Thanks for your response.

1. I'll follow your suggestion to use different names. I believe it is best for the SEO suggestion you've identified

2. I added a Datatype ddlb called sheetsyle with default and specific options. Then I check for these options in the umbTopNavigation.xslt and assign the class name appropriately.

3. I'll follow your suggestion to make the content editable from Umbraco. 

Thank you for support, it is very helpful.

I have a header and footer div that contain links to items in my content tree that I do not present in my Navigation bar using the umbTopNavigation.xslt. These pages are for contact Us, Privacy, Terms which I have reserved for the footer div and Sign Up, Sign in links which I have reserved for my header div.  If pages are to reflect the culture for which they are created, how do I present the correct link to a translation for the Contact us page (which contains a form) within the footer div (already predefined) without using the UrlName property. I believe the UrlName property is used to predefine the page name?

Hi Paul

Could you perhaps post a screendump of how you have structured your content in the content section right now?

If I have understood the post above correctly you should use dictionary items for everything you plan to hardcode in a template for some reason. The downside to this is that you usually don't let the content editors have access to the dictionary items since they're stored in the "Settings" section, that they should not be granted access to.

Best practice when dealing with multiple sites is to simply just copy Site 1, when it's done and then use it as a starter for Site 2 where the content can be translated and some pages can be omitted of they don't make since in a lnaguage. Hope this makes sense.

But would like to see how you structure your content - the structure is key to making it easy to manage the multiple sites.

/Jan

Upon further review, I was able solve the problem by assigning another property called naviagition location which I used as a filter in an xslt. I did not have to specify a urlName for the lnks after all. 

Ah, I missed the rest of these posts yesterday, sorry, but that would've been my suggestion as well, great! :-)

Yet another kink in my pursuit of a solution.

(1) I discovered I will have to maintain a sort order for the links to appear the way I want them for each navigation div. If these are unintentionally offset, it will affect where they appear on the page. Is there another way around?

(2) I was not sure how to include a LoginView in xslt so I've opted for the usercontrol approach for the Top Navigation DIv. I have the following user control which has a LoginView control. How do I get the url and the text resolved for the appropriate cultures without using *.resx? 

(3) Do I have to define dictionary items for each Text string and NavigateUrl in support of multiple languages?

If so, how do I incorporate the umbraco code for these into the usercontrol. I assume I'll need the Link to document and nodeName properties for each link. Here is the source of the Top navigation usercontrol.

<div id="TopLeftSection">
    <asp:Panel ID="PanelAnonymous" runat="server">
        <ul>
            <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkTellSomeOne" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/TellSomeOne.aspx" Text="Tell someone" ></asp:Hyperlink></li>
            <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkFAQ" runat="server"  NavigateUrl="~/FAQ.aspx" Text="FAQ"></asp:Hyperlink></li>
        </ul>
    </asp:Panel>
</div>

<div id="TopRigtSection">
    <asp:Panel ID="PanelAuth" runat="server" >
<ul>
            <li><asp:Label ID="lblFullNamePrompt" runat="server" /></li>
            <asp:LoginView ID="LoginView1" runat="server">
                <AnonymousTemplate>
                    <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkSignUp" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/SignUp.aspx"  Text="Sign up" ></asp:Hyperlink></li>
                </AnonymousTemplate>
                <LoggedInTemplate>
                    <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkMyProfile" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/MyProfile.aspx" Text="My Profile"></asp:Hyperlink></li>
                </LoggedInTemplate>
            </asp:LoginView>
            <li><asp:LoginStatus ID="LoginStatus1" runat="server"  LoginText="Sign in" LogoutPageUrl="~/Default.aspx" LogoutText="Sign out" /></li>
       </ul>                        
    </asp:Panel>        
</div>

1. Not sure what you mean, if you sort your nodes in the backoffice, they should sort correctly in the frontend as well, right?

2. You can use Umbraco's dictionary items <%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("Test") %> (also in codebehind)

3. For each text string yes, not sure what you mean about the navigateUrl exactly. I have a Razor login macro that might help (this is adapted from the version Jonas did, please give his work an upvote)

@{ this.Page.AnchorName = this.Parameter.AnchorName ?? "login-form-anchor"; }

<a id="@Page.AnchorName"></a>

@helper LoginForm(bool hasErrors)
{
  <h2 class="noline"><span class="title">@library.GetDictionaryItem("LoginTitle")</span> <span class="secure-icon"></span></h2>
  <form method="post" action="#@Page.AnchorName" class="@(hasErrors ? "error login-form" : "login-form")">
      <input type="text" class="username" name="username" value="@library.GetDictionaryItem("Username")" />
      <input type="text" class="password" name="password" value="@library.GetDictionaryItem("Password")" />

