detect and set culture automatically c# mvc

Question

I am new in c# mvc, and I'm trying to make a multi language website, now so far I've been reading the best practice is work with resources or files resx and to set the language o culture in a cookie variable, but my question is how do I set the culture to a cookie automatically? I mean

if A person goes to the website for first time; how di I globally detect the pc or browser language and set the culture to that language detected for every future action the person will make on the website, also store it in a cookie variable due to if the person change the language and visit the website again,the website initializes with the language that the person chose.

so far I've got this:

global.asax

protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        HttpCookie language = HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies["CultureInfo"];
        if (language != null && language.Value != null)
        {
            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(language.Value);
            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo(language.Value);
        }
        else
        {
            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = someWayToDetectThePcOrBrowserLanguage;
            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = someWayToDetectThePcOrBrowserLanguage;
        }

    }

the someWayToDetectThePcOrBrowserLanguage method I don't have it, I'm looking for a way to do that. And once done that if the person is form a english country the url looks like this:

www.website.com/en/

if the person is from a spanish country looks like this:

www.website.com/es/

and so goes on for some more languages.

now to change the language I have this for the html:

<form id="languages" method="get">
   <select name="selectLanguages" id="selectLanguages>
      <option value="en">English</option>
      <option value="es">Español</option>
      <option value="fr">Français</option>
   </select>
</form>

my jquery is this one:

$('#selectLanguages').on('change', function () {
        var id = $(this).val();
        $.ajax({
            type: 'GET',
            url: '/Language/ChangeCulture',
            data: { lang: id },
            success: function (e) {

            }
        })
    })

finally the function is this one:

public void ChangeCulture(string lang)
{
   Response.Cookies.Remove("CultureInfo");

   HttpCookie languageCookie = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies["CultureInfo"];

   if (languageCookie == null) languageCookie = new HttpCookie("CultureInfo");

     languageCookie.Value = lang;

     languageCookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(10);

     Response.SetCookie(languageCookie);

     Response.Redirect(Request.UrlReferrer.ToString());
}

from this point on, I'm totally lost, if you can help me, this intends to change the url from this www.website.com/AutoDetectedLanguage/ to this www.website.com/anotherLanguage/

And also for every future action stay in the selected or detected culture e.g

www.website.com/en/controller/action

or

www.website.com/en/anotherController/anotherAction

if language changes

www.website.com/es/sameController/sameAction

Possible duplicate of [Get CultureInfo from current visitor and setting resources based on that?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9414123/get-cultureinfo-from-current-visitor-and-setting-resources-based-on-that). See also [Detecting browser display language](https://stackoverflow.com/q/18826282/215552) — Heretic Monkey, Nov 20 '18 at 20:50
@HereticMonkey this solved one probleme that is detecting the browser language, but any ideas on how could I initialize the website with the language detected? e.g www.website.com/en/ — Manuel Gonçalves, Nov 20 '18 at 21:00
Then that's a dupe of [Make URL language-specific (via routes)](https://stackoverflow.com/q/15006572/215552) :) — Heretic Monkey, Nov 20 '18 at 21:04
@HereticMonkey I do have the routeConfig.cs exacally that way but I can't get it to inialize this way **www.example.com/en/** instead of **www.example.com** — Manuel Gonçalves, Nov 21 '18 at 17:27

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 20 '18 at 20:48

In my opinion I wouldn't go for seeking cookies and saving info in there or read the culture of a pc(cookies could be disabled in user system) remember giving the users the option to choose their language is the best option. Now in how to solve this issue is to use globalization and localization because that is what they are designed for.

here is a link to help you started in that:

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/4d9083/globalization-and-localization-in-Asp-Net-mvc-4/

I hope that helps if not many other links can be found on Google. Happy coding further.

detect and set culture automatically c# mvc

1 Answers1