Looping Through Image Resources

Question

Hi everyone I have the following images in my resources: land_grass land_path building_home building_castle I have 2 dropdown boxes the first is for land images and the second is for building images. I am looking for a way to loop through all the images in my resources if the image filename starts with land_ it gets added to the land dropdown if it starts with building_ it goes into the building dropdown. if it starts with anything else it can be ignored. I am having trouble figuring out how to iterate through the images my resources. Could someone show me an example or link me to a good reference on how I would go about doing this. Thanks Jay

Vulpes · Answer

That's right Jay or if you wanted to keep them altogether you could store them in a Resources sub directory of the exe's directory: ResXResourceReader rsxr = new ResXResourceReader ( System.IO. Path .GetDirectoryName( Assembly .GetExecutingAssembly().Location + @\Resources \Resources.resx ) );

Jay Webster · Answer

One more quick question How should I deploy using a resx file? Does the resx file need to be included? Right now I have: One more quick question How should I deploy using a resx file? Does the resx file need to be included? Right now I have: ResXResourceReader rsxr = new ResXResourceReader ( @C:\Users\Jay Webster\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\PerfectTyrany\PerfectTyranyEditor\Properties\Resources.resx ); but I take it if I want to deploy the app I need to put the resx file in my executables dir and change the line to something like: ResXResourceReader rsxr = new ResXResourceReader ( System.IO. Path .GetDirectoryName( Assembly .GetExecutingAssembly().Location + @ \Resources.resx ) ); Am I right?

Jay Webster · Answer

Working like a dream now :-) I will keep that in mind for when I deploy. Thanks for all your help Vulpes!

Vulpes · Answer

Incidentally when you come to deploy your finished application outside VS you'll have problems using absolute paths like this. As a general rule it's best to either store everything in the executable's directory or in a sub-directory thereof so that it can easily be found. You can always obtain the directory in which the current executable resides with this line: string currentExeDir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

Vulpes · Answer

You'll need to set the BasePath property before you iterate through the resources. From what you've said I'd try: resx.BasePath = @c:\users\jay webster\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\PerfectTyrany\PerfectTyrany\bin\Resources; If that doesn't work you should be able to work out what it needs to be by looking at what it is by default.

Jay Webster · Answer

Hi Vulpes That worked although I used: ResXResourceReader rsxr = new ResXResourceReader ( @c:\users\jay webster\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\PerfectTyrany\PerfectTyrany\Properties\Resources.resx ); Although I get the error: ResX file Could not find a part of the path 'c:\users\jay webster\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\PerfectTyrany\PerfectTyrany\bin\Resources\building_house_96x96.png'. Line 123 position 5. cannot be parsed. If I move my images to that location it runs fine although I would prefer if I didnt have to move them to that location. Currently they are sitting in: C:\Users\Jay Webster\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\PerfectTyrany\PerfectTyrany\Resources Is there a way to sort this?

Vulpes · Answer

If when you look in Solution Explorer there's a file called Resource1.resx or something similar then see if the following will show up anything: using System.Collections; using System.Resources; // ... ResXResourceReader rsxr = new ResXResourceReader(Resource1.resx); // or whatever it's called string msg = ; foreach (DictionaryEntry de in rsxr) { msg += de.Key.ToString() +  :  + de.Value.ToString() + 
; } rsxr.Close(); MessageBox.Show(msg);

Jay Webster · Answer

Thanks for the reply Vulpes. All I get from resourceName is GameTest.frmGame.resources and GameTest.Properties.Resources.resources

Vulpes · Answer

If the images are embedded in your assembly then the code will be something like this: using System.Reflection; // .... Assembly assem = this.GetType().Assembly; foreach(string resourceName in assem.GetManifestResourceNames()) { if (resourceName.Contains(land_)) { lstLand.Items.Add(resourceName); } else if (resourceName.Contains(building_)) { lstBuilding.Items.Add(resourceName); } } I've used Contains() rather than StartsWith() as the resource name may include extra stuff at the beginning. It might be a good idea to iterate through the whole lot and print them out to a messagebox before trying to filter them.