What is the Resource Name for a Manifest Resource (Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream)?

Question

I've embedded a resource (an XSD file) in my ASP.NET MVC application. Now, I'd like to retrieve this file from code.

Looking at the documentation for Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(), it takes a string argument that is the "case-sensitive name of the manifest resource being requested".

Well, I don't find that very helpful and, of course, there was no example to be found on MSDN. What is the name of the manifest resource? Is it the name of the file? Is it the full path and name of the file? Or is it a separate name that is given to the resource itself and, if so, how do I set that name?

Answer 1

If I remember correctly, it's the name of the assembly plus the full name of the file (extension included), with a dot between them.

A quick way to find out for sure: use the Assembly.GetManifestResourceNames method:

string[] result = myAssembly.GetManifestResourceNames();

... and inspect the contents of result in the debugger.

ETA: Heck, if you only have one resource, you could just use this code to get the name:

string name = myAssembly.GetManifestResourceNames()[0];

I don't recommend that, though: I've found that sometimes VS will create empty resource files and compile them into the assembly, so you might have more assembly resources than you think.

ETA 2018-06-26: Here's another way I'm surprised I didn't think of in 2013. This will give you the resource name based on the name of the original resource:

string resourceFileName = "myResource.xsd";
string resourceName = myAssembly.GetManifestResourceNames()
                                .Where(name => name.Contains(resourceFileName))
                                .FirstOrDefault();