Accessing resources from a DLL

NETMF & Gadgeteer
1

Say I build a DLL class which contains a load of resources (bitmaps), how do I access those from the program that is using the DLL?

Is this possible?

2

WARNING: This site referenced above is hosting dnsunlocker malware.
EDIT: The message with the bad link was marked as spam and removed.

3

I guess there must have been another message before your one and someone has since deleted it?

4

Yes, there was but is no longer…

5

@ Dave McLaughlin -
Hi Dave,
Ok for the site problem …
If I could add a pdf at this post I would but there is no way so you can search for “Adding Resources to a .NET Micro Framework Project” in your favorite search engine.

6

You can send me a PM with a link to the PDF. :slight_smile:

I know about normal resources and do this all the time. I was looking to add them to a DLL so that I won’t exceed the max size for my application.

7

Not yet. I created a sample project with resources and built as a DLL.

I included this as a reference into another project but I can’t see the DLL’s resources.

I tried to make them public but it gives loads of build errors so how do you make the DLL’s resources available to the project that has included it?

8

A simple way would be to add a class to your DLL and add public properties that expose the resources that you are interested in exposing.

using System;

namespace MyResources
{
    public class Class1
    {

        public Class1()
        {
        }

        public Byte[] MyBitmap
        {
            get { return Resources.GetBytes(Resources.BinaryResources._12949); }
        }

        public String MyString
        {
            get { return Resources.GetString(Resources.StringResources.String1); }
        }
    }
}

Now in the code you can access the publically exposed resources as follows:

using Microsoft.SPOT;
using MYResources;

namespace EmbeddedResourceDLL2Test
{
    public class Program
    {
        private static MBNResources.Class1 _resources;
        public static void Main()
        {
            Debug.Print(Resources.GetString(Resources.StringResources.String1));
            _resources = new Class1();

            foreach (var b in _resources.MyBitmap)
            {
                Debug.Print("0x" + b.ToString("X"));
            }

            Debug.Print("Resource String is " + _resources.MyString);

            Debug.Print("Done");
        }
    }
}
3 Likes