How to change the generated ManifestResourceName for Embedded Resources

Question

In a C# project, the generated resource name for an Embedded Resource by default undergoes some mangling to make the resulting name a namespaced valid language identifier.

For example Foo/Bar/123.txt becomes {Default Namespace}.Foo.Bar._123.txt and I have to load it with asm.GetManifestResourceStream("Yuck.Foo.Bar._123.txt").

I would much rather have my resources retain their relative path such as Foo/Bar/123.txt to better simulate a virtual file system and so I can load them such as asm.GetManifestResourceStream("Foo/Bar/123.txt").

Now I know that .Net does not place restrictions on resource names, so it seems feasible.

But how do I get the build engine to generate sensible path names for me?

Answer 1

In the .csproj file, the Embedded Resources are defined as <EmbeddedResource> items.

These have metadata named <LogicalName> which allows overwriting the name of the resource from whatever would otherwise be generated.

For example:

<ItemGroup>
  <EmbeddedResource Include="Foo\Bar\123.txt">
    <LogicalName>Foo\Bar\123.txt</LogicalName>
  </EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>

would generate a resource which could be loaded using asm.GetManifestResourceStream("Foo\Bar\123.txt")

To do this for all of our embedded resources, we can add a renaming task to the .csproj file which runs before the default names are generated and explicitly assigns names of our choosing:

<Target Name="ModifyEmbeddedResourceNames" BeforeTargets="CreateManifestResourceNames">
  <ItemGroup>
    <EmbeddedResource>
      <LogicalName>%(EmbeddedResource.Identity)</LogicalName>
    </EmbeddedResource>
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

With this we get resources named by their Identity.