The controller
the master layout page contained some language links like this one:@Html.RouteLink("Nederlands",
new { Controller = "Home",
Action = "Language",
culture = "nl-BE" })
They refer to a simple action:
public ActionResult Language(string culture) {
App.SetCulture(culture);
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}The model
I prefer handling the actual setting of the culture in the model, so I created a static class called App containing these methods:public static void Store(string key, object value) {
if (HttpContext.Current.Session != null)
HttpContext.Current.Session[key] = value;
}
public static object Retrieve(string key) {
return HttpContext.Current.Session == null ?
null :
HttpContext.Current.Session[key];
}
public static void SetCulture(string cultureName) {
Store("culture", cultureName);
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture =
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture =
CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(cultureName);
}
Very important: the thread culture must be set again for every request. But a .css file or image files are also a requests. For those requests however, the session object does not exist. Hence, the null-tests.
Global.asax
So the culture must be set for each request. You could do it in the Initialize method of each controller, or in just one place: Global.asax. I put it in the Application_AcquireRequestState method, because from this method on the session object is available. From there, it's just a simple call:App.SetCulture((string)App.Retrieve("culture") ?? "nl-BE");
