Localization - .NET MAUI Hybrid + API + Translation Blazor server

Question

We have a .NET MAUI Hybrid app that needs translations. The usual way to do this is to use .resx files but based on our requirements they are not good enough.

Architecture:

• .NET MAUI Hybrid application for multiple platforms (ios, android) and in future the Blazor part will be extracted to pure web page as well
• API - ASP.NET Core API which stores translations in SQL Server database
• Blazor server admin page - after signing in, we have translation UI there to (manually or automatically) translate text to specified languages our app supports
• Shared lib project referenced in both .NET MAUI Hybrid and Blazor server

Our theoretical approach

• adhoc download - we dont want translations to be baked into app in build process, but when we edit something (e.g. some typo), client will fetch a new version on his app startup

• structure - the final translation JSON has a structure based on Pages and Components. Example:

  { "General":{ "Yes": "Yes", "No": "No", "Cancel": "Cancel" }, "Pages": { "Home": { "Title": "Home", "Statistics": "Statistics" }, "About": { "Title": "About", "Developers": "Developers" } }, "Components":{ "Header": { "Title": "Header", "Back": "Go back" }, "Footer": { "AllRightsReserved": "All rights reserved" } } }

• not to do typos on client (when calling localisation dict like L["Pages.Home.Title"]), we would like to use some class with pre-defined properties duplicating structure of the JSON. Example: In case I have HomePage.razor I will inject translation service that would contain: _translationService.Translations.Pages.Home.Title

Proposed flow:

• on Blazor server we create translation for a string of a client Page e.g. HomePage.razor
• after translating, the output is then saved to our database
• then this server page will take the whole translation structure and creates class-tree representing it and save it to the disk in Shared project (e.g. class Pages containing property Home of type HomePage containing string property Title)
• when client will request a language, the API will collect all translation records for specified language from dbs and creates the final translation json that will be cached for ~1h and returned to the client
• after client receives this language, it will fill the object from Shared project that was generated by Blazor server with translations received

Questions:

• Are we reinventing the wheel ?
• What do you think about this flow ?
• Is it optimal ? Or do you see there a place for some improvements ?
• Would it make sense to split it to some reusable parts and open-source it ?

Answer 1

One of the very first things, that I have done about localization, was something very similar to this.

XML file, containing serialized dictionary, saved on Windows Mobile device, with code using NET Compact Framework 2.0.

It works. And this is the only good thing I can say about it.

You see, localization is not just some key-value pairs, that you store somewhere. Just because you see "Hallo" instead of "Hello", it does not mean that your app is now perfectly fit for German people.

At some point, I started to stick to what is generally used, working stable and easy to implement.

You are planning to do the opposite.

(This is opinion based, but your question leads that way anyway)