Globalization and Localization of Model Validation Message in MVC

In this quick post you will learn how to globalize and localize the model validation message in MVC Applications. At the end of this post, you will also learn how to display the localized message (greeting) on the page.

Here's the screen of what we are going to build.

I will use ASP.NET resource files to define the globalized (default) and localized strings and this string message will be displayed to user based on the request header language that client browser sends.

I have recorded a video on this title, you can watch it.

Now, follow the steps from here:

Step 1

In order to do all by ASP.NET automatically we need to set the globalization settings in web.config, as given below.

<system.web>

  ....

  <globalization culture="auto" uiCulture="auto"/>

  ....

</system.web>

Step 2

To localize the text we have to rely on the resource files which nothing but a XML file with .resx extension that contains globalized and localized string messages, name and its value pair.

These resource files can be added anywhere in the application but I will prefer to add it with views.

Error.resx File

In this file I have defined two string names AddressRequired and NameRequired. This file can be called as default/base resource and will be display every time when browser requests language that we don’t support. Remember to change the access modifier to Public, because this file turns into assembly at compile time that required public access so that views can access it.

Error.hi.resx File

This file will have the localized name and value pair, which is Hindi language here. This string message will be displayed to user based on the request header language that client browser sends.

Step 3

In order to display these localized validation messages, we need make quick change in model validation attribute, here we go.

public class DemoFoolProofModel

{

    public int Id { get; set; }

    //[Required]

    [Required(ErrorMessageResourceType=(typeof(MvcApplication1.Views.Demo.Error)), ErrorMessageResourceName="NameRequired")]

    public string Name { get; set; }

    //[Required]

    [Required(ErrorMessageResourceType=(typeof(MvcApplication1.Views.Demo.Error)), ErrorMessageResourceName="AddressRequired")]

    public string Address { get; set; }

}

I am overriding the validation message displayed by [Required]. ErrorMessageResourceType will have the name of resource file and ErrorMessageResourceName will have name of name-value pair. That’s it.

Step 4

Now we are all set to run the application, hit F5, at the same time open fiddler to inspect the request header. I selected English (United States) as a primary language and you can see fiddler has ‘en-US’ in request header. In this case Error.resx file information will be rendered.

And here is the output in the browser.

Step 5

Let’s selected Hindi as a primary language and you can see fiddler has ‘hi’ in request header. In this case Error.hi.resx file information will be rendered.

Step 6

In the same way if you want to display some greeting on your website you can do this by adding another two resource files, as given below.

Now, to display this localized message on view page use following code:

<h2>@MvcApplication1.Views.Demo.Greeting.GreetingMsg</h2>

Now, select Hindi as a primary language, you will see it working.

Hope this helps.