Editing Resource Files

You should only edit the resource’s value and leave the resource’s name alone.  There is no need to add or remove rows from the resource file.

You should refrain from adding your own new string resources to the resource files provided or created by Iron Speed Designer.  Iron Speed Designer applications do not provide a mechanism for retrieving these strings from the resource file, either at application generation time or at application run-time.

Resource files should be saved in UTF-8 format, so be sure to use an editor that supports saving in this format.  This ensures that the character set you use will be manifested in the resulting text strings.  Your particular text editor may default to an encoding format other than UTF-8 (e.g., BIG5), which is frequently the case for Asian-language editors.  In this case, you may need to explicitly save your resource file in UTF-8.  While the UTF-8 format can result in larger-sized resource files than other encoding formats, UTF-8 is the most popular encoding format for web applications and most applications support this format.

Resource Files and the Property Sheet

Some strings in the resource files can be edited directly in the page’s Property Sheet.  If you change the text for a field in the Property Sheet, this text is saved in the properties file for the particular page.  At this point, Iron Speed Designer will no longer look to the resource file for that field’s string.  Instead, that field’s string will be taken from the page’s properties file, giving the properties file precedence over the string resource file.

Language Translation Reminder

When an application specifies a country, or uses a language not listed above, Iron Speed Designer makes a copy of the closest culture / language (English is the default).  It remembers the original language and displays a reminder to translate the file if necessary.

After translating the file, including making minor adjustments to their specific country's dialect, set the "Language" property at the top of the file to the language indicated in the file name.  For instance, after adjusting a Spanish translation for the Costa Rican variant, change “es-ES” to “es-CR” to match the file extension.  You may also change the Translator fields to show the proper values.

Here is what the XML at the top of the .RESX file looks like before the change:

<data name="Language">

     <value>es-ES</value>

</data>

<data name="Translator:Name">

     <value>Frank Jones</value>

</data>

<data name="Translator:Company">

     <value>Your Company, Inc.</value>

</data>

Upgrading Iron Speed Designer

Please be aware that installing future versions of Iron Speed Designer may overwrite the application base class library with a more current version.  Thus, you should make a copy of any modified source code files so you can re-apply the changes made to any new version you may install.

See Also

Customizing Error and Validation Message Strings

Localizing (Internationalizing) Your Application

Enabling Language Support in Microsoft Windows