Read and Display Text File and Image File from Embedded Resource in C and VB. Net. In this article I will explain with an example, how to embed, read and display Text File and Image File from Embedded Resources in C and VB. VB. NET Tutorial, VB. NET Help and VB. NET Source code for beginners and advanced users. Net. Embedded files are called as Embedded Resources and these files can be accessed at runtime using the Assembly class of the System. Reflection namespace. This article will illustrate, how to read and display an embedded Text file and Image file in Windows Application Windows Forms in C and VB. Net. Embedded files and their Advantages. Embedded files are called as Embedded Resources and these files can be accessed at runtime using the Assembly class of the System. Reflection namespace. Any file within the project can be made into an embedded file. Advantages. 1. The advantage of embedding files into the Manifest is that one can easily compile the file with the program and thus there is no chances of accidental delete or misplace. Since the file is embedded, there is no need of using any Folder Paths or Locations to access the file. C Treeview Control The TreeView control contains a hierarchy of TreeViewItem controls. It provides a way to display information in a hierarchical structure by using. Limitation. 1. The only limitation is that once you embed a file, it cannot be updated again unless you update the file and recompile the program. Adding an Embedded File. The very first thing is to create a Folder to the Project and then add the file to be embedded within that folder by making using of Add then Existing Item option from the Context Menu of the Solution Explorer as shown below. Once the files to be embedded are added, then you will need to right click the File and select Properties option from the Context Menu as shown below. Finally you will need to change the Build Action property value from Content to Embedded Resource as shown below. Form Controls. The following Form consists of two Buttons, one Text. Box control and one Picture. Box control. Namespaces. You will need to import the following namespaces. Cusing System. IO using System. Reflection VB. Net. Imports System. IOImports System. Reflection. Reading Embedded Text file. Hi Perry, I am new to VB. NET but have over 30 years Consulting Analyst programming experience on Mainframes. Since I retired I have been using VBA for my own use. In an earlier article, I spoke about UDP and Visual Basic. In this article, I spoke about all the protocols that make the Internet what it is. When the Button is clicked, first an object of the Assembly class is created and it is assigned the reference of the executing assembly. Then the contents of the Text file are read using a Stream. Reader class object using the Get. Manifest. Resource. Stream function of the Assembly class. Note In C, you will need to access file using Namespace. Folder. Name. File. Name but in VB. Net, there is no need to specify the name of the Folder it can be directly accessed as Namespace. File. Name. Finally the contents of the Stream. Reader are read using the Read. To. End method and are assigned to the Text. Box control. Cprivatevoid btn. TextClickobject sender, Event. Args e    Assembly assembly Assembly. Get. Executing. Assembly    Stream. Reader reader new. Stream. Readerassembly. Get. Manifest. Resource. StreamEmbedFileCS. Files. Sample. txt    txt. Text. File. Text reader. Read. To. End VB. Net. Private. Sub btn. TextClicksender As System. Object, e As System. Event. Args Handles btn. Text. Click    Dim assmbly As. Assembly Assembly. Get. Executing. Assembly    Dim reader As. New. Stream. Readerassmbly. Get. Manifest. Resource. StreamEmbedFileVB. Sample. txt    txt. Text. File. Text reader. Read. To. EndEnd. Sub. Reading Embedded Image file. When the Button is clicked, first an object of the Assembly class is created and it is assigned the reference of the executing assembly. Then the contents of the Image file are read using a Stream class object using the Get. Manifest. Resource. Stream function of the Assembly class. Note In C, you will need to access file using Namespace. Folder. Name. File. Name but in VB. Net, there is no need to specify the name of the Folder it can be directly accessed as Namespace. File. Name. Finally the Stream class object is converted into a Bitmap class object which is ultimately assigned to the Image property of the Picture. Box control. Cprivatevoid btn. ImageClickobject sender, Event. Args e    Assembly assembly Assembly. Get. Executing. Assembly    Stream stream assembly. Get. Manifest. Resource. StreamEmbedFileCS. Files. Mudassar. jpg    pic. Image. File. Image new. Bitmapstream VB. Net. Private. Sub btn. ImageClicksender As System. Object, e As System. Event. Args Handles btn. Image. Click    Dim assmbly As. Assembly Assembly. Get. Executing. Assembly    Dim stream As. Stream assmbly. Get. Manifest. Resource. StreamEmbedFileVB. Mudassar. jpg    pic. Image. File. Image New. BitmapstreamEnd. Sub. Screenshots. Reading Text file. Reading Image file. Visual Basic for Applications Wikipedia. Visual Basic for Applications VBA is an implementation of Microsofts event driven programming language Visual Basic 6, which was discontinued in 2. IDE. Although Visual Basic is no longer supported or updated by Microsoft, VBA itself got upgraded in 2. Visual Basic for Applications 7 in Microsoft Office applications. Visual Basic for Applications enables building user defined functions UDFs, automating processes and accessing Windows API and other low level functionality through dynamic link libraries DLLs. It supersedes and expands on the abilities of earlier application specific macro programming languages such as Words Word. Basic. It can be used to control many aspects of the host application, including manipulating user interface features, such as menus and toolbars, and working with custom user forms or dialog boxes. As its name suggests, VBA is closely related to Visual Basic and uses the Visual Basic Runtime Library. However, VBA code normally can only run within a host application, rather than as a standalone program. VBA can, however, control one application from another using OLE Automation. For example, VBA can automatically create a Microsoft Word report from Microsoft Excel data that Excel collects automatically from polled sensors. VBA can use, but not create, Active. XCOM DLLs, and later versions add support for class modules. VBA is built into most Microsoft Office applications, including Office for Mac OS X except version 2. Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Map. Point and Microsoft Visio. VBA is also implemented, at least partially, in applications published by companies other than Microsoft, including Arc. GIS, Auto. CAD, Corel. Draw, Libre. Office, Reflection,2Solid. Works,3 and Word. Perfect. Code written in VBA is compiled4 to Microsoft P Code packed code, a proprietary intermediate language, which the host applications Access, Excel, Word, Outlook, and Power. Point store as a separate stream in COM Structured Storage files e. The intermediate code is then executed4 by a virtual machine hosted by the host application. Despite its resemblance to many old BASIC dialects particularly Microsoft BASIC, from which it is indirectly derived, VBA is incompatible with any of them except Visual Basic, where source code of VBA modules and classes can be directly imported, and which shares the same library and virtual machine. Compatibility ends with Visual Basic version 6 VBA is incompatible with Visual Basic. NET VB. NET. VBA is proprietary to Microsoft and, apart from the COM interface, is not an open standard. AutomationeditInteraction with the host application uses OLE Automation. Typically, the host application provides a type library and application programming interface API documentation which document how VBA programs can interact with the application. This documentation can be examined from inside the VBA development environment using its Object Browser. Visual Basic for Applications programs which are written to use the OLE Automation interface of one application cannot be used to automate a different application, even if that application hosts the Visual Basic runtime, because the OLE Automation interfaces will be different. For example, a VBA program written to automate Microsoft Word cannot be used with a different word processor, even if that word processor hosts VBA. Conversely, multiple applications can be automated from the one host by creating Application objects within the VBA code. References to the different libraries must be created within the VBA client before any of the methods, objects, etc. This is achieved through what is referred to as Early or Late Binding. These application objects create the OLE link to the application when they are first created. Commands to the different applications must be done explicitly through these application objects in order to work correctly. VBA code written in Microsoft Access can establish references to the Excel, Word and Outlook libraries this will allow creating an application that runs a query in Access, exports the results to Excel, formats the text, then writes a mail merge document in Word that it automatically e mails to each member of the original query through Outlook. VBA programs can be attached to a menu button, a macro, a keyboard shortcut, or an OLECOM event, such as the opening of a document in the application. The language provides a user interface in the form of User. Forms, which can host Active. X controls for added functionality. Security concernseditAs with any common programming language, VBA macros can be created with malicious intent. Using VBA, most of the security features lie in the hands of the user, not the author. The VBA host application options are accessible to the user. The user who runs any document containing VBA macros can preset the software with user preferences. End users can protect themselves from attack by disabling macros from running in an application or by granting permission for a document to run VBA code only if they are sure the source of the document can be trusted. DevelopmenteditAs of July 1, 2. Microsoft no longer offers VBA distribution licenses to new customers. Microsoft intended to add. NET based languages to the current version of VBA ever since the release of the. NET Framework,5 of which versions 1. Script for the. NET Framework. Visual Studio. NET 2. SDK contained a separate scripting IDE called Visual Studio for Applications VSA that supported VB. NET. 789 One of its significant features was that the interfaces to the technology were available via Active Scripting VBScript and JScript, allowing even. NET unaware applications to be scripted via. NET languages. However, VSA was deprecated in version 2. NET Framework,9 leaving no clear upgrade path for applications desiring Active Scripting support although scripts can be created in C, VBScript, and other. NET languages, which can be compiled and executed at run time via libraries installed as part of the standard. NET runtime. Microsoft dropped VBA support for Microsoft Office 2. Mac. 1. 01. 1 VBA was restored in Microsoft Office for Mac 2. Microsoft said that it has no plan to remove VBA from the Windows version of Office. With Office 2. 01. Microsoft introduced VBA7, which contains a true pointer data type Long. Ptr. This allows referencing 6. The 6. 4 bit install of Office 2. MSCom. Ctl Tab. Strip, Toolbar, Status. Bar, Progress. Bar, Tree. View, List. Views, Image. List, Slider, Image. Combo. Box or MSCom. Ct. 2 Animation, Up. Down, Month. View, Date. Time. Picker, Flat. Scroll. Bar, so legacy 3. VBA code that depends on these common controls will not function. Dr Zx Software. This does not affect the 3. Office 2. 01. 0. 1. VBA7 includes no 6. VBA applications to 6. Microsoft suggests contacting the software vendor for 6. VBA controls. See alsoeditReferencesedit.