How to Localize the Web Interface

Starting from v1.0.5.0, the web interface allows easy localization of almost all messages and text labels.

How to translate

We are using standard .NET localization conventions: all you have to do is place *.resx files, contained localized strings into App_LocalResources and App_GlobalResources subdirectories in corresponding directories. Names of files must be the same as default resource files, but before the extension they should contain either a language string, according to ISO 639-1, or language string, plus a "-", and a country string, according to ISO 3166.

For example, if you are translating the strings contained on the Compose.aspx page in the Auth folder to French, you create a copy of Compose.aspx.resx file in the Auth\Local_Resources folder, name it Compose.aspx.fr.resx, open it in a text editor (it is a XML file), and replace english strings in data tags to French. For example, replace:

<data name="addToContactsHyperLink.Text" xml:space="preserve">
<value>Add to Contacts</value>
</data>

to:

<data name="addToContactsHyperLink.Text" xml:space="preserve">
<value>Ajouter à Contacts</value>
</data>

It has to be done for all resource files.

How to specify the language

Language can be specified as a global setting in the web.config file of the WebMail application root. By default, it is already set to "auto" (open the file web.config, and find "globalization" tags). It looks like:

If this setting is kept as is, then your web server will serve the content according to the browser language settings, according to end user preferences.

In Internet Explorer, languages are specified at Internet Options - General - Languages, in Firefox under Tools - Options - Advanced - General - Languages. If you have two languages, e.g., fr-CA and en-US, and you have resources for French language, then the browser will serve the content in French, otherwise, it will serve English content (which is default)...

To force users to use e.g. only Spanish language interface for Mexican culture, then in the globalization section of the web.config file specify "es-MX" for both uiCulture and culture. uiCulture affects the translated strings, culture parameter affects the way how date, time and numbers are displayed.

If you have further questions, please submit it from our Support Page.

Back to the list of documents

Back to the Mail Server .NET FAQ

Back to the Mail Server .NET