      <input type="submit" name="submit" value="@library.GetDictionaryItem("LoginButtonText")" class="submit" />
  </form>
 
}

@helper LogoutForm()
{
  <form id="logout-form" method="post" action="#@Page.AnchorName">
    <input type="submit" id="submit" name="submit" value="@library.GetDictionaryItem("LogoutButtonText")"  class="submit" />
  </form>
}

@helper Message(string message)
{
  <p>@message</p>
}

@{
  var isSubmitLogin = (IsPost && Request["submit"] == library.GetDictionaryItem("LoginButtonText"));
  var isSubmitLogout = (IsPost && Request["submit"] == library.GetDictionaryItem("LogoutButtonText"));

  var currentUser = Membership.GetUser();

  var requestedUrl = Request.Url.PathAndQuery;
  if (Request["ReturnUrl"] != null)
  {
    requestedUrl = Request["ReturnUrl"];
  }

  if (currentUser.UserName != "")
  {
    if (!isSubmitLogout)
    {
      @Message(library.GetDictionaryItem("LoggedInAs") + " " + currentUser.UserName)
      @LogoutForm()
    }
    else
    {
      FormsAuthentication.SignOut();
      Response.Redirect(Model.Url);
    }
  }

  if (currentUser.UserName == "")
  {
    if (!isSubmitLogin)
    {
      @LoginForm(false)
    }
    else
    {
      string username = Request["username"];
      string password = Request["password"];
      if (Membership.ValidateUser(username, password))
      {
        FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(username, true);
        Response.Redirect(requestedUrl);
      }
      else
      {
        @Message(library.GetDictionaryItem("LoginFailedFor") + " " + username)
        @LoginForm(true)
      }
    }
  }
 }

(1) I am aware they sort correctly, I was of the impression there was another way to present them so someone does not mistakenly offset the sort order.

(2) That's good news. I will use umbraco's Dictionary Items in the code behind.

(3) Thanks for the elaborate feedback. I do not know Razor. However I can read through the code to understand it. 

If I were to use the LoginView control provided by ASP.NET, this will mean I will have to add the NavigateUrl values as dictionaty items for the specific language in order to maintain culture sensitive pathnames. Is this true? By NavigateUrl, I mean the property for the HyperLink control shown in the code below:

Can this be done using the LoginView Control?

<asp:LoginView ID="LoginView1" runat="server">
                <AnonymousTemplate>
                    <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkSignUp" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/ThisWillBeTranslatedForTheSpecificCluture-SignUp.aspx"  Text="Sign up" ></asp:Hyperlink></li>
                </AnonymousTemplate>
                <LoggedInTemplate>
                    <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkMyProfile" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/ThisWillBeTranslatedForTheSpecificCluture-MyProfile.aspx" Text="ThisWillBeTranslatedForTheSpecificCluture-My Profile"></asp:Hyperlink></li>

                </LoggedInTemplate>
            </asp:LoginView>
            <li><asp:LoginStatus ID="LoginStatus1" runat="server"  LoginText="ThisWillBeTranslatedForTheSpecificCluture-Sign in" LogoutPageUrl="~/Default.aspx" LogoutText="ThisWillBeTranslatedForTheSpecificCluture-Sign out" /></li>

       </ul>                        
    </asp:Panel>       

I have the following code snippet in which the umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem() is not resolving to the appropriate string from ASP.NET. What am I doing wrong?

<div id="TopRigtSection">
    <asp:Panel ID="PanelAuth" runat="server" meta:resourcekey="PanelAuthResource1" >
        <ul>

             <asp:LoginView ID="LoginView1" runat="server">

                <AnonymousTemplate>

                    <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkSignUp" runat="server" NavigateUrl="<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('SignUpUrl')%>" 

                            Text="<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('SignUp')%>"></asp:Hyperlink></li>

                </AnonymousTemplate>

                <LoggedInTemplate>

                    <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkMyProfile" runat="server" 

                            NavigateUrl="<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('MyProfileUrl')%>" Text="<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('MyProfile')%>"></asp:Hyperlink></li>

                </LoggedInTemplate>

            </asp:LoginView>

            <li class="hide-border"><asp:LoginStatus ID="LoginStatus1" runat="server" 

                    LoginText="<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('SignIn')%>" LogoutPageUrl="~/Default.aspx" LogoutText="<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('LogOff')%>" /></li>

       </ul>                        

    </asp:Panel>        

</div>

They appear as strings like this:
...
<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('SignUp')%>
<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem('SignIn')%>

...

