How to get localized street map/imagery data & geocoding?

Question

Hi,
 
We want to make our product that uses the Silverlight ArcGIS API localized.  We know how to set the thread culture and put resources into different resource files for our own content, but the map is of course reading streetmaps and imagery data from arcGISonline (for example http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Street_Map/MapServer and
http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer)
 
1) How do we get this street and imagery data to show localized street names, city names, etc.?  We already tried setting the thread's currentUICulture, as well as the browser's language setting, but neither works.
 
2) Same question for geocoding, but this is a little more complex maybe, because we also have to send address data to the svc, and such information formatting is locale-sensitive I would think.
We're using the Locator task with the following URL:
http://tasks.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Locators/TA_Address_NA/GeocodeServer
 
For example, is there a way to get that Geocoder to work in French (perhaps for folks in Montreal?)
 
BTW, I know that in some cases I might need to use a different geocoder URL for coverage-related reasons.  For example, in europe I might need to use this URL:
http://tasks.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Locators/TA_Address_EU/GeocodeServer
But there are many different languages used by the EU! 
 
Thanks!

AndySanford · Answer

Hi,
 
Does ESRI have any answers or feedback to my last post?  Writing an app that can be localized is very important to us.
 
Thanks!
 
-Andy

AndySanford · Answer

You're right, my Turin example was giving an address a bit off from the desired city. Yes, it seems this geocoder says it accepts the following values for country:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisonline/content/index.html#/European_country_codes/011q0000001s000000/
 
I didn't see that it mentioned the language of the street/etc. fields. Do you know if these geocoders document their locale requirements anywhere?
 
This is very confusing, to have the different input parameters being specified in different languages. Yikes! I would have expected there was some additional parameter that specifies the input language/locale (like the bing maps example you gave.) I wouldn't think a user would want to operate in a mixed language mode; and ideally, the value of a localized geocoder would be that it understood not only the language but also the locale-specific formatting of addresses, etc. 
 
Anyhow, thanks for your help! It looks like for now there just isn't good localization support for the tiles and geocoding.
 
Regards,
-Andy

DominiqueBroux · Answer

I guess it's depending on the way the geocoder stores the addresses.
 
With the example you gave : http://tasks.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Locators/TA_Address_EU/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates?Address=&City=Turin&Postcode=&Country=Italy&outFields=&outSR=&f=html it's not really working by giving 'Turin' in English. You don't get the expected 'Torino' city in the first choices. It's better by giving 'Torino' http://tasks.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Locators/TA_Address_EU/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates?Address=&City=Torino&Postcode=&Country=Italy&outSR=&f=html

It looks like with this geocoder, the country is in English and then the City and StreetNames in locale.
 
You can verify that by looking at the output fields :
http://tasks.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Locators/TA_Address_EU/GeocodeServer/findAddressCandidates?Address=Sebastopoli+123&City=Torino&Postcode=&Country=Italy&outFields=*&outSR=&f=html
 
That being said, I am not sure I helped you. I guess you would need either a geocoder storing the country in locale language or a way to translate the country names from locale to english. Sorry no clue for these points:confused: