On a deployed ASP.NET web site project, can I update a .resx file without recompiling?

Question

I'm deploying an ASP.NET application to a locked down Production environment. Pushing assemblies (satellite resource assemblies included) into this environment has process associated with it, but copying non-assemblies to the environment does not.

On an ASP.NET web site project, can I update a .resx file without recompiling?

Answer 1

I guess it depends on what your app is doing with them.

If you're pushing .resx files into the App_LocalResources folder of your website, they will be Just-In-Time compiled automatically as soon as you do that. So in this case you wouldn't have to recompile anything.

Answer 2

No, you can't. Not only does it force recompilation but it will also unload the appdomain and trigger an application restart (in process memory is lost). There's no way around this with the built-in provider. More context is available here: http://www.onpreinit.com/2009/06/updatable-aspnet-resx-resource-provider.html.