Configuration-specific resw resource string variants

user_4140538 0
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Been trying to set up configuration-specific variants of resource .resw files in my project, so I could have have different resource string values in Debug and in Release (and in other configurations).

There are standard facilities in VS to have files conditionally included or excluded from build depending on selected Configuration. I have set up file properties to be Content=Yes and Excluded From Build=No for a file that must be included in a configuration, and the other way around for the other file.

The variants appear as expected in the IDE - only one matching current configuration is active, and another one is shown with Content=False in the Properties view, and with a red icon in the files list. The vcxproj also contains correct PRIResource nodes for .resw files with DeploymentContent and ExcludedFromBuild set:

<ItemGroup>
    <PRIResource Include="Debug\Strings.resw">
      <ExcludedFromBuild Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|Win32'">false</ExcludedFromBuild>
      <DeploymentContent Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|Win32'">true</DeploymentContent>
      <ExcludedFromBuild Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|ARM64'">false</ExcludedFromBuild>
      <DeploymentContent...

Building this project however fails with a message

error PRI277: 0xdef00532 - Conflicting values for resource 'resw name/resource name'

Examining intermediate files reveals that both .resw variants are listed in resources.resfiles that is then fed into MakePri.exe . The ExcludedFromBuild setting appears to be ignored.

How would I get this to work? Is there a special way to control the inclusion of resw files? Maybe a different approach to having string variants altogether?

visual-studio-2017 uwp visual-studio-2019 visual-studio
1 Answers

There are apparently "qualifiers" for organizing resource variants, and a naming scheme (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/app-resources/tailor-resources-lang-scale-contrast). There is even a "Configuration" qualifier, though it is not entirely clear which configuration that is, and where at run time I am supposed to take an identifier to select a resource variant I want.

Adding this as an answer for the sake of completeness, as this is relevant and might even be useful to someone. But I am not happy with project configuration concerns being displaced to runtime, with unneeded and possibly sensitive values being added to the package. So I decided to force-emulate ExcludedFromBuild and am picking and copying the single .resw variant I need into build via a Custom Build Step. Shout out to whoever is responsible for this awkward mess at Microsoft.

user_41405380
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