Try to change the single quotes to doubles, vice versa. For example:

<asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkSignUp" runat="server" NavigateUrl='<%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("SignUpUrl") %>' />

Oh and: "(1) I am aware they sort correctly, I was of the impression there was another way to present them so someone does not mistakenly offset the sort order."

I do not understand what you're trying to do, if your editor is not supposed to change the sort order, you can disable the sort option in their permissions. But I'd say: if the editor feels like the "home" link should be in the middle, then who are we to say he's wrong?

Swaping the all the quotes from singel to double and vis versa did not make a difference.

Okay, don't know then. Do the dictionary items exist, with the same key? Try to inspect the value in debug and see what's going on.

Yes they do...simply perplexed!

Try somewhere in there:

<div runat="server">
 <%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("SignUpUrl") %>
</div>

setting string aDicItem = umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("SignUp"); return an empty string.

Is the reason behind this problem due to my inability to connect to the umbraco.sdf from VS 2010?

Shouldn't be the reason, the data is coming from the cache anyway, which is built on app start and if you see your content then your cache is filled correctly.

Check and double check that the dictionary item is actually called SignUp with a capital S and a capital U:

Also be sure to restart your webserver just in case something in the cache went bad.

This

<divrunat="server">

 <%= umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("SignUpUrl") %>

</div>

does not return nothing.

I've also checked the Dictionary names.. They are as expected.

So if the above works, you're adding the dictionary items too late in the request pipeline I suppose, I haven't used usercontrols in AGES so I can't remember where to put them, probably in OnInit or something like that?

I attempted the following to see if Page_Init would make a difference. But it did not

        string aTestSample = string.Empty;

       protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            aTestSample = library.GetDictionaryItem("TellAFriend");

        }

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            try

            {

                //userFullNameInfo();

                string aTestSample2 = aTestSample;

            }       

            catch (ArgumentException ae)

            {

                throw ae;

            }

        }

I've checked an old project and in my codebehind I do this in the Page_Load, have you tried this? (change control's ID and type to yours of course):

            var loginButton = (Button)Login1.FindControl("LoginButton");
            loginButton.Text = umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("Login");

Guys, its my understanding that the language used by the dictionary item is retrived by the language bound on the hostname mapping. 

That means you can only have a one to one mapping between hostname and language.

Looking at your original post - It appears you are seperating your sites (language variations) by a node (i.e en, es etc) but from a hostname binding perspective they are all on the top level root.

Shamless plug :p its a problem I am encouting and trying to resolve on this thread http://our.umbraco.org/forum/using/ui-questions/25868-Advice-required-for-best-multilingual-approach

@Adam I think I have ran into a similar problem in the past and my solution was to run some code on every page that sets the current locale all the time, got it from here: http://our.umbraco.org/forum/developers/api-questions/11342-Umbraco-overriding-SystemThreadingThreadCurrentThreadCurrentCulture

Even if you don't set a hostname and language, the dictionary items will still look at the language that is in the current culture so that should not be the problem here. Besides, dictionary items are returning a value, just not in the control Paul is using.

Sebastiaan Janssen, I tried your recommendation:

                var SignUpLink = (HyperLink)LoginView1.FindControl("HyperLinkSignUp");

                SignUpLink.Text = umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("SignUp");

                SignUpLink.NavigateUrl = umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem("SignUpUrl");

@Paul Replied at almost the same time.. ;-)

Just to confirm, do you have a hostname set on the root of your site with a language that has a translation for HyperLinkSignUp, SignUp and SignUpUlr?

Yes Sir!

@Seb - Thanks! - That looks promising - I shall take a look.

@Paul - Might be worth taking a look at some of the code behind dictionary with reflector or on codeplex. Often find I revert to looking at umbraco source to figure out the solutions to problems like this!. (sorry - i know its a rubbish answer :P )

I'll take your advice. Thanks for trying!

All,

Upon much labour over the matter, I was able to get the LoginView to work using the umbraco dictionary items. If there is an interest on how I was able to do so, let me know.

Yes, I am VERY interested in how you got it to work, if only to help out the next person to search for this kind of thing. :-)

Since you asked.

The following may be used for a Navigation Div on a multi-language site. The macro contains a .NET User Control with an embedded LoginView control.

There are basically 3 sets of steps.

