RibbonFromResources.md

Project layout with ribbon and images in a resources file

An alternative approach is to add the .xml file in a separate file and embed as a resource in the add-in. For complicated projects, this might be a better structure.

I'll put the ribbon xml file and related resources (like images we show in the ribbon) into a project folder called RibbonResources.

Steps to add the .xml file as a resource:

1. Add a new folder under our project to hold our ribbon resources - called e.g. RibbonResources
2. Add a new xml file called Ribbon.xml with the following content inside the RibbonResources folder:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<customUI xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui' loadImage='LoadImage'>
	<ribbon>
		<tabs>
			<tab id='tab1' label='My Tab'>
				<group id='group1' label='My Group'>
					<button id='button1' label='My Button' onAction='OnButtonPressed' image='MagicWand'/>
				</group>
			</tab>
		</tabs>
	</ribbon>
</customUI>

3. Add a new resources file to the project called RibbonResources.resx.

4. Into the resource file, Add Existing File and select the RibbonResouces\Ribbon.xml file. Check that it is called Ribbon - we'll use this name a bit later.

5. Take similar steps for an image, where the name of the image in the resources file matches the name in the image attribute in the ribbon markup.

6. The class will now explicitly get the ribbon markup and images from the resources class. It does this my overriding the GetCustomUI and LoadImage methods of the ExcelRibbon base class.

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports ExcelDna.Integration.CustomUI

<ComVisible(True)>
Public Class Ribbon
    Inherits ExcelRibbon

    Public Overrides Function GetCustomUI(RibbonID As String) As String
        Return RibbonResources.Ribbon ' The name here is the resource name that the ribbon xml has in the RibbonResources resource file
    End Function

    Public Overrides Function LoadImage(imageId As String) As Object
        ' This will return the image resource with the name specified in the image='xxxx' tag
        Return RibbonResources.ResourceManager.GetObject(imageId)
    End Function

    Public Sub OnButtonPressed(control As IRibbonControl)
        MsgBox("Hello")
    End Sub

End Class