the file
contained within the de application folder.

To switch the language to French, the developer simply changes the above
statement to:-

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture=new CultureInfo("fr-FR");

And hey presto, the application UI will appear in French.

If no language is selected or defined within the application itself, the default UI will
be displayed. This is the UI that was created in the base RESX file. These
resources are automatically bound to the main application file during compilation.

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In summary

Undoubtedly, Microsoft .NET provides a very powerful way to develop multilingual

applications at the design stage. They have also provided an environment that
provides minimal tools for localizing .NET applications within the Microsoft
VisualStudio IDE. However, the process soon gets unwieldy when many forms with
many controls are required in different languages. It is virtually impossible to
manage and localize any kind of large program in this manner. The burden on the
developer in managing invariant RESX files and multiple-assemblies is immense
and would seriously distract him for developing the main application.

The limitations in this process can be summarized as follows:-

1. Incremental resource files cannot be translated directly

Since the language RESX files and the multiple Satellite Assemblies are
not complete copies of the full resources used by an application, they
cannot be translated directly. This lack of complete content makes them
almost redundant in terms of a viable localization process.

2. Complexity inherent in the .NET localization process

Since each WinForm requires an individual RESX file and each target
language requires a variation of this file; managing applications with a large
number of Winforms in many languages becomes impossible.

In addition to this, consider the development overhead in maintaining

several language variants. The work involved in keeping these in-sync with
others would be unmanageable even in a medium sized application.

3. No Version Control
Microsoft VisualStudio .NET provides no version control to help fold back
changes into the main project file of the translations and new layouts of
language variant RESX files. This has to be done manually and
consequently will be prone to a high number of errors and repeated quality
assurance problems.

In addition to this, if changes are made to the base application resources,

they will not be replicated in the translated variant files automatically. This
task will have to be carried our manually, and in most cases will be almost
impossible.

This lack of version control makes parallel localization of an application

during its development phase impractical and unmanageable even in the
smallest of applications.

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 4. New Binary Format excludes current localization technology
Microsoft .NET applications do not store their resources in standard
resource segments as previously used by Win32 desktop applications. This
means that all existing translation tools and technologies currently available
in the market cannot handle the translation of .NET applications, forcing the
development and LSP community to invest in upskilling and retooling their
organizations.

In the next section, we’ll take a close look at how, Alchemy CATALYST with its
robust XML technology, can provide the only viable solution for the translation,
engineering and testing of .NET Applications.

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LOCALIZING .NET Since the introduction of Alchemy CATALYST 4.0, Alchemy Software Development
APPLICATION: THE has gained a reputation as the leading localization environment for XML based
ALCHEMY CATALYST WAY applications and file formats. The environment used to develop the .NET Visual
Localization Component is based on this superior XML technology and provides the
only viable solution to the translation, engineering and translation of Microsoft .NET
Applications.

Component Plug-In Technology

As pioneers and market leaders in localization technology, they set about

developing a visual environment for the translation of .NET applications that would
share many of the benefits of their already firmly established and robust Windows
application translation environment. The result was the development of a Plug-in
Component for the Alchemy CATALYST 4.0 Integrated Localization Environment.

This component plug-in fits into the existing Alchemy CATALYST 4.0 framework, so
that customers’ existing investment in Alchemy technology is maintained. This .NET
Visual Component will be a familiar environment for professional translators,
localizers and testers used to working within the Alchemy CATALYST 4.0
environment, so re-training and re-tooling costs are kept to an absolute minimum.

Loading and Viewing .RESX Files

Alchemy CATALYST 4.0 recognizes RESX documents and loads them

automatically into its localization environment displaying the contents of the file it
one of its plug-in visual editors. In the example below, a Winform is loaded into the
WinForm editor.

Loading RESX files is automatic and displays

.NET resources in WYSIWYG editors

Once a RESX document is loaded, it will be parsed using the Alchemy XML engine.

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This engine handles all the XML character encoding, entities and validation of the
data content according to the XML schema that Microsoft embeds in the header
section of RESX documents.

Once the RESX document is parsed completely, a logic layer within the .NET Visual
Component interprets the XML data stream and builds a visual representation of the
RESX resources within the Alchemy CATALYST 4.0 environment. This is then
displayed in one of the .NET WYSIWYG editors.

Providing an intuitative and WYSIWYG environment for RESX documents ensures

that translators can focus on the precision and accuracy of their translations without
needing to know the underlying XML formatting information and engineers and
testers can fix layout and cosmetic localization bugs in an already familiar
WYSIWYG environment2.

