Localization in Windows Forms ListView

18 Nov 20183 minutes to read

Localization is a process of translating the application resources into different languages for some specific cultures. The ListView can be localized by adding the resource file. The application culture can be changed by setting CurrentUICulture before InitializeComponent method.

Localize at sample level

To localize the ListView based on the CurrentUICulture using resource files, follow the steps:

1) Create a new folder and name it as Resources in your application.

2) Add the default resource file of the ListView into Resources folder. You can download the Syncfusion.SfListView.WinForms.resx file here.

3) Right-click on the Resources folder, select Add and then NewItem.

4) In Add New Item wizard, select the Resource File option and name the filename as Syncfusion.SfListView.WinForms.<culture name>.resx. For example, give name as Syncfusion.SfListView.WinForms.de-DE.resx for German culture. The culture name that indicates the name of language and country.

5) Now, select Add option to add the resource file in Resources folder.

6) Add the Name/Value pair in Resource Designer of Syncfusion. SfListView.WinForms.de-DE.resx file and change its corresponding value to the corresponding culture.

7) Now, set the CurrentCulture of the Application before the InitializeComponent method and run the sample.

C#

public Form1()
{
 System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE"); 
 System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE"); 
 InitializeComponent();
}

VB.NET

Public Sub New()
 System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
 System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
 InitializeComponent()
End Sub

Editing default resource file

The default resource file can be edited by adding it to Resources folder of the application where the ListView reads the static texts here.
The default resource file can be download from here.

Now, change the Name and Value pair in Resource Designer of Syncfusion.SfListView.WinForms.resx file.

Run the sample.

Localize resource file with different assembly or namespace

By default, the ListView tries to read the resource file from executing assembly and its default namespace by using the Assembly.GetExecuteAssembly method. When the resource file is located at different assembly or namespace, it can be set to the ListView by using the SR.SetResources method.

C#

public Form1()
{
  System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE");
  System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE");
  SR.SetResources(typeof(CustomListView).Assembly, "SfListViewExt");
  InitializeComponent();
}

VB.NET

Public Sub New()
  System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
  System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
  SR.SetResources(GetType(CustomListView).Assembly, "SfListViewExt")
  InitializeComponent()
End Sub

RightToLeft

Items of the ListView can be aligned from right to left and vice versa using the following property.

C#

sfListView1.RightToLeft = RightToLeft.Yes;

VB.NET

sfListView1.RightToLeft = RightToLeft.Yes