Binary Resource Files (Windows CE 5.0)
A .res file contains strings, graphics, and other resources that Windows CE OS uses to interact with you. During the build process, you can select which localized .res files to include in your OS design. Platform Builder automatically supports certain locales and includes localized .res files for these locales.
Currently, Platform Builder contains localized .res files for Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, and Swedish.
During the build process, when running the Sysgen tool (Sysgen.bat), Platform Builder propagates the .res files to a project-specific directory: %_WINCEROOT%\Public\<Project Name>\Wince500\<OS design>\Cesysgen\Oak\Target\<CPU Family>\<Release or Debug>\<Locale>. During the build process, Platform Builder copies the .res files to the %_FLATRELEASEDIR%\<Locale> directory. Makeimg.exe retrieves the .res files from %_FLATRELEASEDIR%\<Locale> and merges the .res files into the appropriate module based on information retrieved from the Common.loc, Platform.loc, and Project.loc files.
The Common.loc file contains a list of OS-specific files that will be localized during the Makeimg.exe process. Platform Builder generates Common.loc during the Sysgen.bat phase. Do not add project-specific localization requirements to Common.loc.
For more information on adding localization requirements to the Platform.loc and Project.loc files, see Project and Hardware-specific File Localization.
In order for localization to be successful, each module that you want to localize must have a localized .res file with the same name in the %_WINCEROOT%\Public\<Project Name>\Wince500\Platform\Common\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Release or Debug>\<Locale> directory, and a file with the same name listed in the .loc files. For example, for the Windows CE PC-based hardware platform (CEPC), Platform Builder provides the Pcmcia.res file for the Pcmcia.dll module and the Platform.loc file that lists a file with the same name as the module. The path for the Platform.loc file is %_WINCEROOT%\Public\<Project Name>\Wince500\<OS Design>\Cepc\Files directory. The path for the Pcmcia.res file is %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Release or Debug>\<Locale> directory.
If you are not using a locale that Platform Builder automatically supports, you need to localize the .res files for the locale and place the files in a directory specified in the locale code table. For each LOCALE code, there is a specified directory where the localized .res files are located. The path for the .res files is %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Release or Debug>\<Locale>. For example, if %_WINCEROOT% is C:\Wince500 and you are using the ARM microprocessor, you would place the .res files for the Finnish locale in the C:\Wince500\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\ARM\Release\040b directory.
Regardless of whether or not you are using a locale that Platform Builder supports, you may also need to place localized .res files in the following directories depending on your OS design:
- %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Dcom
- %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Ie
- %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Msmq
- %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Script
- %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Wceshellfe
- %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Wceappsfe
For example, if you are adding a locale to the WCESHELLFE directory, the path for the .res files is %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Wceshellfe\Oak\Lib\<CPU Family>\<Release or Debug>\<Locale> directory.
When a new locale is added, a full build is required to propagate the .res files to the correct locations.
**Note **The file allocation table (FAT) file system uses the term Storage Card to identify a mounted drive. In some targeted products, such as the Handheld PC (H/PC) category of devices, Storage Card has not been localized to a particular locale. If you must use the non-localized version of Storage Card on your OS design for backwards compatibility, you can change the string resource number 1 in the Filesys.res string table.
See Also
Project and Hardware-specific File Localization
Last updated on Thursday, February 02, 2006
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