Are there any performance issues or caveats with resource (.resx) files?

c# asp.net resources resx resource-files
John Bubriski picture John Bubriski · Aug 14, 2009 · Viewed 7.4k times · Source

Resource files seem great for localization of labels and messages, but are they perfect?

For example:

  1. Is there a better solution if there is a huge amount of resources? Like 100,000 strings in a .resx file? (Theoretically, I do not actually have this problem)
  2. Is this a good method for storing the other types of data, such as images, icons, audio files, regular files, etc.?
  3. Is it a best practice to store your .resx files in a stand-alone project for easier updates/compiling?
  4. Are there any other issues that you have run into when using .resx files?

Answer

Scott Schulthess picture Scott Schulthess · Oct 13, 2009

 1. Is there a better solution if there is a huge amount of resources? Like 100,000 strings in a .resx file? (Theoretically, I do not actually have this problem)

I've used Alfresco as an alternative content repository on Java projects. RESX files, from a maintaince standpoint (because of encoding issues I guess) can really stink.

 2. Is this a good method for storing the other types of data, such as images, icons, audio files, regular files, etc.?

I've seen it work with images...but that's it. (not sure with other media/files)

 3. Is it a best practice to store your .resx files in a stand-alone project for easier updates/compiling?

I don't, but you can edit a resx file on a live site and then edit will go through, I believe. Certainly that's the way it works in development (except for the global resx, I think)

 4. Are there any other issues that you have run into when using .resx files?

Besides being really annoying to maintain, and the fact that visual studio doesn't provide the neatest tools for working with them...no.

Related questions

Access resx resource files from another project

I'm using asp.net 3.5, my solution currently has 2 projects, an API class project and a website project, within the class project I have a resource file named checkin.resx. For me to be able to access the resource files from …

Read More
Why can't I use resources as ErrorMessage with DataAnnotations?

Why can't I do like this? [Required(ErrorMessage = "*")] [RegularExpression("^[a-zA-Z0-9_]*$", ErrorMessage = Resources.RegistrationModel.UsernameError)] public string Username { get; set; } What is the error message telling me? An attribute argument must be a constant expression , typeof expression or array creation …

Read More
Programmatically set Culture of User Controls in ASP.NET

I'd like to programmatically set the culture of my User Control which defines several Labels, Buttons and Textboxes ... Usually, for aspx-pages you override the InitializeCulture-Method and set Culture and UICulture to achieve this, alas ASCX-Controls do not have this Method, …

Read More