I'm new to using class libraries. I've started a rather large project for work which needs the ability to be a self-contained file (essentially just drop a .exe on a desktop and run it without prereqs). This means the current class libraries build inside the .exe and I'm unsure how to directly reference them - but the application knows of them and uses them.
I've so far coded the project with the separate class libraries, and it all works great, but I'm now at the part where I need to add the ability for this to load the contents of a file dynamically if the file is available and of a greater file version.
For example:
File.dll v1 is self-contained
File.dll v2 is added to C:\ProgramData\FileVersions (dynamicdLLPath)
Assembly fileDll;
private void LoadDynamicDLLs()
{
if (Directory.Exists(dynamicDLLPath))
{
string filePath = dynamicDLLPath + "File.dll";
if (File.Exists(filePath))
{
FileVersionInfo curfvi = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(myassembly.Location);
FileVersionInfo newfvi = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(filePath);
if (Convert.ToInt64(newfvi.FileVersion) > Convert.ToInt64(curfvi.FileVersion))
{
fileDll = Assembly.LoadFrom(filePath);
}
} else
{
fileDll = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(FileDLL));
}
}
}
(FileDLL in this instance is the namespace of the self-contained dll)
If this loads correctly, can I then just call all my methods/functions from the file assembly as;
fileDll.myMethod();
This is as far as I've gotten based on not changing any of the existing code base that works. I'd rather not go through 20,000 lines if there's a solution to simply integrate what I've already got using a local .dll class library.
E.g.
netstandard2.0 (from Supported target frameworks) which is used as <TargetFramework> in *.csproj files or as folder name in NuGet packages internal structure,
and
.NETStandard,Version=v2.0 which is accepted by System.Runtime.Versioning.FrameworkName class's constructor or can be a value of TargetFrameworkAttribute.FrameworkName.
How to convert those strings from one form to another? At least one (any) direction.
You can use the source code of NuGet.Frameworks:
Here is the method that converts TFM to FrameworkName:
https://github.com/NuGet/NuGet.Client/blob/dev/src/NuGet.Core/NuGet.Frameworks/NuGetFrameworkFactory.cs#L575
(e.g. netstandard2.0 to .NETStandard,Version=v2.0)
UPDATE #1
The good news is that it is available as a NuGet package:
https://www.nuget.org/packages/NuGet.Frameworks/
Here is a .NET 6 Console Application:
using NuGet.Frameworks;
using System.Runtime.Versioning;
var tfmNetstandard20 = NuGetFramework.ParseFolder("netstandard20");
var fwNetstandard20 = new FrameworkName(tfmNetstandard20.DotNetFrameworkName);
Console.WriteLine(tfmNetstandard20);
Console.WriteLine(fwNetstandard20);
The output will be:
.NETStandard,Version=v2.0
.NETStandard,Version=v2.0
In a DNX application, which uses a "project.json" file, is there a way to read the value of the "version" property out of the "project.json" file?
I'm writing a library that writes something to the current HTTP response and I would like to show the version of the application in there.
Any help on how this can be done is highly appreciated.
If you set the version attribute during build (or in any other way) you can do this like that:
using System;
using System.Reflection;
[assembly:AssemblyVersionAttribute("1.2.3")]
namespace Test
{
class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
var assembly = typeof(Program).GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
var name = assembly.GetName();
Console.WriteLine($"{name.Name}: {name.Version}");
}
}
}
I did it using the new dotnet cli which is replacing dnx but it should work with dnx dnxcore50 as well.
Are you writing a Class Library or an ASP.NET application?
If a class Library, you could copy the version string to a resource file that you read in during run-time to grab the version. It's kind hard to do this sort of thing with class libraries since you don't get the beauty of a Startup and IoC.
If ASP.NET, then just add a version into your appsettings.json configuration (or a custom json file to store settings) and read it in at startup: http://docs.asp.net/en/latest/fundamentals/configuration.html
Multipe ways of doing this if you are running in a the web application, not a class library.
First way custom attributes data (should check if attribute is available):
this.GetType().Assembly.GetCustomAttributesData()
.First(x => x.AttributeType.FullName == "System.Reflection.AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute")
.ConstructorArguments[0];
Second way
var name = this.GetType().AssemblyQualifiedName;
name = name.Substring(name.IndexOf("Version=") + 8);
var verion = name.Substring(0, name.IndexOf(", "));
You have a large Visual Studio Solution with dozens of project files in it. How would you verify that all the projects follow certain rules in their property settings, and enforce these rules if a new project is added. For example check that all projects have:
TargetFrameworkVersion = "v4.5"
Platform = "AnyCPU"
WarningLevel = 4
TreatWarningsAsErrors = true
OutputPath = $(SolutionDir)bin
SignAssembly = true
AssemblyName = $(ProjectFolderName)
I know two methods myself that I will add in an answer below, but I was wondering how people go about doing this type of project test. I'm especially interested to learn about available solutions such as libraries or build tasks for this rather than having to have to invent something new or write it from scratch.
