Access resx resource files from another project

Question

I\'m using asp.net 3.5, my solution currently has 2 projects, an API class project and a website project, within the class project I have a resource file named checkin.resx.

Answer 1

Resource expressions (<%$ Resources: ClassKey, ResourceKey %>) use ResourceExpressionBuilder class behind the scene. This class can lookup global and local resources only (in website's App_GlobalResources and App_LocalResources folders).

Instead, you can use CodeExpressionBuilder class to access resources from different project. Here's how to use it.

Add CodeExpressionBuilder class to App_Code folder:

using System.CodeDom;
using System.Web.Compilation;
using System.Web.UI;

[ExpressionPrefix("Code")]
public class CodeExpressionBuilder : ExpressionBuilder
{
   public override CodeExpression GetCodeExpression(BoundPropertyEntry entry,
      object parsedData, ExpressionBuilderContext context)
   {
      return new CodeSnippetExpression(entry.Expression);
   }
}

Add the following to system.web/compilation section in web.config:

<compilation debug="false">
   ...
   <expressionBuilders>
      <add expressionPrefix="Code" type="CodeExpressionBuilder"/>
   </expressionBuilders>
</compilation>

Finally, you can call into strongly-typed class generated for your .resx file:

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="<%$ Code: ClassLibrary1.Resource1.String1 %>" />

Answer 2

Not sure if this will solve your problem but have you looked at the HttpContext.GetGlobalResourceObject method?

I've used it to access resources in the web project, from class libraries in a framework project - so perhaps you will have luck in using it the other way around.