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About ResXue

ResXue stands for Rescue for ResX and its goal is to solve the most pesky issues with ResX format.

Why?

ResX was introduced together with .NET Framework 1.1 in 2003 and except for minor details hasn't really changed from this time.

Although it allows for storing localized text in .NET assemblies there are many issues making ResX challenging for every day use:

  • doesn't play well with distributed version controls like Git or Mercurial when merging
  • it's far from being a human-readable medium mostly due to 107-line header (sic!) - this is especially painful during code review
  • every new resource element is added always at the end of the file which leads to many conflicts
  • and to top it all of the attribute xml:space="preserve" is repeated for all data and metadata nodes!

ResXue

By installing this nuget package you simply introduce a new msbuild target which will reformat every resx file in the projects so that:

  • all unnecessary header lines will be removed
  • all ResX entries are combined to one line
  • the entries will be sort alphabetically
  • xml:space="preserve" is applied only once for the whole file

Example

This is the sample original resx file created by Visual Studio

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
  <!-- 
    Microsoft ResX Schema 
    
    Version 2.0
    
    The primary goals of this format is to allow a simple XML format 
    that is mostly human readable. The generation and parsing of the 
    various data types are done through the TypeConverter classes 
    associated with the data types.
    
    Example:
    
    ... ado.net/XML headers & schema ...
    <resheader name="resmimetype">text/microsoft-resx</resheader>
    <resheader name="version">2.0</resheader>
    <resheader name="reader">System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, ...</resheader>
    <resheader name="writer">System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, ...</resheader>
    <data name="Name1"><value>this is my long string</value><comment>this is a comment</comment></data>
    <data name="Color1" type="System.Drawing.Color, System.Drawing">Blue</data>
    <data name="Bitmap1" mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64">
        <value>[base64 mime encoded serialized .NET Framework object]</value>
    </data>
    <data name="Icon1" type="System.Drawing.Icon, System.Drawing" mimetype="application/x-microsoft.net.object.bytearray.base64">
        <value>[base64 mime encoded string representing a byte array form of the .NET Framework object]</value>
        <comment>This is a comment</comment>
    </data>
                
    There are any number of "resheader" rows that contain simple 
    name/value pairs.
    
    Each data row contains a name, and value. The row also contains a 
    type or mimetype. Type corresponds to a .NET class that support 
    text/value conversion through the TypeConverter architecture. 
    Classes that don't support this are serialized and stored with the 
    mimetype set.
    
    The mimetype is used for serialized objects, and tells the 
    ResXResourceReader how to depersist the object. This is currently not 
    extensible. For a given mimetype the value must be set accordingly:
    
    Note - application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64 is the format 
    that the ResXResourceWriter will generate, however the reader can 
    read any of the formats listed below.
    
    mimetype: application/x-microsoft.net.object.binary.base64
    value   : The object must be serialized with 
            : System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter
            : and then encoded with base64 encoding.
    
    mimetype: application/x-microsoft.net.object.soap.base64
    value   : The object must be serialized with 
            : System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter
            : and then encoded with base64 encoding.

    mimetype: application/x-microsoft.net.object.bytearray.base64
    value   : The object must be serialized into a byte array 
            : using a System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter
            : and then encoded with base64 encoding.
    -->
  <xsd:schema id="root" xmlns="" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata">
    <xsd:import namespace="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace" />
    <xsd:element name="root" msdata:IsDataSet="true">
      <xsd:complexType>
        <xsd:choice maxOccurs="unbounded">
          <xsd:element name="metadata">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" />
              </xsd:sequence>
              <xsd:attribute name="name" use="required" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute name="type" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute name="mimetype" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute ref="xml:space" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
          <xsd:element name="assembly">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:attribute name="alias" type="xsd:string" />
              <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
          <xsd:element name="data">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
                <xsd:element name="comment" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="2" />
              </xsd:sequence>
              <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
              <xsd:attribute name="type" type="xsd:string" msdata:Ordinal="3" />
              <xsd:attribute name="mimetype" type="xsd:string" msdata:Ordinal="4" />
              <xsd:attribute ref="xml:space" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
          <xsd:element name="resheader">
            <xsd:complexType>
              <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="value" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" msdata:Ordinal="1" />
              </xsd:sequence>
              <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required" />
            </xsd:complexType>
          </xsd:element>
        </xsd:choice>
      </xsd:complexType>
    </xsd:element>
  </xsd:schema>
  <resheader name="resmimetype">
    <value>text/microsoft-resx</value>
  </resheader>
  <resheader name="version">
    <value>2.0</value>
  </resheader>
  <resheader name="reader">
    <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
  </resheader>
  <resheader name="writer">
    <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
  </resheader>
  <data name="UserEmailIsAlreadyInUseMessage" xml:space="preserve">
    <value>User email {0} is already in use</value>
  </data>
  <data name="UserLoginIsAlreadyInUseMessage" xml:space="preserve">
    <value>User login is already taken</value>
  </data>
</root>

And this is a version after ResXcue:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><root xml:space="preserve">
	<resheader name="resmimetype"><value>text/microsoft-resx</value></resheader>
	<resheader name="version"><value>2.0</value></resheader>
	<resheader name="reader"><value>System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value></resheader>
	<resheader name="writer"><value>System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value></resheader>

	<data name="UserEmailIsAlreadyInUseMessage"><value>User email {0} is already in use</value></data>
	<data name="UserLoginIsAlreadyInUseMessage"><value>User login is already taken</value></data>
</root>

Summary

I know. This is just a work-around. The truth is that resx file format should be redesigned from scratch. If you agree just leave your vote here: https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio-ide/suggestions/18456256-redesign-the-resx-format-sort-in-alphabetical-ord