Localization for Xamarin.Forms with RTL(Right-to-Left) detection

Localization for Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.Mac and Xamarin.WPF

It's a pleasure to announce this brand new, powerfull net standard plugin for handling language localization in Xamarin.Forms (3.0).

NuGet

• Available on NuGet: Xamarin.Forms.Localization

• Sources package available Xamarin.Localization.Sources (No Xamarin.Forms dependency) :gift:

Features

• Get and set current culture
• Get device culture
• Ensure device culture match available cultures or set a default culture even when culture are neutral and device culture is not.
• Get culture list
• Get specific culture by name
• Raise event when current culture change to update Resources Culture
• Detect FlowDirection based on current culture :gift:
• No markup extension needed to bind resource messages
• Intellisense available for Resources :heart:

Platform Support

Setup

• Install into your Net Standard project (clients are not needed).

• If you want to use in Android, iOS with no Xamarin.Forms dependency use the Sources package.

Getting Started

1. Add your Resx files

2. Add one .resx file per language you want to support. As you can imagine it must follow a specific naming convention: use the same filename as the base resources file (eg. Messages) followed by a period (.) and then the language code.

3. In order to recognize the device language, you can use EnsureDeviceOrDefaultCulture, if device's language match available cultures, that culture will be set, otherwise, defaultCultureName will be used.

       Localization.Current.EnsureDeviceOrDefaultCulture(defaultCultureName:"en",
                                    availableCultures:new []{"en","ar","fr"});

4. Set the culture of your resource class file when initializing your application.

       Messages.Culture = Localization.Current.CurrentCultureInfo;

5. Ensure that you handle the language change event to ensure resource class Culture matchs.

       Localization.Current.OnCultureChanged += (culture)=>
       {
           Messages.Culture = culture;
       };

If you are using Xamarin Forms it would be in your App.cs

Xamarin Forms Specifics

This pacakage depends on new Xamarin.Forms 3.0 package with support to RTL content.

To use the resources in XAML, you need to import your resource class namespace and set any property value using the Static expression. You don't need any custom markup extension and it brings Intellisense support ;)

iOS Considerations

In the Info.plist file add the keys Localizations & Localization native development region to change the user interface OS elements. It will take the device language.

API Details

Call Localization.Current from any project or .net standard library project to gain access to APIs.

CurrentCultureInfo

Gets and set the current culture. By default will be set to the device culture.

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.CurrentCultureInfo = new CultureInfo("en");

CurrentNeutralCultureInfo

Gets the neutral culture version of the current culture.

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.CurrentNeutralCultureInfo;

DeviceCultureInfo

Gets the device culture

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.DeviceCultureInfo;

CultureInfoList

Gets all cultures supported in .NET Framework (neutral & specific cultures)

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.CultureInfoList;

NeutralCultureInfoList

Gets all cultures associated with a language (not specific to a country/region).

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.NeutralCultureInfoList;

GetCultureInfo

Gets a specific culture by language code.

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.GetCultureInfo("es");

IsRightToLeft

Gets true if the current culture is RTL language.

Usage sample:

    Localization.Current.IsRightToLeft

FlowDirection

Gets a FlowDirection enum value used for Xamarin.Forms to add RTL support. For more information, review https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/app-fundamentals/localization/right-to-left.

Usage sample:

      public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
      {
          public MainPage()
          {
              InitializeComponent();
              FlowDirection = Localization.Current.FlowDirection;
          }
      }

EnsureDeviceOrDefaultCulture(string defaultCultureName, params string[] availableCultures)
Try to set the CurrentCultureInfo value based on device culture only if it matches available cultures.

Usage sample:

       Localization.Current.EnsureDeviceOrDefaultCulture(defaultCultureName:"en",
                                    availableCultures:new []{"en","ar","fr"});

OnCultureChanged
An event that arises when you change the CurrentCultureInfo.

Usage sample:

       Localization.Current.OnCultureChanged += (culture)=>
       {
           Messages.Culture = culture;
       };

Contributors

• Jesus Angulo