Blazor globalization inconsistency between WASM and Server

[guardrex]

Describe the bug

Working on updates to the Blazor Glob/Loc topic on dotnet/AspNetCore.Docs#22525. cc: @hishamco

Either I've hit a bug or a personal knowledge gap: Globalization of a number isn't consistent across Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly.

• If a knowledge gap that I have, then I'll address this behavior in the topic's updates.
• If a bug, then here it is.

To Reproduce

Blazor WebAssembly (✔️ Working-as-expected Case)

1. Create a new Blazor WebAssembly app from the project template.

2. Add CultureExample1 component to the app's Pages folder:

   @page "/culture-example-1"
   @using System.Globalization
   @using System.Threading
   
   <h1>Culture Example 1</h1>
   
   <!-- 
       Updated code here, but screenshot is this comment will be left as-is.
       I'll add a screenshot of this output at the end of this issue.
   -->
   <ul>
       <li><b>CultureInfo.CurrentCulture</b>: @CultureInfo.CurrentCulture</li>
       <li><b>CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture</b>: @CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture</li>
       <li><b>Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture</b>: @Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture</li>
       <li><b>Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture</b>: @Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture</li>
   </ul>
   
   <h2>Rendered values</h2>
   
   <ul>
       <li><b>Date</b>: @dt</li>
       <li><b>number</b>: @number.ToString("N2")</li>
   </ul>
   
   @code {
       private DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
       private double number = 1999.69;
   }

3. Run the app. Use a browser with Peruvian Spanish (es-PE) as the first language choice:

   

   The date AND number are globalized (i.e., in Spanish: date is day-month format + 24-hour clock & number has a comma decimal and period separator). ✔️ All good. ✔️

Blazor Server (❌ Inconsistent/Not-working-as-expected Case)

1. Create a new Blazor Server app from the project template.

2. Add loc services:

   services.AddLocalization();

3. Add loc middleware to the pipeline immediately after Routing Middleware:

   app.UseRequestLocalization(new RequestLocalizationOptions()
       .AddSupportedCultures(new[] { "en-US", "es-PE" })
       .AddSupportedUICultures(new[] { "en-US", "es-PE" }));

4. Add the same CultureExample1 component ☝️ to the app's Pages folder.

5. Run the app. Use a browser with Peruvian Spanish (es-PE) as the first language choice:

The date is globalized ✔️, BUT the number isn't ❌ (i.e., the number doesn't have a comma decimal and period separator).

Is this the expected outcome, or is this a 🐞? If expected behavior, why? ... because I'll need to address this delta in the doc.

Exceptions (if any)

None

Further technical details

• ASP.NET Core version

  5.0.6

• Include the output of dotnet --info

  .NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
   Version:   5.0.300
   Commit:    2e0c8c940e
  
  Runtime Environment:
   OS Name:     Windows
   OS Version:  10.0.19043
   OS Platform: Windows
   RID:         win10-x64
   Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.300\
  
  Host (useful for support):
    Version: 5.0.6
    Commit:  478b2f8c0e
  
  .NET SDKs installed:
    3.1.302 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
    5.0.202 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
    5.0.300 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  
  .NET runtimes installed:
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.28 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.28 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
    Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
    Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.28 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
    Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.2.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
    Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
    Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
    Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
    Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
    Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
    Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  

• The IDE (VS / VS Code/ VS4Mac) you're running on, and its version

  Visual Studio 16.10.0

[hishamco]

As I told you before there was unexpected behavior that I faced long time ago when I was working with localization I Oqtane Framework. Could you please share a minimal repo or a zip file contains the example that you test, I may have a look

[guardrex]

@hishamco ... I put it up here 👉 https://github.com/guardrex/BlazorServerLoc2.

That's a Blazor Server app created from the project template with the updates that I outlined in my opening comment ☝️.

When I set Opera to issue an Accept-Language header with Peruvian Spanish first, the date appears correctly and as expected ... the number doesn't globalize ❌ (period decimal, comma separator). The same setup in WASM works ✔️: date and number (comma decimal, period separator) are globalized.

[hishamco]

Hope the dependencies in my local coz we are suffering from ISP issue for todays with NuGet feed

[hishamco]

Sorry we are suffer few days ago from ISP, it blocks NuGet feed for unexpected reason. I will respond one everything is working

[guardrex]

I won't merge the docs PR until either this is resolved or it becomes apparent that this is going to take some time to figure out. If we don't want to hold up the doc updates, we can put a NOTE in the topic's Globalization section for the time being. I'm also not sure if Pranav has time to look at that. I just mentioned offline to management that we might end up going ahead with that PR on the basis of just your review. No worries if that's the case. Devs will sharpen their 🔪 for ME 😨 if part of the guidance is crappy 😆.

[hishamco]

I just setup Free VPN to make things work, I just clone your repo, there's a single project I expect to see both WASM & Server-Side versions

[hishamco]

BTW there's an exception when I run the app directly from CLI, anyhow confirm if you can provide both projects into a single solution or I will have a look to this one after fixing the issue

[guardrex]

It works with Blazor WASM. The problem seems to be isolated to Blazor Server.

Besides, there's nothing to do for a Blazor WASM app. Just add the CultureExample1 component and use a browser with Peruvian Spanish (es-PE) as the first language choice (highest q) in the Accept-Language header. For Blazor WASM, both the date and the number globalize ok as expected.

Pages/CultureExample1.razor:

@page "/culture-example-1"
@using System.Globalization

<h1>Culture Example 1</h1>

<p>
    <b>CurrentCulture</b>: @CultureInfo.CurrentCulture
</p>

<h2>Rendered values</h2>

<ul>
    <li><b>Date</b>: @dt</li>
    <li><b>number</b>: @number.ToString("N2")</li>
</ul>

@code {
    private DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
    private double number = 1999.69;
}

[guardrex]

BTW there's an exception when I run the app directly from CLI

What's the error?

I'll try it here now and see what happens. brb

[guardrex]

The app runs here ... and exhibits the behavior. This is Opera with Peruvian Spanish as the first language ...

I screwed up the stylesheet putting it up on GH. Anyway ... that doesn't matter.

Here's the header ...

[javiercn]

@guardrex thanks for filing this issue.

This indeed feels like a bug, I'm not sure if its something in the localization middleware or something on the way the number is formatted.

Can you print a few things in your sample:
CultureInfo.CurrentCulture
CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture

Can you also show the prerendered vs non-prerendered version on Blazor Server?

You seem to be doing the right things, so I'm not sure if we are missing something on the setup. We don't play a role in how numbers are formatted, so if all these are the same, then its a runtime issue I believe.

Thanks for contacting us.

We're moving this issue to the Next sprint planning milestone for future evaluation / consideration. We would like to keep this around to collect more feedback, which can help us with prioritizing this work. We will re-evaluate this issue, during our next planning meeting(s).
If we later determine, that the issue has no community involvement, or it's very rare and low-impact issue, we will close it - so that the team can focus on more important and high impact issues.
To learn more about what to expect next and how this issue will be handled you can read more about our triage process here.

[guardrex]

With prerendering ...

Without prerendering (render-mode="Server") ... same result ...

[javiercn]

@guardrex thanks for the additional details.

Are you able to get this to render the correct value on a console app? At this point I think we are doing everything correctly here, so it sounds like a runtime issue?

[guardrex]

Yes, it repros in a console app ...

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    CultureInfo.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("es-PE");
    Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
    Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now);
    Console.WriteLine(1999.69.ToString("N2"));
}