Consider adding more EmbeddedResource metadata to the sdk

[davidwengier]

Once #2873 is fixed we can potentially include more metadata into the default glob in the SDK for EmbeddedResource to simplify the project file with respect to resource files (*.resx).

For example, consider if the SDK was expanded to the following:

  <ItemGroup>
    <EmbeddedResource Update="**\*.resx">
      <Generator>ResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator>
      <LastGenOutput>%(Filename).Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
      <DesignTime>True</DesignTime>
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
    </EmbeddedResource>

    <Compile Update="**\*.Designer.cs">
      <DesignTime>True</DesignTime>
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
      <DependentUpon>$([System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($([System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension(%(Identity))), '.resx'))</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>

This would mean that the act of adding a .resx file to a project would result in no changes to the project file. Any pre-existing (standard) configuration in project files could be removed if users want to clean up their project files. Automatic or manual running of the custom tool for a .resx file also wouldn't modify the project.

The problem with the above is the assumption that *.Designer.cs is solely for .resx files, which doesn't hold true for Windows Forms apps, and possibly others. We could go half-way and just include the EmbeddedResource item above, which would result in some cleanup of the file, but not all.

We should investigate if there are ways to make the whole thing possible. One option to investigate is if we can change the filename for the generated designer files for .resx files to make them more uniquely identifiable, like Resource1.resx.designer.cs, though doing that in a backwards compatible way would present a challenge. Other possibilities should be considered.

[cremor]

Good idea. Two notes to improve it:

• DependentUpon should not contain a path. So it can be simplified to $([System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension(%(Filename), '.resx'))
• The problem with WinForms *.Designer.cs files can be prevented by only applying the <Compile Update=""> tag to the *.Designer.cs files that are matching one of the files updated with the <EmbeddedResource Update=""> tag. Here is an example: https://github.com/novotnyllc/MSBuildSdkExtras/blob/4c901f06673714a051dd1c0c306d3d2a1ed4d0d7/Source/MSBuild.Sdk.Extras/DefaultItems/Platforms/Common.props#L28-L48 The important part here is that the *.Designer.cs filename is saved as a new metadata (GenFilePath) in the EmbeddedResource. Later the <Compile Update=""> tag is then only applied to those files.

[jnm2]

Can this issue cover .settings and their related Designer.cs files as well? It seems almost exactly the same as the .resx situation.

<None Update="Properties\Settings.settings" Generator="SettingsSingleFileGenerator" LastGenOutput="Settings.Designer.cs" />
<Compile Update="Properties\Settings.Designer.cs" DependentUpon="Settings.settings" DesignTimeSharedInput="True" AutoGen="True" />

[RussKie]

In Windows Forms we had few reports (e.g., https://github.com/dotnet/winforms/issues/6849) where customers had resources with non-standard names, and that caused the designer to fail

The following workaround appears the help in establishing the dependency correctly:

  <ItemGroup>
    <_EmbeddedResources Include="**\*.resx">
      <_HasLocaleName>$([System.String]::Copy('%(Filename)').IndexOf('.'))</_HasLocaleName>
    </_EmbeddedResources>

    <_EmbeddedResourceWithLocaleNames Include="@(_EmbeddedResources)"
                                      Exclude="@(_EmbeddedResources->HasMetadata('_HasLocaleName')->WithMetadataValue('_HasLocaleName','-1'))" />

    <EmbeddedResource Update="@(_EmbeddedResourceWithLocaleNames)">
      <DependentUpon>$([System.String]::Copy('%(Identity)').SubString(0, $([System.String]::Copy('%(Identity)').IndexOf('.')))).cs</DependentUpon>
    </EmbeddedResource>
  </ItemGroup>