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I'm now just starting to deal with resources in .NET and I have a few important questions:
1. Say I just created a new C# Windows project inside VS.NET (called Test). I switch to Windows Explorer and manually copy a bitmap file (Foo.bmp) into the folder where the project files are located. I switch back to VS.NET and add Foo.bmp to the project. I change its BuildAction to EmbedAsResource. How do I access the file in the program? Is there a hidden .resources file somehow added to the assembly where files like Foo.bmp are embedded into?
2. What's the benefit of a .resources file? From working with SharpDevelop, I've noticed that they can contain strings, images, and just about anything, and that each resource is referenced by name. When would you add an image file (Foo.bmp) to a .resources file instead of directly as another project file?
3. Please explain the BuildActions. What's the difference between EmbedAsResource and Compile? When would I want to compile a resource?
4. What's the difference between a .resources and .resx file?
As you can see, I'm pretty confused with all this resource stuff. In VC6, you always had a .rc file which would compile to a .res that had all the resources embedded. Now in VS.NET it seems like .resources are only necessary for strings. Image files can be added directly into the project. But how are those accessed?...
I need to have all these issues cleared up. If anyone can also point me to a good site that clears it all up, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!
Alvaro
Can I ask you a question?
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Alvaro,
I can answer a couple of your questions. I too am having resource problems  that have had me stumped for a week.
Answers:
2) A .resources file is just a container for resources. You can embed a .resources file into your application or leave it external. The benifit of having all your resources in the one file is you can have multiple versions of it eg. one containg English strings and one containg German, or for containg different icon/bitmap sets (to skin your app). Allows you to change your icons etc easily as they are all kept in one spot.
3) If you hit F1 while the build action combo box is highlighted the .NET help has a good explanation. But for easy refference: EmbedAsResource included the resource as part of the compiled EXE or DLL. Compile makes the compiler process the resource when you compile your project. You might get a few errors if you try to compile a BMP or .Resx file etc. Content includes the resource as an external file. None does as it states, nothing.
4) A .resx file is an XML wrapped resource file. It is converted to a .resources file when the project is compiled.
My problem is a slightly older thread "Retrieving an icon from an embedded resx". I have some code in my post that my help answer your first question. If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Scott.
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Scott,
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. For a while I thought no one would.
I did a Google search for "resource files in .NET" and found this[^] link, which answered my first question. So the code required for accessing an image file that is embedded in the app is:
Image image = Image.FromStream(GetType().Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("DefaultNamespace.Name.bmp"));
Regards,
Alvaro
Can I ask you a question?
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I'm working on a WinForms app and need to embed an instance of MS Excel in a WinForm window. We did this in VB6, but it's quirky because we don't know Win32 API programming very well. I've got a sample of this, but don't see a way to post it along with this message.
If I get a good solution to the problem, I'd like post an article on the topic for all to use.
Can anyone offer help with this?
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Wrap the API call to SetParent and pass it the handle to the window you want to act as a parent ...
HWND SetParent( HWND hWndChild, HWND hWndNewParent );
This function exists in User32.dll
D.
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Hello
I have a WebService (Java) and client -SmartDevice App (c#).
It´s a similar example that i have.
In WS I have a class: MyData. This class have 3 properties: Name, Address and tlf. I have method that send an object array (MyData[]) of this to client.But when I call this method and return de object the client (SmartDevice App) catch an Exception.(System.WebException - Soap.Protocol)
The web reference is Ok.
The text of error/exception: "format "arrayofdata" not exist in http://webservice".
Can´t send object-array to client from ws??
How can I serialize data in compactFramework??
How can I send a group of data from ws to client??
Thank for your help.
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Hi all,
I understand that a that Hashtable can be used as a datasource for a datagrid. I also understand that my Hashtable needs to implement IList.
Can anyone show me a little code snippet to do this please. I want both the Hashtable key and value to be visible in the datagrid.
Thanks,
Rob
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does c# allow file open dialog to be customized.
e.g. if i want to see the preview of any image being displayed in the file open dialog?
all the examples i've found so far are in MFC is there any way in c#??
here is an example but its implemented in MFC
http://www.codeproject.com/dialog/bitmappreviewdialog.asp?target=file%7Copen%7Cdialog
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Why not write your own? After all, a ListView for the files, a drop down ComboBox for the folders, and some navigation buttons is all that makes up the bare bones of it. 
The graveyards are filled with indispensible men.
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"Time is money" if it wasent for time i would have written my own!
as far as i know c# does not allow fileopendialog to be interhited which takes away the ability to customize it or is there any other way?
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Roll your own, but base it on the Win32 dialog. You'll need to do a bunch of interop and API calls.
Fluid[^] will have an easily-customizable open file dialog built from scratch, but it won't be available for at least a few months, so it likely won't help you here.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." - Jesus
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
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Roll your own, but base it on the Win32 dialog. You'll need to do a bunch of interop and API calls.
can you give me a clue how can i do that?
any references?
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You'll want to read up on the details of the Win32 COmmon Dialog APIs.
I learned a lot about customizing common dialogs from the Common Dialogs Section[^] of VBAccelerator[^]. Yes, I know, it's VB - but, it still gives you some valuable information and source code.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." - Jesus
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
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Hi all,
My application isn't cleaning up when it's supposed too! I'm creating lots of byte arrays to store images etc before indexing them in a resource manager, but once in the system despite the importer no longer referencing it it won't clean up!
