ArcGIS Engine Developer Guide

.NET APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
4. When you compile your project, the .resx file will be compiled into a .resources
module inside your main assembly.
Creating resource files for image resources
The process of adding images, icons, or cursors to a resources file in .NET is more
complex than creating a file containing only string values, because the tools
currently available in the Visual Studio .NET IDE can only be used to add string
resources.
However, a number of sample projects are available with the Visual Studio .NET
Framework SDK that can help you work with resource files. One such sample is
the Resource Editor (ResEditor).
The ResEditor sample can be used to add images, icons, imagelists, and strings to
a resource file. The tool cannot be used to add cursor resources. Files can be
saved as either .resx or .resource files.
Creating resource files programmatically
You can create XML .resx files containing resources programmatically by using
the ResXResourceWriter class (part of the .NET framework). You can create
binary .resources files programmatically by using the ResourceWriter class (also part
of the .NET framework). These classes will allow more flexibility to add the
kind of resources you require.
These classes may be particularly useful if you want to add resources that cannot
be handled by the .NET Framework SDK samples and tools, for example, cursors.
The basic usage of the two classes is similar: first, create a new resource
writer class specifying the filename, then add resources individually by using the
AddResource method.
The code below demonstrates how you could create a new .resx file using the
ResXResourceWriter class and add a bitmap and cursor to the file.
[VB.NET]
Chapter 4 • Developer environments • 163