What are the places to look for if a plug-in wishes to re-use images that are defined by other plug-ins.
For example, where to look for if a plug-in needed the 'Terminate' icon, defined somewhere in the debug plug-in.
Now and then I have been searching for images and though it would be useful to list the locations of commonly used images in one place.
Some of the platform plug-ins make (some of) their images available though ImageDescriptors. Unfortunately all in a slightly different way.
Platform UI - org.eclipse.ui
This plug-in defines images for public use in ISharedImages. To obtain an image descriptor, query the workbench's image registry like this:
PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getSharedImages().getImage( ISharedImages.IMG_OBJ_FILE );
IDE - org.eclipse.ui.ide
The IDE plug-in adds some more images to the workbench image registry and lists the registered names in IDE.ISharedImages.
To obtain an image descriptor, also query the workbench's image registry like this:
PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getSharedImages().getImage( IDE.ISharedImages.IMG_OBJ_PROJECT );
Debug - org.eclipse.ui.debug
The debug plug-in defines shared images in IDebugUIConstants, image name constants start with IMG_. They can be access through the DebugUITools utility class.
For example:
DebugUITools.getImageDescriptor( IDebugUIConstants.IMG_ACT_RUN );
Compare - org.eclipse.compare
The compare plug-in defines ImageDescritpors for Next and Previous images directly in CompareUI.
For example:
ImageDescriptor next = CompareUI.DESC_DTOOL_NEXT;
Team - org.eclipse.team.ui
The team plug-in as well uses a ISharedImage interface to declare overlay images to decorate modified, conflicting, etc. resources.
The image descriptors can be obtained through the TeamImages class:
ImageDescriptor imageDescriptor = TeamImages.getImageDescriptor( ISharedImages.IMG_DIRTY_OVR );
JDT - org.eclipse.jdt.ui
JDT aligns with the workbench when providing images. Its ISharedImages interface defines the registered names and JavaUI.getSharedImages() allows to obtain the respective image descrptors.
Directly Accessing Images
AbstractUIPlugin has a static helper method to get a descriptor of an image in an arbitrary plug-in.
ImageDescriptor imageDescriptor = AbstractUIPlugin.imageDescriptorFromPlugin( "the.bundle.id", "/icons/sample-image.png" );
Warning: Loading images in this way is risky and should generally be avoided. Image locations are not part of a plug-ins API and a plug-in author may choose to delete or move the image which will break your code. If you need proof that this actually happens, have a look at this post.
If you need an image from a plug-in that doesn't make it available through its API, you should prefer to place a copy of that image within your plug-in.
I'm currently following this tutorial but using MonoGame :
http://www.riemers.net/eng/Tutorials/XNA/Csharp/Series1/Terrain_from_file.php
As said in the tutorial, my main goal is to render a terrain from an image file.
There is a .fx provided with the tutorial which I included in my project.
I had some issues using MonoGame to load the bmp file for example and now I managed to load it. The problem comes now from the fx file. MonoDevelop tells this : The MGX File is Corrupt !
Here is the original code from the writer of the article :
effect = Content.Load<Effect> ("effects");
And here is how I used it with MonoGame :
effect = Content.Load<Effect> ("effects.fx");
I am really lost about the usage of the effects file in MonoGame. Is there any good tutorial about this ? Anyway I'm really lost with MonoGame. How come there is no clear tutorials for MonoGame has it is widely used ?
You need to convert your shader .fx to appropriate file format for monogame using 2MGFX tool. You can find the tool inside installed monogame directory C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\MonoGame\v3.0
How to use:
Create a .bat file and write code as shown below:
2MGFX.exe effects.fx effects.mgfxo
pause
Execute the .bat file
Note that the shader file, .bat file and 2MGFX.exe must be in same directory.
Here is how to use compiled .mgfxo file as effect:
Put the effects.mgfxo into Assets\Content folder of your project
Load a file as shown below
Stream s = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("ProjectNameSpace.Assets.Content.effects.mgfxo");
BinaryReader Reader = new BinaryReader(s);
Effect effect = new Effect(graphics, Reader.ReadBytes((int)Reader.BaseStream.Length));
If you have problems converting a shader .fx to .mgfxo please leave comments.
