OTA (Over-The-Air) Localization

Update translations in real-time without redeploying your application. LRM is the first and only OTA localization solution for .NET!

How It Works

1. Immediate start — Your app launches using embedded or local resources (no network delay)
2. Background sync — A background service fetches the latest translations from LRM Cloud
3. ETag caching — Efficient bandwidth usage; only downloads when content changes
4. Auto-refresh — Syncs automatically every 5 minutes (configurable)
5. Graceful fallback — Uses local resources if cloud is unreachable

Benefits

.NET SDK Available

The .NET SDK provides full OTA support through the LocalizationManager.JsonLocalization NuGet package.

Installation

dotnet add package LocalizationManager.JsonLocalization

Quick Setup

// Program.cs
builder.Services.AddJsonLocalizationWithOta(options =>
{
    options.UseOta(
        endpoint: "https://lrm-cloud.com",
        apiKey: "lrm_your_read_only_api_key",
        project: "@username/my-project"  // or "org/project"
    );

    // Optional: Configure refresh interval (default: 5 minutes)
    options.Ota!.RefreshInterval = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5);

    // Optional: Fall back to local resources when offline
    options.FallbackToLocal = true;
    options.ResourcesPath = "Resources";  // Local fallback path
});

Creating an API Key

1. Go to Project Settings → API Keys in LRM Cloud
2. Click "Create API Key"
3. Select "Read" scope (sufficient for OTA)
4. Copy the key (starts with lrm_)

Configuration Options

Supported Platforms

OTA works with the entire .NET ecosystem:

• ASP.NET Core (Web APIs, MVC, Razor Pages)
• Blazor (Server + WebAssembly)
• .NET MAUI (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS)
• Avalonia (Cross-platform desktop)
• WPF and WinForms
• Console applications
• Azure Functions / AWS Lambda
• Worker Services

Network Resilience

The OTA client includes built-in resilience features:

• Retry with exponential backoff — Automatically retries failed requests
• Circuit breaker — Stops requests after repeated failures, auto-recovers
• ETag caching — Efficient bandwidth usage, only fetches when changed
• Graceful fallback — Uses local resources when cloud is unavailable

Source Generator Compatibility

When using OTA with the LocalizationManager.JsonLocalization.Generator package:

• Generated classes work for compile-time keys
• New OTA keys use dynamic access: Strings.Localizer["NewKey"]

Coming Soon Future

We're working on OTA SDKs for additional platforms:

API Format

The OTA endpoint returns a JSON bundle containing all translations for a project:

Endpoint

GET /api/ota/{owner}/{project}/bundle
X-API-Key: lrm_your_api_key

Response Format

{
  "version": "2025-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
  "project": "@username/my-project",
  "defaultLanguage": "en",
  "languages": ["en", "fr", "de", "es"],
  "deleted": [],
  "translations": {
    "en": {
      "Welcome": "Welcome to our app!",
      "Greeting": "Hello, {0}!",
      "Items": {
        "one": "{0} item",
        "other": "{0} items"
      }
    },
    "fr": {
      "Welcome": "Bienvenue dans notre application!",
      "Greeting": "Bonjour, {0}!",
      "Items": {
        "one": "{0} article",
        "other": "{0} articles"
      }
    }
  }
}

ETag Caching

The API supports ETag-based caching for efficient polling:

// Initial request
GET /api/ota/@user/project/bundle
Response: 200 OK
ETag: "abc123"

// Subsequent request with If-None-Match
GET /api/ota/@user/project/bundle
If-None-Match: "abc123"
Response: 304 Not Modified (no body, bandwidth saved)

Sample Projects

Running the Demo

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nickprotop/LocalizationManager.git
cd LocalizationManager

# Run the OTA demo
cd samples/ConsoleApp.OtaDemo
dotnet run

The demo uses a MockOtaHandler that simulates the LRM Cloud API, so you can explore all OTA features without needing a real server connection.