Question

Is there a way, in WPF, to enumerate through all files within a specific embedded resource directory? That is, a directory of items all having a “Build Action” set to “Resource”.

Answer 1

The resources are compiled into a resource stream named YourAssemblyName.g.resources. So, we load up this stream which appears to be a dictionary where the key is the resource name and the value is the resource data. We are interested in the resource name as that is (usually) the original folder and file name for the resource. We then filter out those keys that begin with the folder we are interested in.

public static string[] GetResourcesUnder(string folder)
{
    folder = folder.ToLower() + "/";

    var assembly       = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly();
    var resourcesName  = assembly.GetName().Name + ".g.resources";
    var stream         = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourcesName);
    var resourceReader = new ResourceReader(stream);

    var resources =
        from p in resourceReader.OfType<DictionaryEntry>()
        let theme = (string)p.Key
        where theme.StartsWith(folder)
        select theme.Substring(folder.Length);

    return resources.ToArray();
}

The LINQ query filters out all the resource keys that start with the given folder name and also removes the folder name from the key.

One thing you need to know is that XAML files get compiled and given the extension BAML. So, let’s say you have a bunch of resource dictionaries under a folder named Themes/Theme1.xaml, Themes/Theme2.xaml, etc. These will get compiled into your assembly as Themes/Theme1.baml, Themes/Theme2.baml, etc.