Best place to set CurrentCulture for multilingual ASP.NET MVC web applications

by

I used a global ActionFilter for this, but recently I realized, that setting the current culture in the OnActionExecuting method is too late in some cases. For example, when model after POST request comes to the controller, ASP.NET MVC creates a metadata for model. It occurs before any actions get executed. As a result, DisplayName attribute values, and other Data Annotations stuff are handled using the default culture at this point.

Eventually I’ve moved setting the current culture to the custom IControllerActivator implementation, and it works like a charm. I suppose it’s almost the same from the request lifecycle perspective to host this logic in the custom controller factory, like you have today. It’s much more reliable, than usage of global ActionFilter.

CultureAwareControllerActivator.cs:

public class CultureAwareControllerActivator: IControllerActivator
{
    public IController Create(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType)
    {
        //Get the {language} parameter in the RouteData
        string language = requestContext.RouteData.Values["language"] == null ?
            "tr" : requestContext.RouteData.Values["language"].ToString();

        //Get the culture info of the language code
        CultureInfo culture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(language);
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = culture;
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = culture;

        return DependencyResolver.Current.GetService(controllerType) as IController;
    }
}

Global.asax.cs:

public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        ...
        ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(new DefaultControllerFactory(new CultureAwareControllerActivator()));
    }
}

More Related Contents:

  1. In what order are filters executed in asp.net mvc
  2. Multiple models in a view
  3. Polymorphic model binding
  4. ViewModel with List and editor templates
  5. Can we pass model as a parameter in RedirectToAction?
  6. Replace line break characters with in ASP.NET MVC Razor view
  7. ASP.Net MVC Html.HiddenFor with wrong value
  8. CheckboxList in MVC3 View and get the checked items passed to the controller
  9. Add CSS or JavaScript files to layout head from views or partial views
  10. How to use Ajax.ActionLink?
  11. Writing/outputting HTML strings unescaped
  12. How to render a Section in a Partial View in MVC3?
  13. Razor-based view doesn’t see referenced assemblies
  14. ASP.NET: This method cannot be called during the application’s pre-start initialization stage
  15. Troubleshooting anti-forgery token problems
  16. Do I need to install MVC 3/4 on web server to run mvc application
  17. Html5 data-* with asp.net mvc TextboxFor html attributes
  18. Html.Textbox VS Html.TextboxFor
  19. Fat model / thin controller vs. Service layer [closed]
  20. How to pass parameters to a partial view in ASP.NET MVC?
  21. Is there any attribute relating to AJAX to be set for ASP.NET MVC controller actions?
  22. Inject repository to custom membership provider with Ninject
  23. MVC DropDownList SelectedValue not displaying correctly
  24. ASP.NET Remote Validation only on blur?
  25. Redirect to Action in another controller
  26. active menu item – asp.net mvc3 master page
  27. Html.DisplayFor not posting values to controller in ASP.NET MVC 3
  28. How do I create my own Scaffold Template in ASP.NET MVC 3?
  29. Working with the Output Cache and other Action Filters
  30. MVC Forms LoginUrl is incorrect

Leave a Comment