I've been trying to follow Riemers tutorial myself, like you, I struggled with the effects.
I had to make a couple changes to the original effects file before I successfully managed to compile and use it without any exceptions.
Renamed the following:
vs_2_0 to vs_4_0
ps_2_0 to ps_4_0
POSITION to SV_POSITION
Once these changes were made I used the compile tool like following:
2MGFX.exe effects.fx effects.mgfxo /Profile:DirectX_11
Once compiled I moved the mgfxo file into my contents folder and assigned following parameters:
Build action: Embedded resource
Copy to output directory: Copy always
It took me a couple of attempts until I managed to use the shader without MonoGame throwing any exceptions at me.
byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes("Content/effects.mgfxo");
effect = new Effect(GraphicsDevice, bytes);
Using the 2MGFX tool is optional, you can either use the tool or the Content pipeline, personally I prefer the Content pipeline because it will automatically process the shader file everytime I (re)build the Content project.
How to do this?
First: add a MonoGame Content project,
Then add the .FX file in this project
Set the Content processor to: "MonoGame effect content processor" in properties
Then, in your game project Add a Reference to this Content project.
And use the shader like so:
var myEffect = Content.Load<Effect>("shaderFileNameWithoutExtension");
or if you have folders in your content project:
var myEffect = Content.Load<Effect>("FolderName\\shaderFileNameWithoutExtension");
I'm seeing you're working on Linux. Compiling shaders on Linux is a little difficult. In my own projects, I find the following resource especially helpful.
http://www.infinitespace-studios.co.uk/general/monogame-building-fx-shaders-on-a-mac-and-linux/
Following this, you're able to build shaders using the MonoGame Pipeline as normal (provided you have added the pipeline reference).
Hope this helps!
I am trying to create a image gallery and I found the following extension:
http://www.yiiframework.com/extension/imagesgallerymanager/
I chose this extenion because it is the best evaluated. My problem is that I don't understand how to install it. I am new using Yii, so I'm lost.
The instrunctions are these:
Checkout source code to your project, for example to ext.galleryManager.
Install and configure image component(https://bitbucket.org/z_bodya/yii-image).
Add tables for gallery into database (there is sql scheme and migration samples in migrations folder in extension)
Import gallery models to project, by adding "ext.galleryManager.models.*" to import in config/main.php
Add GalleryController to application or module controllerMap.
Configure and save gallery model
Render widget for gallery
Please, someone could to explain how to install and configure image component to me? I don't understand where I have to put the code. The instruction about how to do it, says something like this:
application main config components
'image'=>array(
'class'=>'application.extensions.image.CImageComponent',
// GD or ImageMagick
'driver'=>'GD',
// ImageMagick setup path
'params'=>array('directory'=>'D:/Program Files/ImageMagick-6.4.8-Q16'),
),
调用方法()：
$image = Yii::app()->image->load('images/test.jpg');
$image->resize(400, 100)->rotate(-45)->quality(75)->sharpen(20);
$image->save(); // or $image->save('images/small.jpg');
第二种：
Yii::import('application.extensions.image.Image');
$image = new Image('images/test.jpg');
$image->resize(400, 100)->rotate(-45)->quality(75)->sharpen(20);
$image->render();
Should I to paste the previous code in ../config/main.php? Sorry but I am a bit confussed
Thank you very much.
I would recommend you to git clone the yii-demo-blog from z_bodya (a yii developer). There are already implementations of his yii extensions (image-attachment, image-gallery, tinymce+elfinder), using this command:
git clone https://bitbucket.org/z_bodya/yii-demo-blog.git
then follow the instruction on that page https://bitbucket.org/z_bodya/yii-demo-blog.
Then study the workflow of his galleryManager at https://bitbucket.org/z_bodya/gallerymanager
Also read books on Yii, I recommend:
Web Application Development with Yii and PHP
Author: Jeffrey Winesett
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1849518726?tag=gii20f-20
Yii Application Development Cookbook
Author: Alexander Makarov
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BKZHDGS?tag=gii20f-20
It looks correct. Can you please make sure that entry 'images' is within the 'components' array? Your config file (main.php) should look like this:
//other options
'components' => array(
'image' => array(
'class'=>'application.extensions.image.CImageComponent',
// GD or ImageMagick
'driver'=>'GD',
// ImageMagick setup path
'params'=>array('directory'=>'D:/Program Files/ImageMagick-6.4.8-Q16'),
),
//.. other components
)
You call $image->render() to show the actual image. It should be in the controller or view file.
