Custom attributes in xaml resourcedictionary

Question

I have a xaml resource dictionary as below

<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
                    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
                    xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
                    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
                    xmlns:loc="http://temp/uri" 
                    mc:Ignorable="loc">
    <sys:String x:Key="ResouceKey" loc:Note="This is a note for the resource.">ResourceText</sys:String>
</ResourceDictionary>

I am looping through all .xaml files in and trying to convert to POCO class and get the loc:Note attributes as well with using XamlReader.

using (var sr = new StreamReader(...))
{
    var xamlreader = new XamlReader();
    var resourceDictionary = xamlreader.LoadAsync(sr.BaseStream) as ResourceDictionary;
    if (resourceDictionary == null)
    {
        continue;
    }

    foreach (var key in resourceDictionary.Keys)
    {
        // In this loop i would like to get the loc:Note
        var translation = new Translation
            {
                LocaleKey = locale, 
                Note = string.Empty, // How to get the note from the xaml
                Text = resourceDictionary[key] as string
            });
    }
}

Is this possible or do I have to resort to using custom xml serialization logic?

Answer 1

The XamlReader contains a Dictionary with key/value pair only. It will ignore custom attributes unless you create your own class or type. String is a primitive item and will be shown as such, not a class that may have other properties.

It would be cleaner and safer to just create a class:

public class MyString {
    public string _string { get; set; }
    public string _note { get; set; } 
}

And then store those in your ResourceDictionary. Now you can convert the value as so: (MyString)r.Values[0] and then assign them to your Translation object.

Answer 2

Ended up using Xdocument to read the xaml resources.

var xdoc = XDocument.Load(...);
if (xdoc.Root != null)
{
    XNamespace xNs = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml";
    XNamespace sysNs = "clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib";
    XNamespace locNs = "http://temp/uri";

    foreach (var str in xdoc.Root.Elements(sysNs + "String"))
    {
        var keyAttribute = str.Attribute(xNs + "Key");
        if (keyAttribute == null)
        {
            continue;
        }
        var noteAttribute = str.Attribute(locNs + "Note");

        var translation = new Translation
            {
                LocaleKey = locale,
                Note = noteAttribute != null ? noteAttribute.Value : null,
                Text = str.Value
            });
    }
}