*.sln files are plain text and easily parsable, and *.*proj files are xml.
You can add a dummy project with a prebuild step that parses the sln to retrieve all of the project files, validate their settings, print a report, and fail the build if necessary.
Also, you should check this post to ensure the prebuild step is always executed. Essentially, you specify a blank output in the custom build step to force a rebuild.
The following list identifies the key file types that are automatically added to VSS when a solution is added to source control by using the Visual Studio .NET integrated development environment (IDE):
Solution files (.sln). The key items maintained within these files include a list of constituent projects, dependency information, build configuration details, and source control provider details.
Project files (.csproj or *.vbproj). The key items maintained within these files include assembly build settings, referenced assemblies (by name and path), and a file inventory.
Application configuration files. These are configuration files based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) used to control various aspects of your project's run time behavior.
Use a Single Solution Model Whenever Possible an
Also see : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee817677.aspx,
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee817675.aspx
AND For CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION :
there are many tools available like MSBuild, Jenkins, Apache's Continuum, Cruise Control (CC), and Hudson(plugin can be extended to c#)
This is what I have myself:
One way to do this is to create an MSBuild target with error conditions:
<Error Condition="'$(TreatWarningsAsErrors)'!='true'" Text="Invalid project setting" />
I like this approach because it is integrated with MSBuild and gives you early errors, however, you have to modify every project to import it in them or get all your team members to use a special command prompt with environment variables that will inject custom pre-build steps into your projects during the build, which is a pain.
The second approach I know is to use some library like VSUnitTest which provides an API to project properties that you can test against. VSUnitTest is currently not open source and unlisted from the NuGet service.
You could write some code to open the the solution as a text file to identify all of the csproj files referenced, in turn opening each of these as xml files, and then writing unit tests to ensure specific nodes of the project match what you expect.
It's a quick and dirty solution, but works for CI and gives you the flexibility to ignore nodes you don't care about. It actually sounds kinda useful. I have a solution with 35 projects I'd like to scan too.
Let's try something completely different: you could ensure that they are consistent by construction by generating them from a template or by using a build generation tool such as CMake. This might be simpler than attempting to make them consistent after the fact.
In our work we use a powershell script that checks project settings and modified them if they are incorrect. For example, we remove Debug configuration this way, disable C++ optimization and SSE2 support. We run it manually, but definitely it is possible to run it automatically, e.g. as pre\post build step.
Below the example:
`function Prepare-Solution {
param (
[string]$SolutionFolder
)
$files = gci -Recurse -Path $SolutionFolder -file *.vcxproj | select - ExpandProperty fullname
$files | %{
$file = $_
[xml]$xml = get-content $file
#Deleting Debug configurations...
$xml.Project.ItemGroup.ProjectConfiguration | ?{$_.Configuration -eq "Debug"} | %{$_.ParentNode.RemoveChild($_)} | Out-Null
$xml.SelectNodes("//*[contains(#Condition,'Debug')]") |%{$_.ParentNode.RemoveChild($_)} | Out-Null
if($xml.Project.ItemDefinitionGroup.ClCompile) {
$xml.Project.ItemDefinitionGroup.ClCompile | %{
#Disable SSE2
if (-not($_.EnableEnhancedInstructionSet)){
$_.AppendChild($xml.CreateElement("EnableEnhancedInstructionSet", $xml.DocumentElement.NamespaceURI)) | Out-Null
}
if($_.ParentNode.Condition.Contains("Win32")){
$_.EnableEnhancedInstructionSet = "StreamingSIMDExtensions"
}
elseif($_.ParentNode.Condition.Contains("x64")) {
$_.EnableEnhancedInstructionSet = "NotSet"
} else {
Write-Host "Neither x86 nor x64 config. Very strange!!"
}
#Disable Optimization
if (-not($_.Optimization)){
$_.AppendChild($xml.CreateElement("Optimization", $xml.DocumentElement.NamespaceURI)) | Out-Null
}
$_.Optimization = "Disabled"
}
}
$xml.Save($file);
} }`
A file is an assembly if and only if it is managed, and contains an assembly entry in its metadata. For more information on assemblies and metadata, see the topic Assembly Manifest.
How to manually determine if a file is an assembly
Start the Ildasm.exe (IL Disassembler).
