C++: Access embedded resource from dll

Question

I have a c++ dll project, in which, I have embedded some raw data through "resource.rc" file.

IDR_TEMPLATE1           RCDATA                "areaTemplate.bin"

Now I want to access the data of "areaTemplate.bin" file from the dll. How can I read the contents of "areaTemplate.bin" in a byte array?

Answer 1

As Manuell says, you use FindResource(), LoadResource() and probably LockResource() and SizeofResource()

I happen to have some code which does pulls out a resource and writes it to a file, and may help with your understanding of the API in question.

void WriteResourceToFile(
   HANDLE hFile,
   const _tstring &resourceName,
   const _tstring &resourceType,
   HMODULE hModule)
{
   HRSRC hResource = ::FindResource(
      hModule,
      resourceName.c_str(),
      resourceType.c_str());

   if (!hResource)
   {
      const DWORD lastError = ::GetLastError();

      throw CWin32Exception(
         _T("WriteResourceToFile() - FindResource"),
         lastError);
   }

   HGLOBAL hGlobal = ::LoadResource(hModule, hResource);

   if (!hGlobal)
   {
      const DWORD lastError = ::GetLastError();

      throw CWin32Exception(
         _T("WriteResourceToFile() - LoadResource"),
         lastError);
   }

   void *pData = ::LockResource(hGlobal);

   if (!pData)
   {
      const DWORD lastError = ::GetLastError();

      throw CWin32Exception(
         _T("WriteResourceToFile() - LockResource"),
         lastError);
   }

   const DWORD bytes = ::SizeofResource(hModule, hResource);

   DWORD bytesWritten = 0;

   if (!::WriteFile(hFile, pData, bytes, &bytesWritten, 0))
   {
      const DWORD lastError = ::GetLastError();

      throw CWin32Exception(
         _T("WriteResourceToFile() - WriteFile"),
         lastError);
   }

   if (bytesWritten != bytes)
   {
      throw CWin32Exception(
         _T("WriteResourceToFile() - WriteFile"),
         _T("Wrote less bytes (") + ToString(bytesWritten) +
         _T("( than expected: ") + ToString(bytes));
   }
}