Project database as XML file
The Multi-Language Add-In has always used an access database as a project database to store information about the project, including the languages and translations. In part, this is a hangover from the original VB6 Add-In.
Starting with version 4.55.0000 (for Visual Studio 2005/2008) there is an option to switch over to an XML file for the project database. This option is on a new tab in the project properties dialog.
Where the Access database was named project name_ml.mlb, the XML file is named project name_ml.xml. If you switch to XML, the new file is created and added to the project. The access file is removed from the project, but not deleted.
If you switch back to the access format via the Add-In, it will copy the contents of the XML file to the access file. If you want to avoid this, you can simply remove the XML file from the project and add the Access file back to the project. (If both files are in the project, then the XML file will be used.)
This is actually a big change to the Add-In, although I am introducing it in a small way. I personally want to do some more testing with it, but I expect that other people will find some problems which I don't find.
The XML file is not the default format for new projects, but I will make it the default format soon.
In future, I will offer an option to store some of the information - in particular the translations - in a central database, shared by multiple projects. This is a feature which has been requested by quite a few users over the years.
Note that I have already moved some information out of the project database into XML files. Starting with version 4.53.0022 the Add-In stores temporary information from the project scan in the files ml_temp_SourceScan.xml and ml_temp_ControlsScan.xml. These files are used to restore the grids quickly without scanning the project. These files are not added to the project, and you can delete them if you want. No information would be lost, but you would have to rescan the project. In particular, I would not add these temporary files to version control.
Phil