Do I need the resx Designer.cs file

resxvisual studio 2010

My company uses a combination of some database tables, a web page front end and an "export" application to handle our string resources in our web sites.

The export application used to work just fine when we used VS2008, but since switching to VS2010 the resources now have a designer.cs file "beneath" them in the solution explorer.

The problem is that the "export" application only generates the .resx files and not the underlying designer.cs files.

So, is there a way to not have those designer.cs files, or alternatively some way to automatically re-generate (or even some command the export application could call to re-generate them)

Best Answer

I had a problem where VS 2010 would not regenerate the Designer.cs files, and couldn't find the solution elsewhere.

I was able to regenerate them though, without going to the command line.

To fix the issue in Visual Studio 2010 I did the following:

Deleted the Designer.cs file
Right clicked on the main resx file
Selected Run Custom Tool

That rebuilt the Designer.cs file.

Hope that might help someone else in the future..

Related Solutions

“Run Custom Tool” for resx files in MVC2 project (from an external application/script)

Finally, I have solved the problem.

I decided to simplify things a bit by breaking my resources out in to a new assembly called Resources. I then added my resx files and set the properties for them as below ...

Build Action             = Embedded Resource
Copy to Output Directory = Do not copy
Custom Tool              = PublicResXFileCodeGenerator
Custom Tool Namespace    = Resources
File Name                = MyApp.resx

I then changed my export application to run ...

resgen MyApp.resx /str:c#,Resources,MyApp,MyApp.designer.cs /publicClass

... and to delete *.resources from the folder (created by the resgen.exe utility, but not needed)

This got rid of the prefix on the constructor to ResourceManager, and then i just added a reference to my new Resources assembly to my web application.

I've run a few tests to make sure all is good, including going in to the .designer.cs file and deleting one of the properties to cause a compiler error. Then re-ran my export app, and everything worked again.

So, I am a happy bunny!

Issues with RESX files on VS2010 targeting 3.5 framework

The issue we experienced was also with the ImageList inside the *.resx file (opened in code, not the designer):

<data name="imageList1.ImageStream" mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64">
    <value>
        [bunch of binary data here]
    </value>
</data>

We confirmed this was by only deleting the <data /> tag related to the ImageList (see above) and then deleting the references in the control's designer:

//initialize
this.imageListSuperHeroes = new System.Windows.Forms.ImageList(this.components);

//control that references the ImageList
this.btnAwesome.ImageKey = "superman.gif";
this.btnAwesome.ImageList = this.imageListSuperHeroes;

Add the image references (use individual images!) of the control from the "Project resource file", rather than the "Local resource" and update the references you removed from your forms.

this.btnAwesome.Image = global::PMPPlus.Properties.Resources.Superman;

That fixed it for us and hopefully this helps move you in the right direction. If not, dig around the *.resx to see which bad <data /> is screwing you up.

They suggested some workarounds that didn't fit our needs:

Target another platform and framework
Use corflags to screw with your C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin directory!

Our Setup

Old Environment: Windows XP 32-bit
New Environment: Windows 7 64-bit
Common Setup: VS2010 + Target Framework: 3.5 + Target Platform: x86

Best Answer

Related Solutions

“Run Custom Tool” for resx files in MVC2 project (from an external application/script)

Issues with RESX files on VS2010 targeting 3.5 framework

Related Topic