Silverlight 3: Merged Resource Dictionary - from non-embedded file

Question

I have a SL3 application that my client wants to be able to skin for their customers.

I do not want a separate xap for each customer. I want to be able to define a resource dictionary for each customer.

Is it possible for me to have the same xap for all the customers and point to an external xaml file (resource dictionary) that I will merge in at runtime for the cutomer.

Or do I have to build a different version of the xap for each customer that embeds the resource dictionary?

• Michael

Answer 1

Or do I have to build a different version of the xap for each customer that embeds the resource dictionary?

I'm not sure about externially linking, hopefully someone else will address that. Unless there's some security concern it would seem easier to me to have ONE xap with different resource sets ups...assuming you can tell at runtime which client is which.

Answer 2

A XAP file is essentially just a compressed folder, so you could easily replace a resource file for each client that you want to distribute that to.

HINT: have a look at this for a neat tweak to get XAP's recognised as first class compressed folders in Windows.

HTH, Mark