Question

I have a Windows Forms project. I have a Resources folder and I wan to use the files there using relative path. Here is a printscreen of my project tree

As you may see I have folder UserControls where I have FileExplorer.cs it contains aa openFileDialog + pictureBox. I use this control in some of my forms which are in Forms folder. The case is that in Resources folder I have this T380.jpg image that I want to load by default but for now I can do it only by inserting the full path to it. Here is my code where I try to load the image:

 private void FileExplorer_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            pictureBox1.ImageLocation = @"ShoesUnlimitedAdmin\Resources\T380.jpg";
            pictureBox1.Load();
        }

I use the Load event of the user control to load my image but it only works when I set the full path to the image like C:\\... and so. How can I point to the Resources folder of the project using relative path?

Answer 1

If these images are small then favor adding them as resources in the executable file so you can use Properties.Resources in your code and don’t have to deploy the files on the user’s machine. Use Project + Properties, Resources. Click the arrow on the “Add Resource” button and select Add Existing File.

If they are big (more than a couple of megabytes) then you’ll indeed want to deploy them as separate files. You can find them back by using the location of the EXE program, here’s a helper method, spelled out for clarity:

    public static string GetResourcePath(string filename) {
        string exepath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location;
        string exedir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exepath);
        string resdir = System.IO.Path.Combine(exedir, "Resources");
        return System.IO.Path.Combine(resdir, filename);
    }