You call Yii::import() before you use the class. This is done so that Yii knows where to find your class.
Before you start
Here are some initial points, you should go through, to learn, if this extension is for you:
If you're not sure, if yii-gallery-manager extension is for you and want to play a little bit with this, before incorporating it into your application, then follow to "Demo application" section at the end of this text.
Gallery Manager is only a set of widgets, models, behaviors and controllers, which provides gallery management functionality to your own models and modules. It is not a ready, out-of-the box solution in form of entire module for managing galleries. Plus, it is also gallery manager only. It is meant for backend and does not provide you with anything special for frontend. You must write your own code for presenting particular gallery basing on data provided by yii-gallery-manager extension.
Because galleries are attached to one of your models and are kept in separate tables, using Gallery Manager widget causes changes to be immediately on-line. In other word, user editing any model doesn't have to save it or can even cancel editing it, but changes made by him/her in Gallery Manager are immediately sent (via AJAX), immediately stored in database and are public at once. You should probably pass this information to users of your application. And even consider some implementation, that will make post invisible, if user is editing it and changing galleries.
Gallery Manager extension is backed-up by quite powerful yii-image extension (actually a Yii port of famous Kohana image manipulation class) and offers you automated generation of previews for each uploaded image, including many cool graphical effects and image transformations.
Extension uses Twitter Bootstrap styles. If you're using it in your application as well, you'll have gallery manager matching styles of your entire application. If you don't use Bootstrap, you don't need to install it (yii-gallery-manager requires only bootstrap.css file as it uses styles from it), but you'll probably have gallery manager in different styling than rest of your application.
If you're convinced to use this extension, then continue reading. If resign, you can scroll to the end of this text, where I put some alternatives.
Preparation stage
To install and use this extension in your application you need:
yii-gallery-manager extension itself,
yii-image extension,
Twitter Bootstrap's styles.
Main repository (at BitBucket) for both extensions are not clonable due to some bug. You should use files added to Download section in extension page at yiiframework.com or alternatively (for main extension only) mirror code repository at GitHub.
Decompress their contents into extensions folder in your application and optionally, change their folders' names.
As for Twitter Bootstrap, you only need it's styles (bootstrap.css) which are used by extension. You don't need entire library.
After unpacking yii_image extension, you need to add it's configuration to your application's configuration array (in protected/config/main.php, if you didn't change this).
It should be:
'image'=>array
(
'class'=>'application.extensions.image.CImageComponent',
'driver'=>'GD'
)
if you want to use default PHP's GD library for image processing, or:
'image'=>array
(
'class'=>'application.extensions.image.CImageComponent',
'driver'=>'ImageMagick',
'params'=>array('directory'=>'D:/Program Files/ImageMagick-6.4.8-Q16')
)
if you want to use ImageMagick library.
Double check, if path/alias (application.extensions.image here) are correct and valid. Most operations in yii-gallery-manager extension are made via POST/AJAX and debugging them is a little bit harder. Wrong path/alias to yii-image extension is first source of problems with Gallery Manager not uploading images correctly.
Adding yii-gallery-manager to your application
I decided to use behavior-based approach, because using behaviors is more flexible.
Here are steps, that I took to add yii-gallery-manager to my application:
Download (and unpack to extensions folder) yii-gallery-manager and yii-image extension, if you haven't done this yet.
Go to migrations folder in yii-gallery-manager and either import schema.mysql.sql to your SQL database or use contents of schema.migration file as base for your new migration (yiic create [name]) and save it. Consider changes discussed later (Using migrations section). Finally, run the migration (yiic migrate).
Add ext.yiiimage.*, ext.gallerymanager.* and ext.gallerymanager.models.* to import section of your application's configuration array. Adjust path to these extensions accordingly to where you put them.
Add image extension to components section of your configuration array (see above).
