PowerToys/doc/devdocs/guidance.md

Coding Guidance

Working With Strings

In order to support localization YOU SHOULD NOT have hardcoded UI display strings in your code. Instead, use resource files to consume strings.

For CPP

Use StringTable resource to store the strings and resource header file(resource.h) to store Id's linked to the UI display string. Add the strings with Id's referenced from the header file to the resource-definition script file. You can use Visual Studio Resource Editor to create and manage resource files.

• resource.h:

XXX must be a unique int in the list (mostly the int ID of the last string id plus one):

#define IDS_MODULE_DISPLAYNAME                    XXX

• StringTable in resource-definition script file validmodulename.rc:

STRINGTABLE
BEGIN
    IDS_MODULE_DISPLAYNAME               L"Module Name"
END

• Use the GET_RESOURCE_STRING(UINT resource_id) method to consume strings in your code.

#include <common.h>

extern "C" IMAGE_DOS_HEADER __ImageBase;

std::wstring GET_RESOURCE_STRING(IDS_MODULE_DISPLAYNAME)

For C#

Use XML resource file(.resx) to store the UI display strings and Resource Manager to consume those strings in the code. You can use Visual Studio to create and manage XML resources files.

• Resources.resx

  <data name="ValidUIDisplayString" xml:space="preserve">
    <value>Description to be displayed on UI.</value>
    <comment>This text is displayed when XYZ button clicked.</comment>
  </data>

• Use Resource Manager to consume strings in code.

System.Resources.ResourceManager manager = new System.Resources.ResourceManager(baseName, assembly);
string validUIDisplayString = manager.GetString("ValidUIDisplayString", resourceCulture);

In case of Visual Studio is used to create the resource file. Simply use the Resources class in auto-generated Resources.Designer.cs file to access the strings which encapsulate the Resource Manager logic.

string validUIDisplayString = Resources.ValidUIDisplayString;

More On Coding Guidance

Please review these brief docs below relating to our coding standards etc.

• Coding Style
• Code Organization