Image in WPF Button not Visible at Runtime

Question

All, I have the following start to a small application that checks .resx files for consistency of embedded brackets (so that runtime errors of non-matching "... {0}" strings don't happen). I have the following XAML for the MainWindow.xaml, and my particular problem relates to the image that is to be displayed on the button

<Window x:Class="ResxChecker.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="174.383" Width="495.869">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="350*"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="30*"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Label Content="Select .resx file:" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="10,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="24" Width="Auto" Grid.ColumnSpan="1"/>
        <TextBox Grid.ColumnSpan="2" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="10,0,0,0" Grid.Row="1" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
        <Button Grid.Column="2" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="5,0,10,0" Grid.Row="1">
            <Image VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="16 " Width="16" Source="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Resources/UserCost2013Open16.png"/>
        </Button>
    </Grid>
</Window>

The image has 'Build Action = Resource', 'Copy to output directory = Do not copy' - the image shows in the designer but not at runtime. I have seen the following questions and read the relevant answers, but none resolve the problem:

1. WPF control images not displayed when consumed by an application

2. image problem in wpf (image does not show up)

3. Background Image of Button not showing in WPF

How do I get the button image to appear at runtime?

Answer 1

Change the build action to 'Resource'. Also your pack url is wrong. Either use:

Source="pack://application:,,,/Resource/UserCost2013Open16.png"

or simply

Source="/Resource/UserCost2013Open16.png"

Answer 2

There are 2 Solutions:

1: Change the settings of the image:

Build Action = Content
Copy to output directory = Copy if newer
Source="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Resources/UserCost2013Open16.png"

2: When Using application instead of siteoforigin in the source path, you have to possible ways:

a) Image will be in a SubFolder called "Resources" and .exe file will be small

Source="pack://application:,,,/Resources/UserCost2013Open16.png"
Build Action = Content
Copy to output directory = Copy if newer

b) Image will be included in the .exe and no Subfolder with imagefile will exist

Source="pack://application:,,,/Resources/UserCost2013Open16.png"
Build Action = Resource
Copy to output directory = Copy if newer

Answer 3

Assumeing that you have

• set your Build Action to Resource

• set that path correctly using URI-PACK-FORMAT

In my case it was still not showing.

Clean & Rebuild NOT just Build fixed it for me !

Answer 4

In my case I had the images in a separate project named Common and the images were under a folder named Resources in this project. In my other project, I added a reference to Common and set the source of the images like this:

<Image Source="/Common;component/Resources/anImage.png"/>

The images have the Build Action set to Resource and Copy to Output Directory to Do not copy. However, for some strange reason it wasn't working until I deleted every assembly file in my solution and made a Clean Solution and Build Solution. Not sure why, but it all started working at runtime once I rebuilt everything. I still can't figure out why it was working at Design Time though.