[Updated] A workaround for Xamarin Forms 2.5 bug that prevents resource declaration in App.xaml

Xamarin Forms 2.5 introduced a bug that prevents resource declaration in App.xaml like many of us are used to. This post shows a possible workaround.
ex_resourcedic_xf25b

Update: Xamarin appearently solved this problem with Service Release 3 for Xamarin Forms 2.5. I can confirm it works in the app that caused me to write this post.

Additional note: the forms:prefix is no longer needed, just insert the <ResourceDictionary>tag.


If you have a Windows background like I do, one of the most normal things for applications is to create keyed Resources in App.xaml to make them available throughout the app. Something like this should look familiar:

<forms:ResourceDictionary >
    <viewModels:ViewModelLocator x:Key="Locator"></viewModels:ViewModelLocator>
    <forms:Color x:Key="MainAccentColor">#1e73be</forms:Color>
    <forms:Color x:Key="LightAccentColor">#61a1f1</forms:Color>
    <forms:Color x:Key="DarkAccentColor">#00488d</forms:Color>
    <forms:Color x:Key="MainBackgroundColor">#f4f4f4</forms:Color>
</forms:ResourceDictionary>

This is also possible in Xamarin.Forms. Sadly, Xamarin.Forms 2.5 introduced an ugly bug where this declarations throw an ArgumentException, telling us the key(s) already exist in the dictionary (see Bugzilla here). I can confirm that this bug affects at least UWP, Android and iOS applications which use such an implementation.

As this is a show-stopping bug, I had to find a way to work around it for the moment. In such cases, I always try to find a way that has only very little impact. For this particular bug, I just moved the declaration of the resources into the code-behind file, which keeps the rest of my code unchanged. I just created a method that does the work I originally had in the .xaml-file:

//needed because of Xamarin Bug  https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=60788
private void CreateResourceDictionary()
{
    //making sure there is only one dictionary
    if (this.Resources == null)
        this.Resources = new ResourceDictionary();

    //making sure there is only one key
    if (!this.Resources.ContainsKey("Locator"))
    {
        this.Resources.Add("Locator", ViewModels.ViewModelLocator.Instance);
    }

    if (!this.Resources.ContainsKey("MainAccentColor"))
    {
        this.Resources.Add("MainAccentColor", Color.FromHex("#1e73be"));
    }

    if (!this.Resources.ContainsKey("LightAccentColor"))
    {
        this.Resources.Add("LightAccentColor", Color.FromHex("#61a1f1"));
    }

    if (!this.Resources.ContainsKey("DarkAccentColor"))
    {
        this.Resources.Add("DarkAccentColor", Color.FromHex("#00488d"));
    }

    if (!this.Resources.ContainsKey("MainBackgroundColor"))
    {
        this.Resources.Add("MainBackgroundColor", Color.FromHex("#f4f4f4"));
    }
}

This makes the application running again like it did before. Once the bug in Xamarin.Forms is fixed, I just have to delete this method and uncomment the XAML-declarations to get back to the state where I was prior to Xamarin.Forms 2.5.

If you are experiencing the same bug, I recommend to also comment on the Bugzilla-Entry (link).

As always, I hope this post is helpful for some of you.

Happy coding!

 

 

Comments 4
  1. Meh, it removed the code. I will try it again here: forms:ResourceDictionary
    Why not using just ResourceDictionary, why use ‘forms’ namespace in front?

    1. in earlier versions, this was needed to get the ResourceDictionary working. I did not try to remove the namespace, that’s why it is still there in my code. If it works without, even better! ?

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