WPF: Using resx file for white labelling (Not localization)

Question

We have a requirement to white label our application, where certain strings (notably the application name) will be different depending on the brand.

Many years ago, I'd had experience using resource files for localization, so it seemed like a good fit. So I followed this Microsoft tutorial: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/wpf/wpf_localization.htm

It works well when the resource files are named with cultures (Resources.en.resx and Resources.ru-RU.rex).

However, I'm not using resource files for localization, but rather for white labelling, so I instead want to name my files Resources.Brand1.resx and Resources.Brand2.resx).

I need to be able to specify when the application starts up which resource file to use, and I can't change the culture to achieve this. Ideally, the brand name will be read from a configuration file or database.

I've seen suggestions of creating a custom culture on the client's machine, but that's not an option for me because this is a product, not a bespoke application, and hence we won't have access to the clients' machines and we can't rely on users having admin rights when it's being installed or executed.

I've also seen applications that allow users to change UI languages on the fly, independent of their machine's culture, and I assume these applications use resource files "behind the scenes".

So this can't be that hard, but obviously I don't know what to search for, or I'm missing something really obvious. ;)

Is there a way to dynamically change the resource file that's being used by an application at runtime, that doesn't depend on culture?

Answer 1

Overriding the culture is not that hard.

What we do:

string cultureOverride = "en-US";

CultureInfo.DefaultThreadCurrentCulture = new CultureInfo(cultureOverride);
CultureInfo.DefaultThreadCurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo(cultureOverride);

FrameworkContentElement.LanguageProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(System.Windows.Documents.TextElement), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(XmlLanguage.GetLanguage(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.IetfLanguageTag)));
FrameworkElement.LanguageProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(FrameworkElement), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(XmlLanguage.GetLanguage(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.IetfLanguageTag)));

I would try to inherit from CultureInfo and use my own one. And then find out if you can override a property that defines the file name for the resource file. Maybe "Name" or something like that.

[EDIT] But be aware that you will lose "real" localization for ever.

Answer 2

After reading some of the comments and discussing it with my team, we came to the conclusion that resource files aren't the way to go for white labelling/branding.

Obviously my and my team's understanding of "Resource File" is different to Microsoft's, because it seems like in their parlance, those are strictly for localization, and are intrinsically linked to a machine or application's culture.

I ended up adding an interface containing all the strings that need to be different for each brand, and then using a config setting to determine which concrete implementation to inject in. Nothing to do with resx files.

In hindsight, that's a better/more elegant solution than the Resource Files one would have been, because as someone else commented, it's entirely possible we'd want to localize as well at some point, and if I'd used resource files for branding, that would be much harder if/when the time comes.

Thanks everyone! :-)