Shared projects and resource files

Question

We have a solution with a shared project that is referenced by two other projects.

In the shared project, we have resx files, but we noticed the code-behind Designer.cs file is not updated when adding or modifying terms in the resx. Apparently, custom tool generation (ResXFileCodeGenerator) for embedded resources is not supported in shared projects.

I have been searching quite a while to overcome this limitation. I tried creating a class library with all resource files but then I stumbled on the problem that I cannot add a reference to that class library in the shared project.

Does anyone have any idea how I could fix this? Having resource files in a class library, and being able to use them in our shared project views?

--

Apart from the problem above, we can get the resx files working on the projects when we just add the code ourselves in the Designer.cs file, but still it looks like there are still some issues.

For example, in the view, we can get the translations through our namespace and the term name, but in the IDE they are shown as red (not resolvable). However, if we run the application, it works like it should.

UPDATE: I was able to have translations from a resx file in a separate project shown in my views when running the application. However, in the shared project, where the views reside, my references to the resx file are still displayed in red. This is probably because the shared projects has no references to the translation project. Once built, the 'real' projects which have a reference, can find the resx translations so no problem when running the application.

Is there any way to tell visual studio that my shared project uses resx files from a separate class library, so that it finds the terms and doesn't underline my references? It would be nice to have the intellisense working.

---

As requested in the comments, see a snippet of my View/Html code:

@using System.Configuration
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "ManageCategories";
}
<div class="main container-fluid">
<div id="spis-categories" ng-controller="categoriesController as categoriesVm" ng-cloak ng-init="categoriesVm.siteName='@ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["siteName"]';categoriesVm.pageSize = @inConnexion.Common.Constants.Constants.PageSize">
<div class="modal cust-modal-ontop" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" id="confirmDeleteDialog" data-backdrop="static" data-keyboard="false">
    <div class="modal-dialog cust-modal-dialog">
        <div class="modal-content cust-modal-content">
            <div class="modal-header">
                <h4 class="modal-title">@CategoryResources.SPIS_Categories_Maintenance.Button_Delete</h4>
            </div>
            <div class="modal-body">
                <p>@CategoryResources.SPIS_Categories_Maintenance.Confirm_Delete</p>
            </div>
            <div class="modal-footer">
                <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" ng-click="categoriesVm.doDeleteSelected();"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-ok" aria-hidden="true"></span>&nbsp;@CategoryResources.SPIS_Categories_Maintenance.Label_Yes</button>
                <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" ng-click="categoriesVm.cancelDeleteSelected();"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-remove" aria-hidden="true"></span>&nbsp;@CategoryResources.SPIS_Categories_Maintenance.Label_No</button>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

And then see this screenshot, where the references aren't recognized:

Notice also, that the ViewBag is also not recognized. But when running, all works as expected...

Answer 1

Could be just a namespace issue in the design view. Include the namespace for the resources in the Views/web.config file. The Views will use the namespaces included there to resolve types.

Views/web.config

<pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
  <namespaces>
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization"/>
    <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
    <add namespace="System.Net.Http" />
    <add namespace="{Resources name space here}" />
    <!-- You could also include System.Configuration to avoid having to use using -->
    <add namespace="System.Configuration" />
  </namespaces>
</pages>

Answer 2

This is working for me using Visual Studio 2015, try the following:

1. Don't name your shared resources "Resources.resx" or "Resource.resx" as this can lead to conflicts. Use something like "Strings.resx" or "Translation.resx".

2. Make sure the access modifier is public when you open the resx file in the designer:

3. Add the reference in your project and reference the namespace in your Views/web.config as explained in @Nkosi's answer.

Answer 3

I was able to make a shared resource .resx file that was visible to each of the other projects and to a shared project. After figuring this out, I came across this question that provides the details: Share Resource Files Across Projects. The important point, as Charlie notes in the second answer, is that in the .csproj file for each project that gets the shared resource, the LogicalName for the linked .resx file must be adjusted so that the designer file can find the resource in the assembly. I created a test set of files to illustrate this - there is too much code to list here but if anyone is interested it is on github. I don't know if it is Ok to post a link to the repository so I'll leave this out.