I have five projects in my solution. Each of them uses some icons (many of these icons are the same in the different projects) and I want to store them in one place.
I tried to use separate project for storing icons, but I got fiasco..
When I use icon from other project (project which contains all icons) Visual Studio automatically copied this icons to the form.resx file.
Explanation:
By the first I can't attach icon (from other project) to my button from designer. Therefore I must to go to the form.designer.cs and manually attach the icon to the button. After these operations VS rebuilt the auto-generated part in form.designer.cs replaced my code with own and copied the icon to the form.resx file.
//my code
this.btnCompile.Image = SharedProject.Properties.Resources.compile;
//code replaced with VS
this.btnCompile.Image = ( (System.Drawing.Image)( resources.GetObject( "compile.Image" ) ) );
You can see that image was copied to local project to the resources. In this case to change button's image is insufficient to replace only my image (compilation.png) in shared project. I need to replace also it in each form where it used.
Question: How to manage icons in solution to avoid duplication and this big inconvenience?
I've solved exactly the same problem but with one limitation. Let's see two possibilities:
1) You want to have ability to update all images by overriding one folder with images in app folder.
You can use Service as #Farzin Zaker suggested. The drawback of that solution is you have to dynamically set up images to controls and in design mode you will not see control with correct images.
2) You want to use Designer.
In that case you have to add those images as resources. The trick is to make VS use relative path to images from the specified folder. By default VS copies all resource files to project Resources folder. But if VS sees that in Resources folder "registered" other file with the same name VS stores in .resx relative path to image. So If you want to add the same image in two project you have to:
- Create folder Resources
- Add image as existing item (as link): in VS you will see the link to image, set action to None
- Add image to project resources section.
You can design a Service project witch will serve Icons or other resources for your other projects. you should just implement an interface like this in your application :
public interface IResourceProvider
{
Image RetrieveIcon(string key);
//you can add other resource types here.
}
then implement this interface in a new class and return related Icon to each key passed to its methods. here you need to browse resx file of this project for requested Icon (Resource)
then in you application you should just call your ResourceProvider class to priovide required resource Items.
Related
I have a Visual Studio 2017 solution, which is split in several C#-WinForm applications.
To have a similar user interface I put all the icons/pictures into one project (ResourceProject) and marked the resource file public.
By directly editing the .Designer-file of a Form I can now explicitly assign the Image to something from the resource file of the ResourceProject by stating
button1.Image = ResourceProject.Properties.Resources.DemoPic
However, from time to time, the designer overwrites this with
button1.Image = ((System.Drawing.Image)resources.GetObject("button1.Image")));
and creates a local resource file, which has the image embedded.
This is exactly what I wanted to avoid in the first place, since I might want to alter easily some icons later on and have those changes directly spread over all projects.
The only way to avoid it seems to be to assign the images not in the Designer file but in some other method in the actual form file.
Is there any other way around this problem?
You should not change designer.cs file, it's auto-generated and any change which you make in the file will be replaced with auto-generated code the next time which you change something in the form.
But to share image resources between multiple projects in a solution with design-time support, you can follow these steps:
Create a class library project, let's call it ResourceLibrary.
Add a Resx resource file to the root folder of the project with this name Resources.Resx.
Open the resource designer and change its Access Modifier to Public. (It will set its Custom Tool to PublicResXFileCodeGenerator)
Add a few images to the resource designer and save it.
Then in the Windows forms project do the following settings:
Add a reference to ResourceLibrary.
Right click on windows forms project and choose Add → Existing item...
Browse to the ResourceLibrary folder and choose Resources.Resx file.
Click on drop-down arrow of the Open button, and choose Add As Link.
Select Resource.Resx which has added to windows forms project and choose properties.
Set its Build Action to None
Set its Custom Tool to a text like None
Set its Custom Tool Namespace to the namespace of the resource in the other assembly: ResourceLibrary.
Rebuild the project.
Then for all the image properties you can choose the other resource file from drop-down in the Select Resource dialog. The code generation will generate correct code for the property and you have a correct build and it works as expected at design-time as well as run-time.
You can clone or download a working example here:
Repository
Download
I have built a custom User Control in Visual Studio (Win Forms).
This User Control requires a .json file to be deployed along with it.
Short Version: How is this possible?
Long Version:
When I am testing the User Control from with the Control designer itself, it works no problem.
This would be because I have set the following:
Build Action to Content and;
Copy To Output Directory - Copy if Newer
So when I'm debugging it, everything is there, as I expect it to be.
The problem occurs when I create a separate Win Forms application, and add this newly designed control to the Palette by:
Right click Toolbox->Choose Items->Browse->Browse to the Project Directory of the Control->Select the DLL->OK
It show up on my Palette, but the problem is of course when I drop the User Control onto the form itself. It has no means of getting "MyFile.json" from User Control Application/Dll to the Current Project.
How do I make this work?
Chud
One easy way is to build your json file as a EmbeddedResource instead of Content. That way it will be embedded into the UserControl's binary (the dll file itself). You can then use ResourceManager class to read it in your code.
If you're going to change the content of json file at runtime, you can instead create an application setting of string type that stores the actual json content. This setting can then be read/written easily using ProjectName.Properties.Settings.Default.YourSettingName.
Also note that if you have set your json file's Build Action to Content and Copy to Output Directory to Always Copy, and you add a reference to this project from another project that also exists in that solution, the content file (json file) should get copied to the bin folder correctly. But if your UserControl project does not exist in the current solution, or you're referencing your control through Browse button, you'll not get your content files. This may not seem obvious, but once you think about it, you'll understand that VS cannot figure out what dependencies does a DLL file has if you simply add a file reference.
