Making sense of JavaScript - Build Windows 8 Apps with HTML5 and JavaScript - page 94

Be ready for localization
Having the application ready for international markets may be a key to your success (or it might be
just for your own enjoyment if you're approaching Windows 8 development with a light spirit).
In general, localization is an important factor for applications published to a public store, as is the
case with Windows 8 applications.

In JavaScript code for web applications, you don't get a lot of built-in help with localization issues.
Thankfully, in Windows 8 development, you get significant support from the WinJs library. At the end
of the day, all you need to do is mark any elements whose content you want localized with a special
attribute. Next, you need only add a localized resource file to the application for each language you
intend to support.

The Windows 8 runtime will take care of automatically selecting the right content from the right
resource file according to the currently set locale.

Note If you are at all familiar with C# and general Windows development, this overall
pattern should be nothing new. It's precisely the old good pattern of Windows localization,
just adapted to the new Windows 8 API.

Summary

This chapter offered a quick tour of the JavaScript language and discussed taking an approach
unbiased by Windows 8 or web slants (to the extent that's possible). You reviewed the basics of the
language and outlined a few common-sense patterns for effective development.

Quite honestly, this chapter, as well as the preceding two chapters on HTML and CSS, can only
serve the purpose of refreshing or perhaps clarifying some existing knowledge of the subjects. HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript each deserve a topic of their own to be fully explained and learned step by step.
In case you feel you need a more speciic resource, seek out the following Microsoft Press topics.

For rank beginners:

Start Here!™ Learn HTML5 by Faithe Wempen (Microsoft Press, 2012)

■

Start Here!™ Learn JavaScript by Steve Suehring (Microsoft Press, 2012) ■

For those with some experience, or as a more in-depth follow-up to the previous topics:

HTML5 Step by Step by Faithe Wempen (Microsoft Press, 2011) ■

JavaScript Step by Step by Steve Suehring (Microsoft Press, 2013) ■

It is key to note that this chapter covered mostly plain JavaScript. And JavaScript is, for the most
part, a language used in HTML pages. And HTML pages are essentially web-based resources.