As I saw in the next generation of Visual Studio .NET there is a code-behind file for resource files. I tought this is an idea to create a small macro doing the same job.

You can copy the following code to the marco editor to create code-behind files for resources when you save the file (or create the build). This code is not very good, only a test (grrrrr) ... but is working on my environment.

Private Sub DocumentEvents_DocumentSaved(ByVal Document As EnvDTE.Document) Handles DocumentEvents.DocumentSaved

Dim s As Solution
Dim p As Project
Dim vs As VSProject
Dim r As Reference
Dim aProp As EnvDTE.Property
Dim props As Properties
Dim projitem As ProjectItem
Dim w As TextWriter
Dim doc As XmlDocument
Dim n, n_name, n_type, n_descr As XmlNode
Dim resourcename, resourcetype, resourcedescr As String
Dim codebehind As String
Dim AssemblyName As String
Dim resource As String

If (Document.FullName.ToLower().EndsWith(".resx") = True) Then

resource = System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Document.FullName)
codebehind = Document.FullName & ".cs"

' load resource xml file

doc = New XmlDocument
doc.Load(Document.FullName)

' create code-behind source code

Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder

sb.Append("using System;" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("using System.ComponentModel;" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("using System.Reflection;" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("namespace #ASSEMBLYNAME#" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & "sealed class " & resource & "" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "private static System.Resources.ResourceManager _resMgr;" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "private " & resource & "()" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "public static System.Resources.ResourceManager ResourceManager" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "get" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "if(_resMgr == null)" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "System.Resources.ResourceManager temp = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(""#ASSEMBLYNAME#." & resource & """, Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "System.Threading.Thread.MemoryBarrier();" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "_resMgr = temp;" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "return _resMgr;" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))

For Each n In doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("data")

resourcename = ""
resourcetype = ""
resourcedescr = ""

n_name = n.SelectSingleNode("@name")

If (n_name Is Nothing = False) Then
resourcename = n_name.InnerText.Replace(" ", "_")
End If

n_type = n.SelectSingleNode("@type")

If (n_type Is Nothing = False) Then
resourcetype = n_type.InnerText
End If

n_descr = n.SelectSingleNode("comment")

If (n_descr Is Nothing = False) Then
resourcedescr = n_descr.InnerText
End If

If (resourcename <> "" And resourcetype <> "") Then

sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "///<summary>" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "///" & resourcedescr & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "///</summary>" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "public static " & resourcetype & " " & resourcename & "" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "get" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "{" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "return (" & resourcetype & ")ResourceManager.GetObject(""" & resourcename + """);" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))
sb.Append(Chr(9) & Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))

End If

Next

sb.Append(Chr(9) & "}" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("}" & Chr(13))
sb.Append("" & Chr(13))

' create an empy file

w = File.CreateText(codebehind)
w.Close()

' search if the code-behind file is already in the project

s = DTE.Solution

For Each p In s.Projects

vs = p.Object
props = vs.Project.Properties

For Each aProp In props

If (aProp.Name = "AssemblyName") Then
AssemblyName = aProp.Value
End If

Next

For Each projitem In vs.Project.ProjectItems

If projitem.FileNames(0).ToLower() = Document.FullName.ToLower() Then

If projitem.ProjectItems.Count = 0 Then
projitem.ProjectItems.AddFromFile(codebehind)
End If

End If

Next

Next

w = File.CreateText(codebehind)
w.Write(sb.ToString().Replace("#ASSEMBLYNAME#", AssemblyName))
w.Close()

End If

End Sub

4 Comments

• Ingo Raelphel said Wednesday, April 14, 2004 11:11:00 AM

  Do you have this code also in C#? I hate VB.NET!!!

• Michael Schwarz said Wednesday, April 14, 2004 11:12:00 AM

  @Ingo: No, sorry! The macro editor only allows Visual Basic .NET. At the moment I am looking for creating a Visual Studio Add-In that will be written in C#.

• Eli Robillard said Saturday, June 12, 2004 3:45:00 PM

  I realize it isn't the goal of the post, but using concatenation within a Stringbuilder completely defeats the advantages using a SB. It's 100% more efficient to put each element to concatenate in its own Append. Otherwise, nice!

• Michael Schwarz said Sunday, June 13, 2004 9:23:00 AM

  ;)
  
  You are right... it was only a fast test.