ResxWriter: Generating .resx files from an Excel spreadsheet

• Download ResxWriter installer - 225 Kb
• Download source - 83.7 Kb

Introduction

This is my first article so bear with me :) I want to share this with you because I think ResxWriter has some very nice functionality and some cool features. A break down:

• Generates .resx files using ADO.NET and an Excel spreadsheet.
• Fully customizable.
• Settings are per machine user.
• Clean uninstallation, with launcher.

ResxWriter is a .NET tool that can read Excel spreadsheets with data used for translation, and convert this data into separate .resx files.

Recently, I was working on an ASP.NET application that needed to have full translation for all static text. We used .NET resource files (.resx) and things were moving along just fine. Updating the text, however, was another story. Using Visual Studio to manually update the .resx files was cumbersome to say the least. Formatting was a pain if you used the IDE, although formatting the XML was an option…

Instead I decided to write an app that would take data from an Excel spreadsheet and generate the .resx files. This allowed our translation staff to use a program they are familiar with, as well as share the files for others to work on.

Reading the Excel File

Suppose you had the following data in a spreadsheet:

ResxWriter can extract the data from each column and create .resx files. Any number of columns can be used, and the application can be fully customized.

public bool GetDataFromExcelFile(string filePath)
{
    try
    {
        string strConnectionString = 
            @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" 
            + filePath + @";Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1""";
        OleDbConnection  dbConn = new OleDbConnection(strConnectionString);
        dbConn.Open();
        string fetch = BuildCommand();
        OleDbCommand  cmdSelect = new OleDbCommand(fetch, dbConn);
        OleDbDataAdapter dbAdapter = new OleDbDataAdapter();
        dbAdapter.SelectCommand  = cmdSelect;
        dbAdapter.Fill(this.m_table);
        dbConn.Close();
        dbConn = null;
        return true;
    }
    catch(System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException ex)
    {
        FrmMessage m = new FrmMessage();
        m.SetMessageText("ResxWriter - Error Message", 
            "Cannot Load Excel File!\n\n\nException:\n\n" 
            + ex.ToString());
        m.ShowDialog();
        return false;
    }
}

Writing the Resource Files

I created a class ClsLanguage to encapsulate the name-value functionality.

[Serializable]
public class ClsLanguage 
{
    private string langColumnName; 
    private string langCulture;

    public ClsLanguage() {} 
    
    public ClsLanguage(string columnName, string culture) 
    { 
        this.langColumnName = columnName; 
        this.langCulture = culture; 
    } 

    [XmlElement(ElementName = "LanguageColumnName")]
    public string LanguageColumnName 
    {
        get {return this.langColumnName;} 
        set {this.langColumnName = value;} 
    } 

    [XmlElement(ElementName = "LanguageCulture")] 
    public string LanguageCulture 
    { 
        get {return this.langCulture;} 
        set {this.langCulture = value;} 
    }
}

A strongly-typed collection of ClsLanguage objects is written out as Resource Files.

public void WriteResources(string filePath)
{
    if (filePath.Length > 0)
    {
        // get columns //
        foreach (ClsLanguage l in ClsMain.settings.LanguageCollection)
        {
            ResXResourceWriter rw = 
              new ResXResourceWriter(filePath + "." + 
              l.LanguageCulture + ".resx");

            for (int i=0; i<this.m_table.Rows.Count; i++)
            {
                ClsMain.frmMain.WriteProgressBar.Visible = true;
                ClsMain.frmMain.WriteProgressBar.Maximum = m_table.Rows.Count;

                try
                {
                  string name = 
                   m_table.Rows[i][ClsMain.settings.ControlColumnName].ToString();
                  string valu = m_table.Rows[i][l.LanguageColumnName].ToString();
                  rw.AddResource(name, valu);

                  ClsMain.frmMain.WriteProgressBar.Increment(i);
                }
                catch (System.ArgumentException)
                {
                }
            }

            rw.Generate();
            rw.Close();
        }

        ClsMain.frmMain.WriteProgressBar.Visible = false;

        FrmMessage m = new FrmMessage();
        m.SetMessageText("ResxWriter - Output Results",
            "Files were written to: " + filePath);
        m.ShowDialog();
    }
}

Points of Interest

Application settings (size, location and column names) were serialized through a class, ClsSettings.

[Serializable]        
public class ClsSettings
{        
    private readonly string m_settingsPath = 
          Application.UserAppDataPath + @"\ResxWriter.xml";
    private ClsLanguageCollection m_langCollection 
          = new ClsLanguageCollection();
    private Size    m_size = new Size(250, 175);
    private Point    m_location = new Point(200, 200);
    private string    m_controlColumnName;
    private string    m_sheetName;

    public ClsSettings()
    {
    }

    public string SettingsPath
    {
        get {return this.m_settingsPath;}
    }

    public ClsLanguageCollection LanguageCollection
    {
        get {return this.m_langCollection;}
    }

    public Size FormSize
    {
        get {return this.m_size;}
        set {this.m_size = value;}
    }

    public Point FormLocation
    {
        get {return this.m_location;}
        set {this.m_location = value;}
    }

    public string ControlColumnName
    {
        get {return this.m_controlColumnName;}
        set {this.m_controlColumnName = value;}
    }

    public string SheetName
    {
        get {return this.m_sheetName;}
        set {this.m_sheetName = value;}
    }
}

This allowed me to save (and load) application settings with a few lines of code:

XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ClsSettings));
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(xml, false))
{
    ClsMain.settings.FormSize = ClsMain.frmMain.Size;
    ClsMain.settings.FormLocation = ClsMain.frmMain.Location;
    xs.Serialize(sw, ClsMain.settings);
}

All settings in this app are specific to the current user, saved at /Documents and Settings/{User name}/Application Data/... This conforms closely to Microsoft's recommendations, and lets each user have their own experience and preferences.

I hate it when an application uninstalls but doesn't remove all files it was using. So, I made an app that cleans up for a true uninstallation. It essentially deletes all directories and files in its current location. Also, the only method (through Visual Studio) to create an uninstallation icon was to create a Uninstallation Launcher. In the source code, the launcher finds the product key used by the MSI file. This triggers the repair or remove screen, and allows uninstallation.

(These are both included as separate projects in the Solution file.)