NLS resources fail to load on Windows apps

[Paul Christopher]

Broken out from #16432...

NLS files do not load correctly for Windows 8 applications using dojo.

For the test case in #16432, the i18n code tries to load dojo/cldr/nls/gregorian. injectUrl() inserts this into the document:

<script src="/js/dojo/cldr/nls/gregorian.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Then def() a.k.a. define() gets called, but with the contents of dojo/cldr/nls/en/gregorian.js.

It appears to be due to the NLS support built in to the platform, see ​http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/Library/Windows/Apps/hh965372.aspx.

It can be demonstrated more simply via:

require(["dojo/cldr/nls/gregorian"], function(gregorian){ ... });

That will fail looking for a non-existant dojo/cldr/nls/en-us/gregorian.js file.

[Adam Peller]

I don't have access to a windows 8 system and the MSDN ref is unclear to me. Is it doing some file I/O magic simply because there's /en/ in the path? Windows 8 doesn't require any sort of manifest before it makes substitutions? That sounds pretty broken.

[bill]

There is an auto-generated manifest but it doesn't mention anything about mappings. AFAICT it's automatic.

I didn't mean for this to necessarily get assigned to you. I wrote ​http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winappswithhtml5/thread/5187b1b1-9582-4ea0-a329-80055b7cbb13 to see if anyone has any ideas, but nothing so far.

I'm sure an app developer could workaround the issue by doing a build that included all the resource files, or at least all the root files.

Unfortunately more transparent solutions like <script src="..." lang=""> don't seem to work.

[Paul Christopher]

Bill, should I file a ticket on that on Microsoft's bug tracker and ask for a parameter/tag that turns off automatic file mapping? Or can we workaround that? I couldn't find a way to switch off Microsoft's automatic i18n file remapping functionality...

[Adam Peller]

Paul, the docs weren't clear to me, but if that's what's happening, it's bound to break existing apps and should be reported as a bug. This mapping should be off by default, IMO.

[bill]

I wouldn't classify it as a bug (after all, it's a documented feature), but sure, try filing a ticket, maybe that will help get a response about how to disable this behavior.

[Paul Christopher]

Filed now a ticket, see ​https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/774199/wwahost-no-way-to-bypass-resource-path-mapping

[bill]

Presumably you could work around the issue by putting the root locale file (ex: dojo/cldr/nls/gregorian) into the build, and maybe also the specific locale that you are using. See also #16761.

[dylan]

Given no response from MS, I don't see a way to fix this beyond the suggestions made earlier in the ticket. So it looks like we'll close it as patchwelcome, should a solution emerge in the future.

[dylan]

Given that no one has shown interest in creating a patch in the past 2+ years, I'm closing this as patchwelcome.