Is <GenerateSource> publicly supported for generating a class to access string resources from .resx files?

[jonsagara]

Hello,

I was looking at how System.Private.CoreLib accesses string resources, and in the project file, I saw this:

<ItemGroup Label="Embedded Resources">
  <EmbeddedResource Include="$(LibrariesProjectRoot)\System.Private.CoreLib\src\Resources\Strings.resx">
    <GenerateSource>true</GenerateSource>
    <ClassName>System.SR</ClassName>
  </EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>

In code, the strings are accessed like this:

_message = SR.Arg_ArgumentException;

I tried to replicate that in my own project, but so far have not succeeded. I always get a compilation error:

The type or namespace name 'SR' does not exist in the namespace 'TestLibrary' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

Here is my .csproj:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

	<PropertyGroup>
		<TargetFramework>net9.0</TargetFramework>
		<ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
		<Nullable>enable</Nullable>

		<!-- I copied these in because they are in System.Private.CorLib.csproj -->
		<GenerateResxSourceOmitGetResourceString>true</GenerateResxSourceOmitGetResourceString>
		<GenerateNeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute>false</GenerateNeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute>
		<EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>true</EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>
	</PropertyGroup>

	<!--
	TestClass.cs does not compile: The type or namespace name 'SR' does not exist in the namespace 'TestLibrary' (are you missing an assembly reference?)
	-->
	<ItemGroup Label="Embedded Resources">
		<EmbeddedResource Update="Resources\Strings.resx">
			<GenerateSource>true</GenerateSource>
			<ClassName>TestLibrary.SR</ClassName>
		</EmbeddedResource>
	</ItemGroup>

</Project>

And here is how I'm trying to call the generated class:

namespace TestLibrary;

public class TestClass
{
    // Does not compile: The type or namespace name 'SR' does not exist in the namespace 'TestLibrary' (are you missing an assembly reference?)
    public static string GetWelcomeMesssage()
        => TestLibrary.SR.Welcome;
}

Full source here: https://github.com/jonsagara/TestResxSourceGenerator

Questions:

• Is this method of generating a class to access the resources publicly available, or is it an internal tool only available to the .NET runtime build process? If the latter, do you have plans to make it publicly available?
• If it is publicly support now, can you spot what I am doing wrong?

[huoyaoyuan]

It's an internal process: https://github.com/dotnet/arcade/blob/main/src/Microsoft.DotNet.Arcade.Sdk/tools/GenerateResxSource.targets

The is a Visual Studio feature to generate code file for resx:

  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Update="Test.Designer.cs">
      <DesignTime>True</DesignTime>
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
      <DependentUpon>Test.resx</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <EmbeddedResource Update="Test.resx">
      <Generator>ResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator>
      <LastGenOutput>Test.Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
    </EmbeddedResource>
  </ItemGroup>

This dotnet runtime repos are having a command line version of it.

[jonsagara]

Ah, okay. Thank you!