In the latter case, a setting is the cheapest solution (described above) that you can use.
I have multiple projects in a solution and I'd like them all to share one pool of graphics resources. I've tried this:
1 - Created project1, made its resource file public, added some graphics to it.
2 - Created project2, Alt+dragged Resources.resx from project1\Properties to project2 (not in the Properties folder)
3 - Add reference in project2 to project1
So, now all the images from project1 are available in project2. So far, so good. I can use them at design time just fine.
But, when I want to access them at runtime, I try this (in project2)...
Image img = project1.Properties.Resources.image14;
And that crashes with a MissingManifestResourceException.
What am I doing wrong here? Is there a better way I could approach this? All I'm trying to do is maintain all my graphics in one place, so if I add a resource, it becomes available to all projects in the solution.
Just built an example following these steps:
Create a class library do hold the resources (Project 1)
Create the consumer project (Project 2)
Add a resource file (GlobalResources.resx) in the Project 1 and add a resource item Information
Change the BuildAction of the resource file to Embedded Resource
Change the Do not copy of the resource file to False
Check if the Custom Tool of the resource file is set to PublicResXFileCodeGenerator
Add a reference to the class library (Project 1) to the consumer project (Project2).
Add the resource namespace reference wherever you want to use it.
Finally it is working: GlobalResources.Information
It should be simple.
Edit:
You are concerned about using an external resource file inside the design time property editor. Sorry to inform that there is no standard support for this :(
However, if you think that the benefits are greater than the effort:
Issue with shared WinForms resources across projects in Visual Studio
How do I get the Windows Forms Designer to use resources from external assembly?
Hope it helps.
Choose the referenced file in your solution explorer, then properties, then see what the "copy to output" property looks like. I suspect it's not set to "Copy Always" or "Copy if Newer" of which either should be fine.
Once it's being copied, let's also check to see where it's being copied. Is the output path for that particular item the same as where the program ultimately expects? Is it being copied to the bin\Debug of the correct project?
Make sure it's being copied to the path where the MissingManifestResourceException says it's failed to find the resource.
Finally, given additional information in our comments, I would also suggest you verify the following:
culture the resources are targeting. Check spelling and capitalization.
any culture settings of your build xml or publish xml.
culture setting(s?) of your host system that's running this code.
I'm trying to add images to my tree nodes (ImageList.Add()), but just can't figure out a nice way of doing it.
I've read from MSDN help I should use System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(path). But cannot just get a file somewhere.
I'm building a DLL, and want it to be a single file, no bitmaps being copied together with it.
So I've read I should add Image files to the project and mark them with Build Action as "Resource".
Ok, but where do I get them??? I saw people using it in XAML files, but I don't have that.
Saw people using Resources.SomeName, but can't find those Resources class.
So....How do I do it?? I've got the files marked as resources, just need to add them to the ImageList.
By the way, I'd love to use the path relative to the Code File that is adding the images to the ImageList. But if not possible, just relative to the assembly root.
If you want to use file paths, for items that are in your project, you must set the "Copy to Output Directory" property to "Copy Always" or "Copy if newer", otherwise it won't be in the bin folder, and then you'll be trying to pass a path to a file that doesn't exist. Build action isn't all that important in this scenario.
If you want to use compiled resources, and reference them via the Resources object, see the rest of my answer. I assume you are using Visual Studio, 2005 or later.
To add an image as a compiled resource to a clean Windows Forms project, so that you can access it via Resources.SomeName do the following:
In Solution Explorer, under the windows forms project (mine is called WinFormsApplication1), expand the "Properties" folder. By default this folder should contain: AssemblyInfo.cs, Resources.resx, Settings.settings.
Double-click on the Resources.resx file. This will open an editor for it. You'll probably see a table of strings, with columns "Name", "Value", "Comment".
Click the drop-down arrow on the "Add Resource" button, and select "Existing File", which will allow you to browse to the image you want to add.
You should now see the image appear in a gallery of sorts. Mine has the name TestImage
Now when you edit the code (mine is Fom1.cs), I can access the image as a System.Drawing.Bitmap as Properties.Resources.TestImage.
To my mind, this is the best way to do images that you want compiled into the application. If you want user-added images, you'll need to use OpenFileDialog, or something like that to get your file path. Then the Image.FormFile() will be what you want.
I have a resource file named rs.resx. In the Visual Studio designer, I can add an image to my resource file by clicking "Add resource" and specifying the path to my image file.
After adding the image, the image file itself is also copied to a folder in my Visual Studio solution named Resources. I would like all of my image files to be placed in a folder named Images instead. Is this possible?
This is a little tricky, but it is possible.
VS checks if the file added to a resource is already defined somewhere within your project. If it can't find it, it creates the folder Resources, puts a copy to the file there, adds this file to the project and puts a reference into the resource designer to this fresh copy of your file.
To avoid this behaviour you should add the file to your project before you add it into the resource file. If the file isn't somewhere within your project structure you can just create a folder, right click it, select Add file and before you click on the Add button of the OpenFileDialog, push on the little arrow next to the button and select Add as link.
Now the file resides on the place on your hdd wherever you like and the resource designer doesn't create a copy within your project file if you now add the file within the resource designer.
Maybe this little picture helps to find the Add as link button:
(source: modbusdriver.com)
That's just a subdirectory of your project directory. Your program doesn't use it at runtime, it should use the embedded resources. Anything you add to the .resx file gets copied there, not just images. But you can rename the folder if you really want to, right-click it and click Rename.
Instead of adding a .resx file to your project, I'd recommend you use the existing one. Project + Properties, Resources tab. Makes it very easy to retrieve the resource at runtime, just use Properties.Resources.Something in your code.