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There is a nice thread here: Get CultureInfo from current visitor

Explaining that we can easily get the browser languages using:

var userLanguages = Request.UserLanguages;

The problem here is that this only gives me the languages configured in the browser, but not the selected one. At the same time, the first language in the array ([0]), might not be the active one.

Is there a way to find the active one on the server-side? I know I could do it on the client side using javascript, but I want to avoid double-calls.

Community
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Luis Gouveia
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    What is "the selected one", exactly? Having a flag icon somewhere on your site does not change the browser's Accept-Language request header. – CodeCaster Feb 09 '17 at 09:01
  • Keep in mind that the `UserLanguages` comes from a header. Headers can be altered by firewalls. So you aren't necessarily getting the *user's* culture when looking at this header. It is a much better user experience you make the culture part of the URL as in [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/32839796/181087). It also has the advantage of ensuring each culture is indexed by search engines, rather than just the default language. – NightOwl888 Feb 09 '17 at 09:35

1 Answers1

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You will need to set this information via a cookie (which can be toggled by a setting on your page).

public ActionResult SetCulture(string culture) //culture is something like en-US, you can validate it ahead of time.
{
    HttpCookie cookie = Request.Cookies["currentCulture"];
    if (cookie != null)
        cookie.Value = culture;   // update cookie value
    else //create the cookie here
    {
        cookie = new HttpCookie("currentCulture");
        cookie.Value = culture;
        cookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddYears(1);
    }
    Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
    return Redirect(Request.UrlReferrer.ToString()); //send them back to the site they were at (in a translated form).
}

To determine the culture on the server side, just read the cookie when you execute an action.

protected override IAsyncResult BeginExecuteCore(AsyncCallback callback, object state)
{

    HttpCookie cultureCookie = Request.Cookies["currentCulture"];
    string cultureName = cultureCookie== null ? "en-US" : cultureCookie.Value;        
    if (cultureCookie != null)
        cultureName = cultureCookie.Value;

    // Modify current thread's cultures            
    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo(cultureName);
    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;

    return base.BeginExecuteCore(callback, state);
}
Kolichikov
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    This is only a small part of solving the entire problem. Yes, you can _save_ language preferences in a cookie, but that alone does nothing but add a cookie to each request. Also, you can't trust the referrer - if you even have one (HTTPS doesn't, and certain privacy plugins clear it). – CodeCaster Feb 09 '17 at 09:22