Building a .txt file into my project

[travisowens]

In my app I want to have a revision.txt file to keep track of revision history. I don't want to keep the file out in the open so I want a way to compile the .txt into my project. I'm assuming this is already happening when I add the .txt file to my project but the question is, how can I (open) StreamReader this file?

 

I've heard I need to use resources but I don't even know where such an option lies in Visual Studio 2003. If somebody can give me a quick mini tutorial on this, I would be thankfull.

[PlausiblyDamp]

As similar things have been asked before I've just thrown together a quick sample and posted in the code library.

 

http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83574

[travisowens]

The example worked, so I wanted to impliment it into my C# project so I ported the code...

     // get a reference to the running assembly
     Assembly myAssem;
     myAssem = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

     // Stream for the resource
     System.IO.Stream s;
     // Get the resource stream from ourselves
     s = myAssem.GetManifestResourceStream("EmbeddedResources.versions.txt");
                       
     // as it's a text file create a stream reader...
     System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(s);
     // ...and read
     txtVersionHistory.Text = sr.ReadToEnd();

     // be well behaved now
     sr.Close();
     s.Close();

 

It builds fine but errors on runtime with...

System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: stream

I'm guessing it cannot find the file as an embedded resource but I have no idea why. I compare my app to the tutorial project and they appear to be exactly the same.

 

Any ideas?

[PlausiblyDamp]

The example worked, so I wanted to impliment it into my C# project so I ported the code...

     // get a reference to the running assembly
     Assembly myAssem;
     myAssem = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

     // Stream for the resource
     System.IO.Stream s;
     // Get the resource stream from ourselves
     s = myAssem.GetManifestResourceStream("EmbeddedResources.versions.txt");
                       
     // as it's a text file create a stream reader...
     System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(s);
     // ...and read
     txtVersionHistory.Text = sr.ReadToEnd();

     // be well behaved now
     sr.Close();
     s.Close();

 

It builds fine but errors on runtime with...

System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: stream

I'm guessing it cannot find the file as an embedded resource but I have no idea why. I compare my app to the tutorial project and they appear to be exactly the same.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

What is the default namespace for your application (you can check by bringing up the project properties). You need to change 'EmbeddedResources' to the applications default namespace for it to work. If that doesn't fix it reply and I'll look into it a bit more....

[travisowens]

Oppps, I didn't realize I was suspose to insert my namespace into the resource. Well anyways it works fine and here's the full code in case any future C# guys want to embed a text file into their app.

 

 

     // get a reference to the running assembly
     Assembly myAssem;
     myAssem = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

     // Stream for the resource
     System.IO.Stream s;

     // Get the resource stream from ourselves
     // NOTE: the format is the Applications RootNamespace.resourcename
     s = myAssem.GetManifestResourceStream("Blotter.versions.txt");
                       
     // since it's a text file create a stream reader...
     System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(s);

     // ...and read
     txtVersionHistory.Text = sr.ReadToEnd();
     txtVersionHistory.SelectionLength = 0;

     // be well behaved now
     sr.Close();
     s.Close();