A Multilingual application is one that provides support for multiple languages.  This section discusses how we can implement a multilingual application in .NET using the concepts explained earlier.  The steps for implementing a multilingual application in .NET can be summarized as the following.

·         Create a resource file for each locale.

·         Save the resource files with a .resx extension.

·         Compile the resource files using resgen utility of .NET SDK to create a compiled binary resource file.

·         Create satellite assembly using al utility of .NET SDK.

·         Create folders for storing the satellite assembly and store the satellite assembly there.

·         Read resources from the satellite assembly in the application's source code.

First, we have to create culture specific resources in resource files.  Then we can store the culture specific data in the resource file and save the same with a .resx extension.  Note that the culture name should be provided in the resource file name to follow the resource file naming convention.  We can use Visual Studio .NET to create a resource for a particular culture.  Resource files have been explained in more detail earlier.  Let us assume that a file Internationalization.en-GB.resx be created for en-GB culture and compiled (as shown in listing 4) to create the Internationalization.en-GB.resources file.  This file is the complied resources file.  This compiled resource file can be used to create a satellite assembly.  This satellite assembly can then be used by the application.  Refer to code listing 9.  The file Internationalization.resources.dll is a satellite assembly.  This satellite assembly should now be placed in a sub folder inside the application's main folder and the name of this sub folder should be the same as the name of the culture that the satellite assembly is targeted for.  This satellite assembly can now be used to display locale specific information in the application.