Error using ResourceDictionary in Silverlight

Question

In my Silverlight app I have UserControl and I want to reference a StaticResource in a ResourceDictionary that is in a separate XAML file.

My UserControl looks like this:

<UserControl x:Class="ResourceDictionaryHeadache.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
    mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480">
    <UserControl.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary Source="/SampleData.xaml" />
    </UserControl.Resources>
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
        <ListBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
                 VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
                 ItemsSource="{StaticResource SampleData}">
        </ListBox>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

My SampleData.xaml file looks like this:

<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
xmlns:Headache="clr-namespace:ResourceDictionaryHeadache">
<Headache:PersonList x:Key="SampleData">
    <Headache:Person Name="Joe" Age="20" />
    <Headache:Person Name="Sam" Age="25" />
    <Headache:Person Name="Dave" Age="30" />
</Headache:PersonList>

I have the SampleData.xaml file set to a Build Action of Content and when I run the app I get an AG_E_PARSER_BAD_TYPE [Line: 5 Position: 44] error on the InitializeComponent() line of the constructor for my UserControl.

What is causing this error and how can I correctly reference this resource?

Answer 1

Set the Build Action to Resource and then reference it like below:

<ResourceDictionary Source="/AssemblyName;component/sampledata.xaml" />

make sure that its all in lowercase from component onwards as thats how it ends up in the resources of the dll.