1. Do the following in Umbraco:

1. Assign Dictionary Items for each supported language. You will need one for each text associated with the link displayed and the url itself.
2. Assign Dictionary Items for each Url. For example - the dictionary item for the FAQ link will be FAQ [which will hold the language translations] and FAQUrl [which wll hold the urls to the translated pages for each language]. You cannot use a virtual link. That is you can not place a value like "~/frequently-asked-questions .aspx". You will have to use "/frequently-asked-questions.aspx" without the tilde "~". 
   
   2. Do the following in Visual Studio or whatever IDE in use:
3. Create a usercontrol for example HeaderNavigationWebUserControl.ascx containing a LoginView. 
4. I have included a sample Templated LoginView control below:
   
   
5.         <ul>
               <asp:LoginView ID="LoginView1" runat="server">
                   <AnonymousTemplate>
                       <li><asp:Label ID="lblFullNamePrompt" runat="server" /></li>
                       <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkSignUp" runat="server"></asp:Hyperlink></li>
                   </AnonymousTemplate>
                   <LoggedInTemplate>
                       <li><asp:Label ID="lblFullNamePrompt" runat="server" /></li>
                       <li><asp:Hyperlink ID="HyperLinkMyProfile" runat="server" ></asp:Hyperlink></li>
                   </LoggedInTemplate>
               </asp:LoginView>
               <li class="hide-border"><asp:LoginStatus ID="LoginStatus1" runat="server" LogoutPageUrl="~/Default.aspx" 
                       LogoutAction="Redirect" onloggedout="LoginStatus1_LoggedOut" onloggingout="LoginStatus1_LoggingOut" /></li>
          </ul>                        
6.  
7. In the partial class of the usercontrol  HeaderNavigationWebUserControl.ascx.cs add properties for all the links that will be visible on the page. For example:
   public partial class  HeaderNavigationWebUserControl : System.Web.UI.UserControl
       {
           public string DictionaryItemFAQ { get; set; }
           public string DictionaryItemFAQUrl { get; set; }
    .......
    
8. My usercontrol also has a LoginStatus control so I have Dictionary Items also specified for the Logout text and Login text.
9. I was not able to change the Login url associated with the LoginStatus control so I had to assign a UrlName for the Login in page for all supported languages to Login
10. Assign each property to the respective control using the language of choice. I did this in the page_Init method using C#. Here is an example code snippet:
    protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
    try
            {
                    var FAQLink = (HyperLink)this.FindControl("HyperLinkFAQ");
                    FAQLink.Text = umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem(DictionaryItemFAQ);
                    FAQLink.NavigateUrl = umbraco.library.GetDictionaryItem(DictionaryItemFAQUrl);
    ....... 
11. I added events for the Log out link of the LoginStatus control. See code below [This may be overkill].
    protected void LoginStatus1_LoggingOut(object sender, LoginCancelEventArgs e)
    {
                _currentMember = umbraco.cms.businesslogic.member.Member.GetCurrentMember();
                umbraco.cms.businesslogic.member.Member.RemoveMemberFromCache(_currentMember.Id); //Not sure if this is not overkill
            }
     
            protected void LoginStatus1_LoggedOut(object sender, EventArgs e)
            {
                FormsAuthentication.SignOut();
            }
12. Compile/Build you usercontrol and perform the steps to move the usercontrol and the solution dll to the respective folders of your umbraco site. UserControls in the usercontrols folder and the *.dll in the bin folder.
    
    
    3. Do the following in Umbraco: 
13. In umbraco, add a new macro. For simplicity, I called it Header Navigation. This will be used to reference your just added .NET User Control.
14. Click Save to save changes made to the macro.
15. click on the Browse Properties button beneath the .NET User Control entry textbox. 
16. This will reveal a Browse Propertise dialog containing all the properties you added to the HeaderNavigationWebUserControl.ascx.cs partial class in Visual Studio or whatever programming environment you used to creat the user control. The checkboxes to the left of them should be check.
17. Click on the Save properties button within the dialog 
18. A message confirming theaddition of those properties is presented along with a list of the properties just added.
19. Close the Browse Properties dialog and click
20. Click on the save icon on the Header Navigation macro page.
21. Click on the parameters tab on the Header Navigation macro. You should see all the listed properties as parameters. All have a datatype text.
22. Now within the Sections legend, click on Settings and open the Template folder to reveal the list of templates within your umbraco solution.
23. Select the template where you want to place the newly created macro.
24. Add the newly created macro and specify the Dictionary Items without the # [hash].
25. Save your changes. 
26. Test your macro for every language supported by your site. It should work as expected.

Thank you very much Paul for this elaborate explanation, how great of you to spend the time, you rock!!

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