Consider updating yii-gallery-manager and yii-image extension with files found in demo application (see below) as they seems to be a bit newer.
Copy GalleryController.php from yii-gallery-manager extension's folder to location of your controllers (usually protected/controllers) or keep it in original place and add this to main configuration of your application:
'controllerMap'=>array
(
'gallery'=>'ext.gallerymanager.GalleryController'
),
Adding behavior and views
Now, your application should be ready to use this extension. All, that is left is to add behavior to your model:
public function behaviors()
{
return array
(
'galleryBehavior'=>array
(
'class'=>'GalleryBehavior',
'idAttribute'=>'gallery_id',
'versions'=>array
(
'small'=>array
(
'centeredpreview'=>array(98, 98)
),
'medium'=>array
(
'resize'=>array(800, NULL)
)
),
'name'=>TRUE,
'description'=>TRUE
)
);
}
Where name and description decides whether you want to save these kind of data along with each of your gallery to database and idAttribute refers to field in your model, which will store foreign key to gallery. For information about versions, refer to next chapter.
Finally, modify your views. Extension comes with ready widget for managing image galleries:
<?php if($model->galleryBehavior->getGallery() === NULL): ?>
<p>Before add photos to product gallery, you need to save the product first.</p>
<?php else: ?>
<?php $this->widget('GalleryManager', array
(
'gallery' => $model->galleryBehavior->getGallery(),
)); ?>
<?php endif; ?>
As for presenting image galleries in front end, you're completely on your own. This is backend's gallery manager, not full solution, right. So, as for frontend, it offers you nothing more, than a pure array of data, with which you can do whatever you need or want:
<?php $photos = $content->galleryBehavior->getGalleryPhotos(); ?>
Tuning up
Files, folders and paths
By default, yii-gallery-manager uploads all gallery-related images to gallery folder in web-root of your application. This setting is stored as galleryDir property of GalleryPhoto. I don't know, what reasons caused extension's author to store path to galleries directly in each photo model, instead of Gallery model or even inside GalleryManager widget. But, it is like it is.
And, due to construction of this extension (based on widgets and behavior attached to your own model, operating on POST/AJAX only) there is no way to modify this setting dynamically, in your application. If you need to change directory for your gallery images, you need to simply alter public $galleryDir = 'gallery'; line in GalleryPhoto model.
Auto-generated versions (previews)
Using versions key in galleryBehavior array you can declare, how many (and in what dimensions) previews will be auto-generated for each uploaded image. It is an array like this:
'versions'=>array
(
'small'=>array
(
'centeredpreview'=>array(98, 98)
),
'medium'=>array
(
'resize'=>array(800, NULL)
)
)
Each element in master array represents one preview generated automatically for each image upload. For each preview you can set as many operations, as you want. Each operation (subarray key -- for example centeredpreview) refers to selected image operation -- a method found in Image class in yii-image_ extension. Subarray value is an array of arguments passed to this method (operation parameters).
Examples for resizing preview:
'resize'=>array(500, 500) will resize image to fixed 500 x 500 pixels dimensions, ignoring its original aspect ratio,
'resize'=>array(800, NULL) will resize image to have longer edge set to 800 pixels and shorter edge relatively to original image ratio,
'centeredpreview'=>array(450, 450) will resize image as in second example and then crop it (cut off 450 x 450 pixels in center of image).
Resizing images is most popular operation made for auto-generated previews, but Image class provides you with a lot of graphical effects and image transformations. You can emboss, sharpen, negate image, flip it and rotate it etc.
If this is only possible, try to set fixed value here and do not change it later. Extension provides you with a nifty tool for updating all versions (previews) of images later -- you need to call $model->galleryBehavior->changeConfig(); on each model, which versions / previews are about to change. But, this isn't recommended way, as this will modify many files on-the-fly and can even bloat your server (if you have really big number of galleries there).
Keep in mind, that versions array is kept (serialized) in database for each of your gallery. Therefore, you have to call $model->galleryBehavior->changeConfig(); for each of gallery already stored in database, after changing versions settings.
