The Language SkinObject explained

This blog is long overdue. In DotNetNuke 04.06.00 the language skinobject was beefed up to be much more versatile. Apart from just a dropdown menu, it can also display links to languages. Even though Lorraine blogged about the new appearance, there is much more to the skinobject than meets the eyes!

The skinobject supports 2 display modes: dropdown menu and template based repeater (you can even use both at the same time). Apart from that, there is a common header and a common footer available (both templatable).

All templates of the skinobject use the DNN core TokenReplace functionality as template engine. This means that you can control visible appearance of the language skin object to a great extent.

First, let us look at all attributes of the skinobject:

Attribute Name	Functionality	Allowed values	Default Value
CssClass	String attribute, used to style the language dropdown list	Any valid CSS Class name	[empty]
ShowMenu	Boolean attribute, used to either display or hide the dropdown menu	Tue, False	True
ShowLinks	Boolean attribute, used to either display or hide the language links repeater	True, False	False
CommonHeaderTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as common header	Any valid string	[empty]
HeaderTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as repeater header	Any valid string
ItemTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as repeater item	Any valid string	<a href="[URL]" class="Language" title="[CULTURE:NATIVENAME]"><img src="[I][FLAGSRC]" alt="[CULTURE:NATIVENAME]" border="0" /></a>
AlternateTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as alternate repeater item	Any valid string	[empty]
SeparatorTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as repeater separator item	Any valid string
FooterTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as repeater footer item	Any valid string	[empty]
CommonFooterTemplate	String attribute for template to be used as common footer	Any valid string	[empty]

In order to facilitate the display of cultures, a CulturePropertyAccess class was created, which is used to render the name of a culture based on the different display attributes of the .NET CultureInfo class. Inside the different template you can use the following CULTURE token properties to display the name of a culture:

[CULTURE:DISPLAYNAME]	Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in the language of the localized version of .NET Framework.
[CULTURE:ENGLISHNAME]	Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in English.
[CULTURE:LCID]	Gets the culture identifier for the current CultureInfo
[CULTURE:NAME]	Gets the culture name in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>".
[CULTURE:NATIVENAME]	Gets the culture name, consisting of the language, the country/region, and the optional script, that the culture is set to display.
[CULTURE:TWOLETTERISOCODE]	Gets the ISO 639-2 three-letter code for the language of the current CultureInfo
[CULTURE:THREELETTERISOCODE]	Gets the ISO 639-1 two-letter code for the language of the current CultureInfo

(Descriptions copied from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.cultureinfo_members.aspx)

By the way: the CULTURE token is available throughout DotNetNuke in every module that supports TokenReplace

The following tokens are also supported inside the Language skinobject template:

[URL]	This will generate the correct URL for the current page in a specific culture
[FLAGSRC]	The name of a flag image (.gif only) for a specific culture, in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>.gif".
[SELECTED]	Returns “True” if a specific culture is the current culture.
[LABEL]	Inserts the Label text from the resource file.
[I]	Returns the directory that holds the core country flag images (/images/Flags)
[P]	Returns the portal directory
[S]	Returns the directory of the current skin
[G]	Returns the global (host) skin folder

Some samples:

Display	Code (ascx)	Description
	<dnn:LANGUAGE runat="server" ID="dnnLANGUAGE" ShowMenu="False" ShowLinks="True" />	Default configuration in default DotNetNuke skin.
	<dnn:LANGUAGE runat="server" ID="dnnLANGUAGE" ShowLinks="False" ShowMenu="True" />	Displays only dropdownlist
	<dnn:LANGUAGE runat="server" ID="dnnLANGUAGE" ShowLinks="False" ShowMenu="True" CommonFooterTemplate=' <img src="[I][FLAGSRC]" alt="[CULTURE:NATIVENAME]" border="0" />' />	Displays dropdownlist and flag of currently selected language
	<dnn:LANGUAGE runat="server" ID="dnnLANGUAGE" ShowLinks="True" ShowMenu="False" ItemTemplate='<a href="[URL]" class="Language" title="[CULTURE:NATIVENAME]"><span class="Language[SELECTED]">[CULTURE:NAME]</span></a>'/>	Displays text links for languages. Selected language has different classname

Comments

I want the names of the language without the region/culture, e.g. "Deutsch", "English", "Français" etc. How can I achieve this?

Best wishes
Michael

Michael Tobisch Wednesday, July 24, 2013 10:29 AM (link)

This list has not the attribute SelectedItemTemplate. Without it, a flag is always displayed if you enter a template in ItemTemplate. Set this to replace the flags with text:

Tobias Wiklund Tuesday, February 18, 2014 3:40 AM (link)

Yes, I don't understand why is there no SelectedItemTemplate? I am trying to turn the languages into an unordered list and it would work great...except for the selected language...it is always a span mixed in with my list items. It's really making something that should be simple rather difficult.

L P Friday, March 7, 2014 9:50 AM (link)

I want's same as micahel

Kamran Shahid Thursday, May 8, 2014 1:28 PM (link)

Like Michael in the first comment, I also want only the " without the ()
but I don't see an option for this in the CULTURE: token properties above.

Tom Van Wynen Wednesday, October 1, 2014 9:39 AM (link)

sorry, the form stripped out the content I had between the quotes and parentheses.
languagefull without (country/regionfull)
Actually, I want the language name in the local script but don't know if that is even possible. I am getting that now on my current site with the old Apollo Multilingual system.

Tom Van Wynen Thursday, October 2, 2014 10:25 AM (link)

who are asking how to show only test of the language i've searched alot but i found away by my self , when i change the ItemTemplate changed only for the new localized language and didn't for the defualt one so go to admin/skins/app_localizedresources select
and change
AlternateTemplate.Default (this is for other language ) i made it like :
العربية
and
ItemTemplate.Default (this is for default ) i made it like :
English
Language.ascx.resx

Regard's

abdullah tahan Thursday, April 30, 2015 9:19 AM (link)

For anyone who is having the flag problem, you have to go to the language.ascx.resx file under admin > Skins > App_localResources.

Then Ctrl+F to find data name = ItemTemplate. This is where it sets the default for each of these attributes and it overrides whatever you put in your ascx file for itemTemplate, and that's why you're getting flags instead of whatever you put.

If you look at the other ones who don't have anything set they just put 'value / inside of the data name one and that'll just get rid of the default so you're stuff will go through.

I didn't use html brackets in this comment because they don't show up in comments, but you get the drift.

Amy Montgomery Friday, March 2, 2018 10:14 PM (link)

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