how to use resources manually in C#(no IDE act)?

Question

I\'m learning C# with visual studio and i want to go a little deeper.

I want to know about how to use project resources manually? Not by IDE. I searched the site but I j

Answer 1

well finally i found the answer of my question . i really didn't get the correct and the best answer from searching the internet and asking questions .

its all about resources , everything from outside used in a projection must go through these steps :

1. imported/downloaded to project folder.

(it's really common to put the files to a Resource folder as a projection sub-folder)

2. defined/submitted/converted to a local or global projection's .resx file.

(.resx file is a XML)

3. get a handle from C#.net to be accessible .

(from .resx designer file)

(this is done by defining - usually as a property - in the global or local C#.net .resx designer)

if we assume local .resx as a personal backpack for classes and projection(global) .resx file as a public drawer , every classes provide their resources from their own backpack and the public drawer . by conventional direct procedure of providing resources , Visual Studio IDE don't let the classes use other classes resources . but if you go a little further into .resx files and the designer files this would be possible .

first let me explain how a class can use other classes resources .

when you import files into a local .resx a hard encoded copy of the files imported into the XML of the .resx. you can access XML of the local .resx file if you open the .resx file with a XML-editor .

for example if you imported an icon file into a form you will see these codes in the XML related to the icon :

(to access the XML-editor in VS just easily right-click the .resx file and click open with then choose XML-editor)

<data name="$this.Icon" type="System.Drawing.Icon, System.Drawing"
 mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.bytearray.base64">
<value>
AAABAAkAMDAAAAEACACoDgAAlgAAACAgAAABAAgAqAgAAEAPAAAYGAAAAQAIAMgGAAD
oFwAAEBAAAAEACABoBQAAsB4AAAAAAAABACAA510BABgkAAAwMAAAAQAgAKglAAAAggEAICAA
AAEAIACoEAAAqKcBABgYAAABACAAiAkAAFC4AQAQEAAAAQAgAGgEAADYwQEAKAAAADAAAABgAAA
AAQAIAAAAAAAACQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAEAAAAAAAAZHBQAHR4ZABgkFAAaKRYAHyAaAB0rGQ
AeMBkAIiQcACQpHgAiNBwAJDkeACUn
.
.
.
+Pn5D/j5+Q/4+fkP+Pn5D/j5+Q/4+fkP+Pn5D/j5+Q/4+fk
P+Pn5D/j5+Q/4+fkPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP//AAD//wAA4AMAAAABA
AAAAAAAAAEAAAADAAAAAwAAAAMAAAADAAAAAwAAAAMAAAADAAAAAwAA
</value>
</data>

the file encoded , you can see VS gives it a name ($this.Icon) and specify its type and mimetype there . so these property's now is changeable

for accessing resources in designer or constructor files an object of System.Resources.ResourceManager must be created . the constructor of ResourceManager has two overload , one of them just use resourceSource type as the input parameter . it has to be the resource type of the host of resources . one can get it like this :

typeof(Form1) ;

so creating a ResourceManager object :

System.Resources.ResourceManager resource = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(typeof(Form1))

the object resource now has a GetObject() method to access .resx imported files by their name , for example for the icon :

((System.Drawing.Icon)(resources.GetObject("$this.Icon")))

if you open the designer file of the form you can see the codes for the icon of the form :

this.Icon = ((System.Drawing.Icon)(resources.GetObject("$this.Icon")));

resource is a ResourceManager object created in the base form class by the IDE so you can use it here in the designer file easily .

if you want to use for example the icon of form1 in form2 you can refer to it like this :

this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(284, 262);
**this.Icon = (System.Drawing.Icon)((new System.Resources.ResourceManager(typeof(Form1))).GetObject("$this.Icon"));***
this.Name = "Form2";
this.Text = "Form2";
this.ResumeLayout(false);

(look carefully the line started with **)

maybe its better to defined it as a public static property in the form constructor to avoid too much typing of nestings :

public static System.Drawing.Icon icon
{
  get
  {
     return (System.Drawing.Icon)((new System.Resources.ResourceManager(typeof(Form1))).GetObject("$this.Icon"));
  }
}

so in the form2 designer :

this.Icon = Form1.icon ;

so far using resources of other classes revealed now lets talk about defining and using global projections resources manually !

there's no hard-copy of the imported files in a global .resx file . there's just a reference to it .

for example you imported icon with the IDE , it creates a Resource sub-folder and put the file in it . now if you open properties in the solution manager and open the Resource.resx with a XML editor (Right-Click > Open With > XML editor) you can see this code :

<assembly alias="System.Windows.Forms" name="System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
<data name="PerfCenterCpl" type="System.Resources.ResXFileRef, System.Windows.Forms">
<value>..\Resources\icon.ico;System.Drawing.Icon, System.Drawing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a</value>
</data>

you can see above in the value it specified its reference address and its type and even its type version ! and its culture type and really interesting it has a key !

from its address , it seems files just added to projection for integrity . global resources can be every where in the projection folder , in the computer , in the network or in the internet !

it has a unique key ! seems we can access resources by their key in the project too !

now its time for resource to gets its handle if you open Resource.resx in the solution manager and open the Resource Designer you can see it gets its handle by a property :

       internal static System.Drawing.Icon icon {
        get {
            object obj = ResourceManager.GetObject("icon", resourceCulture);
            return ((System.Drawing.Icon)(obj));
        }
       }

so the resource is accessible with Properties.Resources.icon and doesnt need any type casting :

this.Icon = Properties.Resources.icon ;

now if further processes on the resources needed , global resources can be a method accepting input parameters !

in my problem i give the resource a handle but there isn't any resource reference in the XML