Widget preview
Using the same methods, a preview for Gallery Manager widget is generated. It's line 147 of GalleryPhoto model, inside setImage method:
Yii::app()->image->load($path)->resize(300, null)->save(Yii::getPathOfAlias('webroot') . '/' .$this->galleryDir . '/_' . $this->getFileName('') . '.' . $this->galleryExt);
It generates too big preview (300 px longer edge, while actual widget uses 140 px at max) and produces over all not so cool effect, with a large piece of white empty space below each image preview. If found out that, changing this line to:
Yii::app()->image->load($path)->centeredpreview(140, 140)->crop(140, 120)->save(Yii::getPathOfAlias('webroot') . '/' .$this->galleryDir . '/_' . $this->getFileName('') . '.' . $this->galleryExt);
And changing following lines in assets/galleryManager.css:
line 126, .GalleryEditor .caption p selector, add white-space: nowrap; line,
line 33, .GalleryEditor .photo selector, change line-height: 1; to line-height: 0.7;,
line 144, .GalleryEditor .image-preview selector, change height: 88px; to height: 120px;,
will produce a much better effect. But, this is my private opinion. Note, that you should add first change in any conditions, even if you don't change anything else, as it seems, extension's author forgot about this line. Without it, long photo descriptions spans into many lines, ugly messing around in edit and delete buttons' background.
Another thing, that was missed by extension's author is adding this style to the end of ``:
.sorter
{
overflow: auto;
height: 400px;
}
Without this assets/galleryManager.css, images area in your gallery won't be vertically scrollable and you will have no access to other photos, if you upload many images to particular gallery. Remember to remove assets after applying these changes, to actually see them on-line.
Using migrations
If you're using migrations to update database, then note, that schema.migration file found in migrations folder in yii-gallery-manager extension folder has some problems, that should be / must be corrected.
First thign is, that you should add $this->dropForeignKey('fk_gallery_photo_gallery1', 'gallery_photo'); to your down() method to clean everything, what was created by up() method; add it before dropping extension's tables:
public function down()
{
/**
* Drop yii-gallery-manager extension tables.
*/
$this->dropForeignKey('fk_gallery_photo_gallery1', 'gallery_photo');
$this->dropTable('gallery_photo');
$this->dropTable('gallery');
}
And, if you're using behavior, you should modify all your tables / models, that will be using galleries, and add new column, that will hold gallery ID per particular model. Name this column the same way as you name idAttribute parameter in behavior configuration. By default, it should be named gallery_id. I suggest to alter this name only, if it conflicts with something in your model or application:
$this->addColumn('contents', 'gallery_id', "integer DEFAULT NULL COMMENT 'Foregin key to Gallery -- gallery for this content' AFTER `content_id`");
Debugging
You can use modified piece of code from GalleryController::actionAjaxUpload() to do pretty nice debugging. Put this code somewhere (in some view?) and execute:
<?php
$model = new GalleryPhoto();
$model->gallery_id = 123;
$model->file_name = 'test1';
$model->setImage('test2');
?>
It helped me discover problems with database (incorrect table names) in first place and it brought me answer, why the heck images are not uploaded? After three hours of searching, I found out, that Yii isn't able to find CImageComponent. I wasn't able to discover this earlier, because all upload-related events occurs in post-only, ajax-mode mood, which is quite hard to debug.
Demo application
There's a nice looking and (nearly) ready to use demo application found at BitBucket (this time repository is cloneable): https://bitbucket.org/z_bodya/yii-demo-blog. It contains Gallery Manager and other extensions made by this author.
When you get it running, don't be surprised, that you see no sign of gallery manager at first. To see it in action, you should edit any post (or create new one), because gallery manager widget has been included only in this view (and in post view in frontend, once particular view contains some gallery).
This is very simple demo, and need some sort of work to port it to working application. But, for sure this is a good starting point for dealing with all troubles you may have with this extension. And a nice thing from author, that he wanted to spare his time not only on writing extension itself, but also for providing working demo application. Big thumb up from my side! :>
Note, that cloned code does not contain assets folder and protected/runtime folder. You should create these two in point 2.5 (before changing folder permissions) of instruction mentioned in BitBucket repository.
Therefore, steps for installing demo application are this:
Clone repository (git clone git#bitbucket.org:z_bodya/yii-demo-blog.git).