I want to try to avoid unsafe code, although being a C++ developer at heart it is very tempting to just screw this garabage collection stuff and do it myself with good old fashioned new & delete type stuff!
Is there a sure-fire C# "safe" way of doing a garabage collection on a byte array, forcing it to free memory on the spot?
Cheers,
Paul
/**********************************
Paul Evans, Dorset, UK.
Personal Homepage "EnjoySoftware" @
http://www.enjoysoftware.co.uk/
**********************************/
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yes I have. I do System.GC.Collect(). Memory usage does not change. I'm 99% positive that all references to the array are null.
/**********************************
Paul Evans, Dorset, UK.
Personal Homepage "EnjoySoftware" @
http://www.enjoysoftware.co.uk/
**********************************/
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Nick,
Although the documentation says that this forces garbage collection, if you drill down one level to here[^], it says, "Use this method to attempt to reclaim all memory that is inaccessible. However, the Collect method does not guarantee that all inaccessible memory is reclaimed." This leaves me wondering if the GC operates like the one in Java, where the garbage collector runs on a low-priority thread, and will go back to sleep if the thread scheduler figures that there's other, more pressing work to do. I'd bet that it does.
I'm not sure about the specifics of this, though. I've always tried to avoid calling System.GC, as the documentation says that it will force a suspension of all active threads in the process. My first question for Paul would probably be, "Are you really sure that there's no dangling reference to the arrays?". There's no offense meant by this-- everyone misses small things once in a while.
Paul could try waiting a little bit in an attempt to coax the GC into action, I guess. This is an acceptable troubleshooting step. Also, I've seen some extreme GC slowness (as you'd expect) in testing scenarios involving paging, and it seemed to run less often.
Regards,
Jeff Varszegi
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Thanks for you input Jeff, I seem to remember reading somewhere (I think in Jeffery Richter’s Applied .NET Programming) that the GC process actually requires two full passes however I will have to re-check my references.
-Nick Parker
DeveloperNotes.com
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Hey, that looks like a great book! I just ordered it. 70 reviews on Amazon and it's got almost five stars, almost unheard of for a tech book. Thanks for the reference.
Jeff Varszegi
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Well, your interest in my dangly bits is quite flattering I suppose 
Although less flattering is that I'm yet to find any sign of my dangly bits.
There is a record type class (you know XmlDocument m_xmlMetadata, string m_sSrcFilepath, etc etc) with the byte array in. I even have a special "cleanup" function that ensures that the array internally is nullfied just before the record reference itself is set to null.
The array is read accessible via a getter property though - so that's my current line of investigation.
I did try every few records with nothing. Invoking it at the end of each record being used also caused nothing to happen.
To give you an idea of the volume of data that's being banded around by this import application - it generated 1.5 gig of xml datafiles and imported 250 images - at the price of a steadly climbing memory usage of past 450meg.
Obviously it's doing some garbage collection, but the byte arrays because thats a similar size to the source images overall.
I do hope I'm not hitting some kind of .Net scalabilty issues!
What really ticks me off is after it's done all the importing, cleaned up all the objects (so the engine is nullified, etc etc) it STILL doesn't free up memory after a call to GC.
/**********************************
Paul Evans, Dorset, UK.
Personal Homepage "EnjoySoftware" @
http://www.enjoysoftware.co.uk/
**********************************/
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A couple of comments:
1) The .NET image classes are a thin layer on top of unmanaged GDI+. You should definitely call Dispose() on them to free that data.
2) Look at the performance counters for .NET to see how much memory you are really using. Task manager is not a good indication of how much is really being used.
3) In general, you should try to avoid calling GC.Collect(). You may, however, want to call it and call GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers() for testing purposes. That will ensure that all the memory is reclaimed before you look at memory usage.
You might also want to try running the allocation profiler - it will give you a better idea of what your application is doing with memory.
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/usersamples/Default.aspx?query=allocation%20profiler
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1) I can't use them because the resource manager needs it in raw byte array form. This is because it can also handle pdfs, sounds, etc
2) I'm looking in to the performance counters thing now. Thank you (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpgenref/html/gngrfperformancecounters.asp & http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpgenref/html/gngrfmemoryperformancecounters.asp incase anyone is interested).
However even these counters say I'm only using 10 meg, if .Net has actually allocated 500meg and not freeing it up in real task manager terms then it's still too much of a resource hog.
3) Again thanks for another revenue of investigation.
I'll post in this section of the thread if I discover anything due to the things you've suggested. Links always helpful, thanks!
/**********************************
Paul Evans, Dorset, UK.
Personal Homepage "EnjoySoftware" @
http://www.enjoysoftware.co.uk/
**********************************/
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Hey, did you try using the WeakReference class to track the destruction of the objects in question? This might help you determine for sure whether there are lingering references somewhere. HTH.
Thank you.
Jeff Varszegi
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Thank you, I'll try again with that approach tommorow. Anything is worth a shot huh?
I'm going to leave the office before anything else happens to keep me here. Thanks everyone - I'll keep checking this thread tommorow.
/**********************************
Paul Evans, Dorset, UK.
Personal Homepage "EnjoySoftware" @
http://www.enjoysoftware.co.uk/
**********************************/
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