Error: ResXFileCodeGenerator can only be used with .NET projects

PatrickDappollonioVega

Hello,

I've been trying to add internationalization to my Xamarin.Forms project I just started. I set up a few ContentPages and some of them currently have a few strings I need to show in different languages (i.e. english, spanish and russian). I've followed the steps to create the RESX file found in this Guide, but once I created the RESX file called AppResources.resx, I get an error message who says: Error: ResXFileCodeGenerator can only be used with .NET projects. I added the file to the root of the Xamarin.Forms common code project but it doesn't seem to be able to generate the AppResources.Designer.cs. Also, in the Tool Output, I get this message:

Running generator 'ResXFileCodeGenerator' on file '/Users/Username/Dev/AppProject/AppProject/AppResources.resx'...

Errors in file generation.

Also, once I create the resx file, I got not a blank file, but instead, a file with the following code (I don't know if that's normal or not):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
    <resheader name="resmimetype">
        <value>text/microsoft-resx</value>
    </resheader>
    <resheader name="version">
        <value>2.0</value>
    </resheader>
    <resheader name="reader">
        <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
    </resheader>
    <resheader name="writer">
        <value>System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</value>
    </resheader>
</root>

What can I do to get a localizable app? I don't have a Windows computer to create the files there (it would be a waste of time the change just to get the localization done) and I've seen some others complaining about the same thing, so it might be possible this is a bug.

Any ideas?

LluisSanchez

RESX file generation is not supported in shared projects, and there are no plans to support it unless Microsoft adds support for it in Visual Studio. If you want to share resources, you need to use a portable library instead of a shared project.

Auri

Same problem here. This used to work, and now it doesn't. I've complained for months and they still haven't fixed it.

XAMARIN, ARE YOU LISTENING?

https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=30175

LluisSanchez

RESX file generation is not supported in shared projects, and there are no plans to support it unless Microsoft adds support for it in Visual Studio. If you want to share resources, you need to use a portable library instead of a shared project.

PatrickDappollonioVega

That should be in bold in the documentation. We invested a large amount of time in order to do a proper mobile application and now we face the problem whether start over or make our own translation solution.

rudyryk

I've found an elegant workaround - It's easy to create portable project within solution and then just add reference to it.

So, I'm adding *.resx files to portable project, also it's convenient to use PublicResXFileCodeGenerator as build tool - can be specified via right click on resource file -> Properties -> Custom tool