Install composer dependencies (run php composer.phar install or composer install inside protected folder).
Create missing folders (mkdir assets, mkdir protected/runtime).
Change folder permissions (chmod -R 777 assets protected/runtime gallery uploads images in most situations).
Run application in your browser, login using demo/demo, go to control panel and edit (or create and save first) any post found there.
Read [this article](Installing Composer to PHP on Windows.txt) if you don't have Composer on your Windows and need to install it.
Note, that demo applications includes gallery's cover image functionality, requested by some user and implemented as a part of separate branch. It is not included in master branch and since branches at BitBucket are not accessible right now, you can only get this feature by hand-copying changed code.
Sources and information
Here is a list of pages, you may wish to visit to read more about yii-gallery-manager:
extension page at yiiframework.com,
main code repository at BitBucket,
mirror code repository at GitHub,
demo application at BitBucket.
Main repository at BitBucket is not accessible (the moment of writing it) and does not provide a code to clone. You should use GitHub mirror instead or download .tar.gz file from extension page at yiiframework.com.
There's also a forum discussion on this extension, but last post (unanswered) is over two years old now. So, this forum is pretty useless.
Some alternatives
If, for any reason, yii-gallery-manager is not an option for you, you can consider these alternatives:
https://code.google.com/p/yii-gallery-extension/
https://github.com/Crisu83/yii-imagemanager
https://github.com/drumaddict/angular-yii
in your composer.json file add
"require": {
...
"z_bodya/yii-gallery-manager": "dev-default"
},
then run
composer update
I am trying to create a Dominion game in Smalltalk, and I can't get the layout of the GUI the way I want.
Currently, I have this as code to build the GUI:
open: game
| builder content |
builder := UITheme builder.
content := builder
newColumn:
{(builder
newListFor: game
list: #supplyStrings
selected: nil
changeSelected: nil
getEnabled: nil
help: 'Supply') .
(builder newRow: (game players collect: [ :p | self morphForPlayer: p usingBuilder: builder ]))}.
gui := (content openInWindowLabeled: 'DominionGame') extent: 1024 # 768
(forgive the poor Smalltalk style, I've been using Smalltalk for a week).
I am getting the basic idea of what I want: a window with the top portion common to all players, and a bottom portion divided into sections for each player.
The trouble I have is that the top portion is too big, taking up about half the window, and I don't know how to fix that.
I've tried adding "vsizing: #shrinkWrap" to the builder for the #supplyStrings list, but that made it too small, forcing the contents to use a scrollbar; I've tried adding "extent: 1024#200" to that morph, and saw no effect.
So I have two questions:
1) How do I get finer layout control over the objects built with UITheme builder?
2) Where can I find documentation on how to do UI design using Pharo? I'd love to RTFM, if I know where TFM was to R!
You can build an UI at different abstraction levels in Pharo. There is Glamour, where you describe the UI in terms of presentations, panes & ports. It is most useful for building specialized model browsers. For building a game it doesn't seem the most suitable. Then there is Spec, aiming at reuse of composable widgets. That could be a good fit. This summer there has been a GSoC project to build an Spec UIPainter, so you can get a good feel for how to layout the UI. PolyMorph is basically an abstraction layer over Morphic providing different skins (UIThemes). Below that is Morphic. An advantage of building directly in Morphic is that there is an excellent game building example: Laser Game (needing slight changes for use in Pharo).
EDIT: Read answer number 1 from Tim Schmelter and then use this question for examples of how to embed resources and access them at runtime.
The subject of embedded resources comes up a lot, especially with people asking how to access the embedded files at runtime. Things get more confusing because Visual Studio gives you 2 different ways of embedding a resource, and different ways of accessing those resources at runtime. The problem is that depending on which method you used to embed the resource, the method you’re trying to use to access the file at runtime might not work. This post is an attempt to clear up all the confusion that I see out there, but I also have a question that nobody can seem to answer factually: Why is the size of my compiled program TWICE the size of the embedded resource (sometimes)? For example if I embed a 20MB file into my project, why does my program compile to 40MB? I haves asked this question in the past and nobody was able to reproduce my results. I found that the reason they were not able to reproduce was because they were embedding the file in a different way. See here:
Method 1:
Double-click on My Project to open the property pages and go to the Resources Tab. Now click Add Resource > Add Existing File. Browse to the file you want to embed. For this example I’m using an executable. You will now see your file on the Resources Tab:
You will also see that a folder named Resources was created under your project and the embedded file has been placed in this folder:
EDIT: THIS NEXT STEP WAS THE PROBLEM. TURNS OUT THAT WHEN YOU ADD A FILE VIA THE RESOURCES TAB YOU SHOULD NOT SET THE BUILD ACTION TO EMBEDDED RESOURCE. Counter intuitive to say the least!
