How and where do I find the .Net source file

[Aienstaien]

How and where do i find the source file for the downloaded .net application, this is to reference the assembly of the web application, because when i try to find out the source file i found that ASP.Net does some recompilation processing on the resource files and compiles them into an assembly called App_GlobalResources, which I think never be created by the normal build process so the functional tests fail because that can't find the App_GlobalResources assembly to look the string up from.

[Pauline]

Resource files (.resx, .resource) can be compiled into an assembly or put into their own assembly as a satellite resource. Its ugly because I already have a reference to the webproject (which I can probably remove now...) and I don't like mixing source files between projects. When compiled into an app, you’re stuck with what you have at compile time, but that’s not a problem if you’re simply wrapping up something that won’t change between builds.

[BoanHed]

Have you considered moving your GlobalResources into a separate assembly and then referencing that from both your web project and your test project? You can add a resource file via the "Add Item…" item in the Solution Explorer. When you open the file, you’re presented with VS.NET’s XML editor, as the resx format is a simple XML document. The columns presented are Name, Value, Comment, Type and MimeType. When using strings, you only need to be concerned with the Name and Value columns.

[Wilbur]

WinResourceFileCreator will create a resource file (either resx or resources) with the files that you choose. Currently it only creates resource files, it will not load them and let you edit the contents. The ResourceManager class offers the simplest way. The most useful constructor takes an assembly and the root name to pick the resources from. The problem is the ASP.Net does some precomilation processing on the resource files and compiles them into an assembly called App_GlobalResources.