[RESOLVED] How do you get path to an image stored in resources

[John_SC]

I have put various files into my application's Resources (pic1, pic2, pic3, etc.). Random images are placed into a picturebox control (pbxPic) on my form. When I click a button I want to identify the path to the picture file being displayed in pbxPic.

I noticed that in the Resources.resx file that each entry has a <value> associated with it that identifies the path.

...  
  <data name="pic1" type="System.Resources.ResXFileRef, System.Windows.Forms">
    <value>..\Resources\pic1.jpg;System.Drawing.Bitmap, System.Drawing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a</value>
  </data>
  <data name="pic2" type="System.Resources.ResXFileRef, System.Windows.Forms">
    <value>..\Resources\pic2.jpg;System.Drawing.Bitmap, System.Drawing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a</value>
  </data>
  <data name="pic3" type="System.Resources.ResXFileRef, System.Windows.Forms">
    <value>..\Resources\pic3.jpg;System.Drawing.Bitmap, System.Drawing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a</value>
  </data>

I was thinking that I could capture the associated value when I loaded the associated resource into my picturebox, but I do not know how to reference it. So for example

dim PicPath as string 

pbxPic.image = My.Resources.pic1
PicPath = ????????

[passel]

I'm wondering why you want the path.
Once you've created an executable, the images are part of the executable so there is no path associated with the image. The path in the resx file is just for the IDE and compiler/linker so that the file can be pulled into or linked to the executable. You can copy the executable to a completely different place on your computer, or to another computer and it will be able to access the pictures which are part of the exe. The files don't need to exist on the computer to run the exe, only to build it, and the executable doesn't have a need or even a way to access the path of where the files originally came from. That information is superfluous to the executable.

If you want to know which picture you loaded from the built in resources, then store that information. At the time you load the resource, you had to know its name, so save that, or something associated with that.

Dim PicPath As String 

pbxPic.image = My.Resources.pic1
PicPath = "pic1"

'or store with picturebox, so no extra variable needed

pbxPic.Image = My.Resources.pic1
pbxPic.Tag = "pic1"

[John_SC]

The reason I want the file is I am creating an html report from within the application, and outputting HTML and CSS. I wanted to insert the picture into the report, which required the file name.

I suspected the images were integrated into the exe, but was not sure. If I distribute the pictures with the exe, I do like your second approach using tag. I was not aware you could do that.

Thanks for looking at it and giving me your feedback.

[jmcilhinney]

I'm not sure whether this will be of value but, if you want to use resources so that the user cannot delete or modify the images you distribute but you need a file with a path for some purpose, you can just save the resource to a temp file and then use that:

Dim tempFilePath = Path.GetTempFileName()
 
Using myImage = My.Resources.MyImage
    myImage.Save(tempFilePath)
End Using

You can now use tempFilePath in HTML or whatever. Just be aware that you should endeavour to delete any temp files you create, so you should keep that path somewhere and delete the file when you're finished with it or when the application exits.