Localize ActiveReports Without Visual Studio.

ActiveReports user interface can be localized to meet the needs of all the international users. The reporting engine for ActiveReports can use locale-specific text and format data in the way users are used to seeing it in their locales without creating multiple reports. ActiveReports uses English locale by default, and includes localization resources for Japanese and Russian locales. You can also localize all of the components into any language you need. In case it seems to be a tough task to you, you can go through the documentation where you will find it’s really not. You can localize all of the UI strings, error messages, and images that appear in ActiveReports in included resource files, and alter and run a batch file to localize each resource. All the batch files supplied requires Visual Studio to convert and compile resources. However, there could be a possibility that Visual Studio is not available. This blog is all about accomplishing the Localization of ActiveReports without using Visual Studio: Localization of the ActiveReports can be implemented using either of the two solutions provided below. 1. Using Resource File Generator: One approach is to use the Resource File Generator (ResGen.exe). The Resource File Generator converts .txt files and .resx (XML-based resource format) files to Common Language Runtime binary .resources files that can be embedded in a runtime binary executable or compiled into satellite assemblies. The following command is used to do the same:- resgen [parameters] [/compile]filename.extension [outputFilename.extension] [/str:lang[,namespace[,class[,file]]]] where, the arguments filename.extension refers to name of the input file to convert and outputFilename.extension refers to the name of the resource file to create (this argument is optional when converting from a .txt or .resx file). You can convert .resx files to plain txt files using the said utility, translate those text files to the language you need and then the developer(s) working on the project can create the resource assemblies from those translated files to have signed by us. You do not need Visual Studio to create the satellite resource assemblies (.resources). ResGen can be used to create .resources file from .resx or .txt files and then CSC compiler can be used to embed the generated .resources files in an executable. 2. Using A Resource Editor: Other way would be to just open the resx file in a ResEx i.e. a .NET Resource editor and edit them and send the resx. You can also use a text editor (notepad/textpad) to do the changes, however it is tedious and bit cumbersome.