Full XML Editing Environment

The Localization Engineer is always in complete control of the RESX document. If
any element or attribute of the RESX document needs to be changed or altered, the
Engineer can use the fully interactive and secure XML editing environment that
comes as part of the Alchemy CATALYST 4.0 environment.

Total Control for the Localization Engineer with this powerful and
secure XML editing environment

Using Alchemy’s secure XML environment ensures that the XML document can be
modified at any level within the Alchemy CATALYST environment while maintaining
the integrity of the document structure as defined by the XML schema supplied by
Microsoft. No other localization environment provides this level of control within
XML documents.

2 It
should be noted that this process also works for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET applications too. They use the same
RESX documents (with some minor changes) as C# applications.

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 Reducing your costs using Alchemy’s Leverage Expert

To reduce the cost of translating new .NET applications, translations from

previously translated desktop applications or glossary files can be leveraged into
RESX resource files using Alchemy’s Leverage Expert.

In one early adopter test, a client was able to leverage 70% of previously translated
text into his newly developed .NET application!

Previous translations can be leveraged directly from TTK files, TRADOS

Workbench file, TMX or simple text files, providing the most flexible and versatile
options for reducing your future translation costs.

Reducing Engineering Costs and Time

Reduce your translation costs by leveraging As the .NET Plug-in uses the Alchemy CATALYST Framework SDK, the Validate
previous translation Expert can be used to automate the detection and tracking of localization bugs. This
reduces the time taken to test applications, log and record localization bugs and
then fix them. Automating this phase of the localization workflow can reap
tremendous payback, especially in terms of time and deployed Engineering
resources.

Reduce engineering time by automating the detection of

Localization bugs

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The Complete Solution for .NET Applications
As each resource within a .NET Application requires a single RESX document file,
the number of files that need to be managed within the localization workflow can be
onerous to the Localization Service Providers and software publishers. As updates
to the application are released, the complexity of managing files in multiple versions
and multiple languages escalates.

To address this problem, the Alchemy .NET Visual Localization Component can
also process compiled .NET applications directly.3

Equally at home handling RESX files and .NET binaries, Alchemy

CATALYST provides a complete localization solution.

Translating, testing and engineering .NET binaries is similar to processing .RESX

files, except the number of files that need to be processed tends to be significantly
less. This reduces the complexity of managing the translation workflow, reducing
costs and project duration.

3 While the .NET Application binary is similar to the Windows 32 PE binaries, the UI resources are stored in different

segments. This means that existing localization tools that support binary localization cannot be used to handle .NET
binaries. The Alchemy .NET Visual Localization Component can read/write .NET binary files directly.

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CONCLUSION Microsoft .NET is a revolutionary new technology that has redefined the tools and
technologies required to localize software applications and content files. Using XML
as a core technology to provide an environment to build internet, wireless and web
based services, Microsoft .NET presents new challenges to software publishers that
view the international market place as a way to accelerate revenue growth and
expand their business presence worldwide.

Alchemy .NET Visual Localization Component is the most comprehensive multi-

language localization tool for rapidly translating, testing and engineering XML Web
Services and applications, significantly increasing translator and localizer
productivity, accelerating time-to-market for language products and reducing
localization costs. Designed with deep integration of Internet standards such as
XML, Alchemy .NET Visual Localization Component dramatically simplifies the
localization workflow for Internet and Mobile .NET applications.

Key Benefits

Localize Microsoft .NET Applications in a WYSIWYG environment

Accurately scope translation projects with a detailed breakdown of new and

recyclable text in a matter of seconds

Automatically create and manage multilingual glossaries and translation

memories

Handle application updates swiftly with advanced ezMatch™ translation

memory technology

Distribute and manage complex projects across multiple sites with easy-to-
use workflow management utilities

Automate language releases using extensive ezScript™ command line

operators and utilities

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ABOUT ALCHEMY Alchemy Software Development is a company formed by the original developers
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT and designers of Corel CATALYST™, an integrated translation environment and a
LIMITED pioneer in visual translation and engineering solutions.

Alchemy’s technology is designed to boost the efficiency and quality of globalizing

software products and is used by software development and globalization
companies worldwide. With over 8,000 licenses installed worldwide, Alchemy
CATALYST is used by translators, software engineers, quality assurance specialists
and project managers and is referred to as the Gold Standard in Localization. Corel
Corporation Limited holds a 24.9% stake in Alchemy Software Development Ltd.

Alchemy Software Development has offices and facilities in Canada, Europe, Asia-
Pacific and the United States.

For more information on the company and its products, please refer to
www.AlchemySoftware.ie .

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