Is it possible to override the client accept-language header so that subsequest requests are in a new language?

Question

Our business requirements state that the user should be able to change their language preference without changing their browser or system settings. Our implementation is a simple interface that asks them to choose a language. Originally, I was going to just store their choice in a cookie value and check for it and set the UI Culture, but I am wondering if there is an easier way.

At the moment, I'm trying to see if I can just accept their choice and then set the accept-language in the response so that it will be used in subsequent requests. Right now, I set the accept-language header in the response, but the next request overwrites it with browser values (e.g. en-US,en;q=0.8") Is this possible and how do I go about it? Any other ideas to achieve this functionality is also welcomed.

Answer 1

Yes, you can override the effect of the Accept-Language HTTP header. More exactly, such a header has no effect as such. Its only role is to participate in language negotiation if the server does such negotiation. You need not use anything to override it; just don’t use it, or use it in a manner that makes other settings override it.

Using a cookie is common method. Not ideal, but often the best approach in practice. If desired, you can use the Accept-Language header to determine the default option in a language selection menu, but this is more complicated than most people think. The header specifies, in general, a list of languages, or locales, with “quality factors”, not just a language.

There is no point in setting Accept-Language in an HTTP response, since Accept-Language is a request header only.