Now with the file selected, look down at the properties window for the file and change the build action to Embedded Resource: (this step should ONLY be performed when you add a file via method 2).
Now compile your program. You will see that the size of your compiled program is at least double the size of your embedded resource. This does not happen with method 2. See here:
Method 2:
Right-click on your project name and choose Add > Existing Item. Browse to your file, and this time you will notice that while it was indeed placed under your project, there was no Resources folder created:
Now once again select the file and change the Build Action to Embedded Resource and compile. This time the size of the compiled program will be as you expected - about the size of the embedded file and not double the size as with method 1.
Which method you use to embed your file will determine which method you can use to access the file at runtime. For method 1 this is very simple, all you have to do is:
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllBytes(Path, My.Resources.ResourceName, Append)
Where Path is the location and name for the file you want to save on the harddrive, ResourceName is the name of the embedded resource that you see in the project window (minus any extension), and Append is whether or not you want to create a new file or overwrite an existing file. So for example, using test.exe from the above images, I could save that file to the C drive like this:
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllBytes(“C:\test.exe”, My.Resources.test, False)
Couldn’t be easier.
Method 2 however doesn’t appear to give you access to My.Resources so it gets a little more complicated. You have to create a Stream to hold the resource, put the stream into a byte array, then write the bytes out to the file system. The simplest way I have found to do this is like this:
Using s As Stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(Project.ResourceName)
Dim bytes(s.Length) As Byte
s.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length)
File.WriteAllBytes(OutputFile, bytes)
End Using
With this method ResourceName must contain the file extension AND project name so using our example from above we can just do:
Using s As Stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(WindowsApplication1.test.exe)
Dim bytes(s.Length) As Byte
s.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length)
File.WriteAllBytes(“C:\test.exe”, bytes)
End Using
Text-based files are a little different:
Dim output As String
Using sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(WindowsApplication1.test.txt))
output = sr.ReadToEnd()
End Using
Using sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(“C:\test.txt”)
sw.Write(output)
End Using
Having struggled with this in the past I hope this will help someone. And if you think you can explain factually why method 1 of embedding a resource bloats my compiled program to double its size, I would really appreciate it.
I assume that Method 1 is adding the files twice.
http://www.vbdotnetforums.com/vb-net-general-discussion/42670-visual-basic-net-2008-get-resource-file-io-stream.html#post121923
At least that is the conclusion of the thread above.
Quote:
You went to the Resources page of the project properties and added the files there, right? You then went into the Solution Explorer and change the Build Action of the files to Embedded Resource, right? That's why you were doubling the file size: you were adding each file twice.
There are two different ways to add resources: on the Resources page of the project properties and in the Solution Explorer. You do NOT do both. If you want to use GetManifestResourcestream then you do NOT use the Resources page. You add the files to the project in the Solution Explorer manually, then you set the Build Action to Embedded Resource.
In future, do one or the other, not both.
Add a file to the Resources page of the project properties and then access it via My.Resources. This will automatically add the file to the project in the Solution Explorer but the Build Action will be None and it should be left that way.
Add the file to the project in the Solution Explorer by using Add New Item or Add Existing Item. Set the Build Action of the file to Embedded Resource and then access the resource using GetManifestResourceStream.
Just an update for anyone who wants to use this code. The code actually writes one additional byte to the file due to zero-based declaration of the byte array.
To get an exact copy of the original file change the code to:
Using s As Stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(WindowsApplication1.test.exe)
Dim bytes(s.Length-1) As Byte
s.Read(bytes, 0, bytes.Length)
File.WriteAllBytes(“C:\test.exe”, bytes)
End Using