ResourceManager Class

The ResourceManager class looks up culture-specific resources and provides resource fallback when a localized resource does not exist.

The ResourceManager class retrieves resources from binary resource (.resources) files. These resource files are embedded in an assembly at compile time.

Note:
Windows Phone-based applications do not support resources that are dependent on serialization.

You can use the following types for your resources because they are not based on serialization.

The following types cannot be used as resources:

• Any type that is made serializable.

• GUID values.

• Enumerated values.

• A user-defined value type or reference type.

Using the methods of ResourceManager, a caller can access the resources for a particular culture using the GetObject and GetString methods. By default, these methods return the resource for the culture determined by the current cultural settings of the thread that made the call. (See Thread::CurrentUICulture for more information.) A caller can use the ResourceManager::GetResourceSet method to obtain a ResourceSet, which represents the resources for a particular culture, ignoring culture fallback rules. You can then use the ResourceSet to access the resources, localized for that culture, by name.

Ideally, you should create resources for every language, or at least a meaningful subset of the language. The resource file names follow the naming convention basename.cultureName.resources, where basename is the name of the application or the name of a class, depending on the level of detail you want. The CultureInfo 's Name property is used to determine the cultureName. A resource for the neutral culture (returned by InvariantCulture) should be named basename.resources.

For example, suppose that an assembly has several resources in a resource file with the basename "MyResources". These resource files will have names such as "MyResources.ja-JP.resources", "MyResources.de.resources", "MyResources.zh-Hans.resources", or "MyResources.fr-BE.resources", which contain resources respectively for Japanese, German, simplified Chinese, and French (Belgium). The default resource file should be named MyResources.resources. The culture-specific resource files are commonly packaged in satellite assemblies for each culture. The default resource file should be in your main assembly.

Now suppose that a ResourceManager has been created to represent the resources with this basename. Using the ResourceManager, you can obtain a ResourceSet that encapsulates "MyResources.ja-JP.resources" by calling GetResourceSet(new CultureInfo ("ja-JP"), TRUE, FALSE). Or, if you know that "MyResources" contains a resource named "TOOLBAR_ICON", you can obtain the value of that resource localized for Japan by calling GetObject("TOOLBAR_ICON", new CultureInfo("ja-JP")).

While not strictly necessary for the most basic uses of the ResourceManager, publicly shipping assemblies should use the SatelliteContractVersionAttribute to support versioning your main assembly without redeploying your satellites, and the NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute to avoid looking up a satellite assembly that might never exist.

Caution:

Resources marked as private are accessible only in the assembly in which they are placed. Because a satellite assembly contains no code, resources private to it become unavailable through any mechanism. Therefore, resources in satellite assemblies should always be public so that they are accessible from your main assembly. Resources embedded in your main assembly are accessible to your main assembly, whether private or public.

<satelliteassemblies> Configuration File Node

<?xml version ="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <satelliteassemblies>
        <assembly name="MainAssemblyName, Version=versionNumber, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null|yourPublicKeyToken">
            <culture>cultureName1</culture>
            <culture>cultureName2</culture>
            <culture>cultureName3</culture>
        </assembly>
    </satelliteassemblies>
</configuration>

The following code example demonstrates using an explicit culture and the implicit current UI culture to obtain string resources from a main assembly and a satellite assembly.

Windows Phone OS

Windows Phone

This type is thread safe.

Reference