How to: Publish a Project That Has a Specific Locale

Article
04/28/2015

It is not uncommon for an application to contain components that have different locales. In this scenario, you would create a solution that has several projects, and then publish separate projects for each locale. This procedure shows how to use a macro to publish the first project in a solution by using the 'en' locale. If you want to try this procedure with a locale other than 'en', make sure to set localeString in the macro to match the locale that you are using (for example, 'de' or 'de-DE').

Note

When you use this macro, the Publish Location should be a valid URL or Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share. Also, Internet Information Services (IIS) has to be installed on your computer. To install IIS, on the Start menu, click Control Panel. Double-click Add or Remove Programs. In Add or Remove Programs, click Add/Remove Windows Components. In the Windows Components Wizard, select the Internet Information Services (IIS) check box in the Components list. Then click Finish to close the wizard.

To create the publishing macro

To open the Macro Explorer, on the Tools menu, point to Macros, and then click Macro Explorer.
Create a new macro module. In the Macro Explorer, select MyMacros. On the Tools menu, point to Macros, and then click New Macro Module. Name the module PublishSpecificCulture.
In the Macro Explorer, expand the MyMacros node, and then open the PublishAllProjects module by double-clicking it (or, from the Tools menu, point to Macros, and then click Macros IDE).

In the Macros IDE, add the following code to the module, after the Import statements:

Module PublishSpecificCulture
    Sub PublishProjectFirstProjectWithEnLocale()
        ' Note: You should publish projects by using the IDE at least once
        ' before you use this macro. Items such as the certficate and the 
        ' security zone must be set.
        Dim localeString As String = "en"

        ' Get first project.
        Dim proj As Project = DTE.Solution.Projects.Item(1)
        Dim publishProperties As Object = proj.Properties.Item("Publish").Value

        ' GenerateManifests and SignManifests must always be set to
        ' True for publishing to work. 
        proj.Properties.Item("GenerateManifests").Value = True
        proj.Properties.Item("SignManifests").Value = True

        'Set the publish language.
        'This will set the deployment language and pick up all 
        ' en resource dlls:
        Dim originalTargetCulture As String = _
            publishProperties.Item("TargetCulture").Value
        publishProperties.Item("TargetCulture").Value = localeString

        'Append 'en' to end of publish, install, and update URLs if needed:
        Dim originalPublishUrl As String = _
            publishProperties.Item("PublishUrl").Value
        Dim originalInstallUrl As String = _
            publishProperties.Item("InstallUrl").Value
        Dim originalUpdateUrl As String = _
            publishProperties.Item("UpdateUrl").Value
        publishProperties.Item("PublishUrl").Value = _
            AppendStringToUrl(localeString, New Uri(originalPublishUrl))
        If originalInstallUrl <> String.Empty Then
            publishProperties.Item("InstallUrl").Value = _
                AppendStringToUrl(localeString, New Uri(originalInstallUrl))
        End If
        If originalUpdateUrl <> String.Empty Then
            publishProperties.Item("UpdateUrl").Value = _
                AppendStringToUrl(localeString, New Uri(originalUpdateUrl))
        End If
        proj.Save()

        Dim slnbld2 As SolutionBuild2 = _
            CType(DTE.Solution.SolutionBuild, SolutionBuild2)
        slnbld2.Clean(True)

        slnbld2.BuildProject( _
        proj.ConfigurationManager.ActiveConfiguration.ConfigurationName, _
        proj.UniqueName, True)

        ' Only publish if build is successful.
        If slnbld2.LastBuildInfo <> 0 Then
            MsgBox("Build failed for " & proj.UniqueName)
        Else
            slnbld2.PublishProject( _
            proj.ConfigurationManager.ActiveConfiguration.ConfigurationName, _
            proj.UniqueName, True)
            If slnbld2.LastPublishInfo = 0 Then
                MsgBox("Publish succeeded for " & proj.UniqueName _
                & vbCrLf & "." _
                & " Publish Language was '" & localeString & "'.")
            Else
                MsgBox("Publish failed for " & proj.UniqueName)
            End If
        End If

        ' Return URLs and target culture to their previous state.
        publishProperties.Item("PublishUrl").Value = originalPublishUrl
        publishProperties.Item("InstallUrl").Value = originalInstallUrl
        publishProperties.Item("UpdateUrl").Value = originalUpdateUrl
        publishProperties.Item("TargetCulture").Value = originalTargetCulture
        proj.Save()
    End Sub

    Private Function AppendStringToUrl(ByVal str As String, _
    ByVal baseUri As Uri) As String
        Dim returnValue As String = baseUri.OriginalString
        If baseUri.IsFile OrElse baseUri.IsUnc Then
            returnValue = IO.Path.Combine(baseUri.OriginalString, str)
        Else
            If Not baseUri.ToString.EndsWith("/") Then
                returnValue = baseUri.OriginalString & "/" & str
            Else
                returnValue = baseUri.OriginalString & str
            End If
        End If
        Return returnValue
    End Function
End Module

Close the Macros IDE. The focus will return to Visual Studio.

To publish a project for a specific locale

To create a Visual Basic Windows Application project, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Project.
In the New Project dialog box, select Windows Application from the Visual Basic node. Name the project PublishLocales.
Click Form1. In the Properties window, under Design, change the Language property from (Default) to English. Change the Text property of the form to MyForm.

Note that the localized resource DLLs are not created until they are needed. For example, they are created when you change the text of the form or one of its controls after you have specified the new locale.
Publish PublishLocales by using the Visual Studio IDE.

In Solution Explorer, select PublishLocales. On the Project menu, select Properties. In the Project Designer, on the Publish page, specify a publishing location of https://localhost/PublishLocales, and then click Publish Now.

When the publish Web page appears, close it. (For this step, you only have to publish the project; you do not have to install it.)
Publish PublishLocales again by invoking the macro in the Visual Studio Command Prompt window. To view the Command Prompt window, on the View menu, point to Other Windows and then click Command Window, or press CTRL+ALT+A. In the Command Prompt window, type macros; auto-complete will provide a list of available macros. Select the following macro and press ENTER:

Macros.MyMacros.PublishSpecificCulture.PublishProjectFirstProjectWithEnLocale
When the publish process succeeds, it will generate a message that says "Publish succeeded for PublishLocales\PublishLocales.vbproj. Publish language was 'en'." Click OK in the message box. When the publish Web page appears, click Install.
Look in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\PublishLocales\en. You should see the installed files such as the manifests, setup.exe, and the publish Web page file, in addition to the localized resource DLL. (By default ClickOnce appends a .deploy extension on EXEs and DLLs; you can remove this extension after deployment.)

How to: Publish a Project That Has a Specific Locale

To create the publishing macro

To publish a project for a specific locale

See Also

Concepts

Other Resources

Additional resources