NETMF provides two methods to retrieve resources using the type Microsoft.SPOT.ResourceUtility and precisely:

public static object GetObject(System.Resources.ResourceManager rm, Enum id) and

public static object GetObject(System.Resources.ResourceManager rm, Enum id, int offset, int length);

Both methods allow retrieving binary resources as well as bitmaps and so on..., where the second method allows retrieving binary resources in chunks.

You can also accomplish the same task by using the code auto-generated by the resource designer. See the HttpClient sample for a usage example, also reported below:

namespace HttpClientSample
{
    public static class MyHttpClient
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Retrieves a page from a Web server, using a simple GET request.
        /// </summary>
        public static void Main()
        {
            Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware.Utility.SetLocalTime(new DateTime(2011, 4, 14));

            // Wait for DHCP (on LWIP devices)
            while (true)
            {
                IPAddress ip = IPAddress.GetDefaultLocalAddress();

                if (ip != IPAddress.Any) break;

                Thread.Sleep(1000);
            }

            // Root CA Certificate needed to validate HTTPS servers.
            byte[] ca = Resource1.GetBytes(
                Resource1.BinaryResources.VerisignCA);

            X509Certificate[] caCerts =
                new X509Certificate[] { new X509Certificate(ca) };

...

To attach a resource as a binary resource to your NETMF application, you need to give your resource a neutral extension, such as .bin.  If you try to attach a bitmap as a binary resource and your file as a .bmp extension, then the resource generator will treat it as a bitmap.

Regards

You can try to add your resource into the FILE section of the *.resx file.

Then you see in *.Designer.cs:

        internal static byte[] GetBytes(Resource1.BinaryResources id)
        {
            return ((byte[])(Microsoft.SPOT.ResourceUtility.GetObject(ResourceManager, id)));
        }

        [System.SerializableAttribute()]

        internal enum BinaryResources : short
        {
            ...
        }

Hope this helps,

Olaf

Olaf, adding the resource as file does not help, it gets processed by the tiny resource processor anyway. And even if it worked, it would require me to include the resources twice, which usually is not desired...

Robert, the generator for .NET MF can process only strings, bitmaps, or byte arrays. Sounds are passed to the generator as MemoryStream and thus the failure. (I believe it won't be happy with the icon resources as well). This could be of course easily fixed in the SDK if requested by the users.

The GetBimap is a nice try, however it does not work on bitmap formats unavailable to the managed code, and the similar trick is not available with other processed resources, like strings or fonts...