Resources Manager

How do we manage our resources?

ResourceLab is a small library that contains a single class that is dedicated to managing the resources from different assemblies. This facility is achieved via a single class called ResourcesManager, which contains a static list of resources that are shared across assemblies, that this class manages. Users of the library can use this manager class to add their own resource manager for their assembly or other assemblies to this list.

This class contains a static property that returns a list of resource managers, called ResourceManagers, that returns a list of resource managers by their tagged names. However, you can add, edit, and remove resources using a set of functions that this class provides.

• AddResourceManager(): Adds a resource manager with a manager name for easier reference

• EditResourceManager(): Edits a resource manager entry to contains a different resource manager

• RemoveResourceManager(): Removes a resource manager entry from the list

In addition to this operation, other applications and libraries can get those newly-created resources and query them using the following functions:

• GetResourceManager(): Gets a resource manager from a manager name

• TryGetResourceManager(): Tries to get a resource manager from a manager name

• ResourceManagerExists(): Checks to see if a resource manager from a manager name exists

Once you get the resource manager instance, you can do whatever you want with it, referring to the documentation of the ResourceManager class.

Example (three libraries and one app)

In this example, we're going to use ResourceLab to make this application get resources from three libraries using a single ResourcesManager static class. The three libraries' names will be ResDemo1, ResDemo2, and ResDemo3, and the demo app name will be ResourceLab.Demo.

Install the resources you want (.resx files) to all three libraries, such as Resources/Demonstration.resx, and install ResourceLab to those libraries and the ResourceLab.Demo app.

Then, in each library source code, define a public function, AddResource(), to use the two functions to install a resource manager to the static list of resource managers.

StringResource.cs in ResDemo1

using ResourceLab.Management;
using System.Resources;

namespace ResDemo1
{
    public static class StringResource
    {
        public static void AddResource()
        {
            var resourceManager = new ResourceManager("ResDemo1.Resources.Demonstration", typeof(StringResource).Assembly);
            ResourcesManager.AddResourceManager("ResDemo1", resourceManager);
        }
    }
}

BinResource.cs in ResDemo2

using ResourceLab.Management;
using System.Resources;

namespace ResDemo2
{
    public static class BinResource
    {
        public static void AddResource()
        {
            var resourceManager = new ResourceManager("ResDemo2.Resources.Demonstration", typeof(BinResource).Assembly);
            ResourcesManager.AddResourceManager("ResDemo2", resourceManager);
        }
    }
}

LocalizedResource.cs in ResDemo3

using ResourceLab.Management;
using System.Resources;

namespace ResDemo3
{
    public static class LocalizedResource
    {
        public static void AddResource()
        {
            var resourceManager = new ResourceManager("ResDemo3.Resources.Demonstration", typeof(LocalizedResource).Assembly);
            ResourcesManager.AddResourceManager("ResDemo3", resourceManager);
        }
    }
}

After that, make this application refer to the three libraries by adding three references to their projects, and add the following code, assuming that Terminaux has been installed to the demo app:

TextWriterColor.Write("ResourceLab demonstration\n", ThemeColorType.Banner);

// Test 1: string resources
SeparatorWriterColor.WriteSeparator("[1 out of 3] String resources", ThemeColorType.Banner, true);
StringResource.AddResource();
var strResource = ResourcesManager.GetResourceManager("ResDemo1");
string resultString1 = strResource.GetString("StringResource") ?? "RESOURCE IS INVALID (UNEXPECTED)";
string resultString2 = strResource.GetString("StringResource2") ?? "RESOURCE IS INVALID (UNEXPECTED)";
string resultString3 = strResource.GetString("StringResource3") ?? "RESOURCE IS INVALID (EXPECTED)";
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("StringResource", resultString1);
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("StringResource2", resultString2);
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("StringResource3", resultString3);

// Test 2: binary resources
SeparatorWriterColor.WriteSeparator("[2 out of 3] Binary resources", ThemeColorType.Banner, true);
BinResource.AddResource();
var binResource = ResourcesManager.GetResourceManager("ResDemo2");
var resultBin1 = binResource.GetObject("ImageLogo");
var resultBin2 = binResource.GetObject("ImageLogo2");
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("ImageLogo", resultBin1 is byte[] resultBinByte1 ? $"{resultBinByte1.Length}" : "RESOURCE IS INVALID (UNEXPECTED)");
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("ImageLogo2", resultBin2 is byte[] resultBinByte2 ? $"{resultBinByte2.Length}" : "RESOURCE IS INVALID (EXPECTED)");

// Test 3: localized resources
SeparatorWriterColor.WriteSeparator("[3 out of 3] Localized resources", ThemeColorType.Banner, true);
LocalizedResource.AddResource();
var locResource = ResourcesManager.GetResourceManager("ResDemo3");
var spanish = new CultureInfo("es");
string resultStringSpanish1 = locResource.GetString("StringResource", spanish) ?? "RESOURCE IS INVALID (UNEXPECTED)";
string resultStringSpanish2 = locResource.GetString("StringResource2", spanish) ?? "RESOURCE IS INVALID (UNEXPECTED)";
string resultStringSpanish3 = locResource.GetString("StringResource3", spanish) ?? "RESOURCE IS INVALID (EXPECTED)";
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("StringResource", resultStringSpanish1);
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("StringResource2", resultStringSpanish2);
ListEntryWriterColor.WriteListEntry("StringResource3", resultStringSpanish3);

If everything is OK, you should see the below output:

You can see the full demonstration code from here.