Adding files to WP7 isolated storage from Visual Studio?

Question

I'm working on an Windows Phone 7 app where I'm going to show ATM's nere your location with bing maps.

I have an xml-file with addresses and gps coordinates. But how do I add this file to my program from visual studio? If I set BuildAction to Content and Copy to output directory to Copy always. The file still isn't in IsolatedStorage. Do I have to build a mechanism to download the information from the web? Or is there another way?

Answer 1

Files listed as content in the Visual Studio project are copied to the generated XAP file (which is analogous to a ZIP file). They are not copied to isolated storage.

In the case of an XML file, you can call XmlReader.Create with the path to the file as argument, as follows:

using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("path/to/file.xml"))
{
    // read XML file here
}

Or you can also call Application.GetResourceStream and use the Stream property of the returned StreamResourceInfo object:

StreamResourceInfo sri = Application.GetResourceStream(
    new Uri("path/to/file.xml", UriKind.Relative));
// read XML file here from sri.Stream, e.g. using a StreamReader object

Answer 2

You cannot directly pass files to the isolated storage at design time. Only when the application is running.

I'd still recommend passing the file to the application through a web service. Mainly because if eventually you will need to change the contents of the XML, you will need to update the application.

What I would do is simply create a WCF service that will return serialized data (or the existing XML) via a simple HTTP request.