Loading an external image via XAML code in WPF?

Question

I have an image lock.png beside of my WPF exe file in the images folder. Now, I'm gonna load it into the WPF Project as an image, I've used the following XAML code:

<Image Stretch="Fill" Source="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/images/lock.png" />

It works, but Expression Blend or Visual Studio doesn't show it when I'm working on the project.
How can we show external images in these situations?

Answer 1

Try to load your image dynamically. This should be on xaml:

<Image Stretch="Fill" Name="MyImage" />

And this in code behind. On Window_Loaded or in Window constructor:

if (File.Exists(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "images/lock.png"))
            {
                Uri uri = new Uri(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "images/lock.png", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
                MyImage.Source = BitmapFrame.Create(uri);
            }

Answer 2

Use format like: Project;component/ImagePath

e.g.

<Image Source="ImageDemo;component/Images/ISIBAR.png" Name="custLogo"/>

Where ImageDemo is the project name, Image/ISIBAR.png is the path inside project

Answer 3

If the image is relative to your EXE location just do

<Image Source="Images\lock.png" />

If the image isn't relative then you have a larger problem. pack syntax only useful if you are actually "packing" the resource into your assembly.

The problem with loose images and Blend is that Blend hosts your exe in a temp directory that it controls and looks for images relative to that temp directory, which will screw any pathing you are depending on.