Delphi 7 to Delphi XE2 .res file issue

delphidelphi-xe2

When I open a Delphi 7 Project in Delphi XE2 and open the Project Option I get an error:

"Unable to set Icon: Cannot open file "........\AppName_Icon.ico".
The system cannot find the file specified".

I also notice that the Version info of the Project is missing.
The Delphi 7 project has .Res file that has the MAINICON along with the version information stored.
Why is Delphi XE2 not able to use this .Res file to retrive the MAINICON & Version information.

Also if I try to compile the application in XE2 I get an error –

[BRCC32 Error] MtxReq.vrc(2): file not found: MtxReq_Icon.ico

The MTXReq.vrc file (a new file) is created and the MtxReq.res file is deleted.

Why is this happening? I don't want to loose my project icon and version settings from .res file.

Is there a way to force XE2 to use the .res file and not delete it?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sorry I can't post a comment yet (need more repotation points) …

Warren – here the reponse to your question (Wouldn't just deleting your .dproj file and keeping the .dpr only, have been faster?)

I deleted the .dproj, .dproj.local
Opened the .dpr in XE2 and it recreated the .dproj file.
It brough back the icon from the .res but I lost project version info. Only File Version and Product Version info got migrated but lost all other versioning info. (This is because of the default manifest file).
I then tried what I explained in Step 1 of my solution.
I open the .dproj file in notepad deleted the tag entries under and reopened the .dproj file and all my version info now was recovered. The problem here is the $(BDS)\bin\default_app.manifest.
Also I noticed that Version info is stored in tag under the tag in the .dproj file and once you delete the default manifest entries, the IDE pickups the version key information correctly from the .

So basically by deleting the .dpr file I skipped the step of extracting and adding the .ico file to the project, but had to edit the newly created .proj file and delete the entries for default manifest to retrieve the version info. (another solution would have been to manully add the version info and saving the project. I did not try this)

Best Answer

Update 2015: Remy's idea of recreating .DPROJ files carefully by hand, is excellent advice and should be considered first, even though my answer is marked accepted.

Delphi versions prior to XE2 used resource files as an INPUT and an OUTPUT in the compilation process. For example, your delphi 7 project icon is embedded in that .res file, which you "want delphi xe2 to use", however, that's problematic in delphi 7, and now flat out impossible in XE2. Instead you now treat the .res file as a pure output artifact, the same as executable files. Don't bother checking .res files into version control any more, and don't try to pretend that the .res file is the place where you permanently store your icons. It's an output file produced automatically by the compiler, as it always should have been.

If you are a modern developer, the old way Delphi 7 worked might have annoyed you (it sure annoyed me) because you have the interesting and unsolveable question about what to do for version control: Do you check in the .RES file, or don't you? There were drawbacks to both approaches, and the fact that .RES files are now output artifacts only in XE2 is for the best. So learn to live with that.

Now that XE2 supports icons not only for a PC but also for a Mac, it must handle things differently, and they have cleaned this up. This is the origin of the problem you're seeing with the .ICO file. I have seen exactly the same error, and I have ignored it, and simply added the icon back to the project after it has otherwise been converted.

Converting a delphi 7 project (.dpr and .cfg) to Delphi XE2 is not as big a problem as the conversions between various levels of .dproj files -- each version starting with Delphi 2005,2007,2009,2010, and onwards has implemented changes in the dproj format. When problems occur with converting these projects, I do not do as Remy suggests, because it's a waste of time. What I do is DELETE the DPROJ and let it convert up from a .dpr file only.
But Remy's advice to start from scratch has many advantages, including that you may simplify your project layout.

Anyways, here's what you do:

  1. Ignore error.
  2. Add icon to project yourself.
  3. Continue merrily along, and don't worry about the deletion of the .res file, that's intentional, and for good reasons. A new one will be created whenever needed. The filename of the .ico file on disk will be read by using the contents of the XE2 .dproj file and compiled into the .res file, as it should be.
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