Load the file you wish to test.
If ILDASM reports that the file is not a portable executable (PE) file, then it is not an assembly. For more information, see the topic How to: View Assembly Contents.
How to programmatically determine if a file is an assembly
Call the GetAssemblyName method, passing the full file path and name of the file you are testing.
If a BadImageFormatException exception is thrown, the file is not an assembly.
This example tests a DLL to see if it is an assembly.
class TestAssembly
{
static void Main()
{
try
{
System.Reflection.AssemblyName testAssembly = System.Reflection.AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(#"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\System.Net.dll");
System.Console.WriteLine("Yes, the file is an assembly.");
}
catch (System.IO.FileNotFoundException)
{
System.Console.WriteLine("The file cannot be found.");
}
catch (System.BadImageFormatException)
{
System.Console.WriteLine("The file is not an assembly.");
}
catch (System.IO.FileLoadException)
{
System.Console.WriteLine("The assembly has already been loaded.");
}
}
}
// Output (with .NET Framework 3.5 installed):
// Yes, the file is an assembly.
Framework is the highest installed version, SP is the service pack for that version.
RegistryKey installed_versions = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(#"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP");
string[] version_names = installed_versions.GetSubKeyNames();
//version names start with 'v', eg, 'v3.5' which needs to be trimmed off before conversion
double Framework = Convert.ToDouble(version_names[version_names.Length - 1].Remove(0, 1), CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
int SP = Convert.ToInt32(installed_versions.OpenSubKey(version_names[version_names.Length - 1]).GetValue("SP", 0));
For .Net 4.5
using System;
using Microsoft.Win32;
...
private static void Get45or451FromRegistry()
{
using (RegistryKey ndpKey = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, RegistryView.Registry32).OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\NET Framework Setup\\NDP\\v4\\Full\\")) {
int releaseKey = Convert.ToInt32(ndpKey.GetValue("Release"));
if (true) {
Console.WriteLine("Version: " + CheckFor45DotVersion(releaseKey));
}
}
}
...
// Checking the version using >= will enable forward compatibility,
// however you should always compile your code on newer versions of
// the framework to ensure your app works the same.
private static string CheckFor45DotVersion(int releaseKey)
{
if (releaseKey >= 393273) {
return "4.6 RC or later";
}
if ((releaseKey >= 379893)) {
return "4.5.2 or later";
}
if ((releaseKey >= 378675)) {
return "4.5.1 or later";
}
if ((releaseKey >= 378389)) {
return "4.5 or later";
}
// This line should never execute. A non-null release key should mean
// that 4.5 or later is installed.
return "No 4.5 or later version detected";
}
For similar purposes we use custom MSBuild fragments with common properties that we want to share between the projects, like this (build.common.props file):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFrameworkVersion>v2.0</TargetFrameworkVersion>
<PlatformToolset>v90</PlatformToolset>
<OutputPath>$(SolutionDir)..\bin\$(PlatformPath)\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
<!-- whatever you need here -->
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
And then we just include this fragment to real VS projects we want to apply these properties to:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<CommonProps>$(SolutionDir)..\Build\build.common.props</CommonProps>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(CommonProps)" />
<!-- the rest of the project -->
</Project>
We handle a lot of things using this approach:
common properties, as you mentioned
static analysis (FxCop, StyleCop)
digital sign of assemblies
etc.
The only disadvantage that you need to include these MSBuild fragments into each project file, but once you do that, you have all the benefits of modular build system that is easy to manage and update.
You could go the search & replace Regex way with a handwritten C#, Script, powershell or similar. But it has the following problems:
Difficult to read (Read your pretty regex in three or more months)
Difficult to enhance(New regex for new search/replace/check feature)
Easy to break (a new release/format of ms build project or a not forecast tag may not work)
Harder to test (you must check that no unintended match occurs)
Difficult to maintain (because of the above)
and the following advantages:
Not doing any extra validation which (may) let it work on any kind of project (mono or visual).
Doesn't care about \r :)
The best could be to use the Microsoft.Build.Evaluation
and build a C# tool which does all your testing/checking/fix and so on.
I've done a command line tool that use a sourcefile list (used by Mono) and update sources of csproj and another which dumps on console the csproj content. It was easy to do, pretty straightforward and easy to test also.
However, it may fail (as I've experienced it) on projects modified by "non" Ms tool (like Mono Studio) or because of missing \r....
Anyway, you can always handle it with an exception catch and a good message.
Here a sample by using Microsoft.Build.dll (don't use Microsof.Build.Engine as it is obsolete):
using System;
using Microsoft.Build.Evaluation;
internal class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
var project = new Project("PathToYourProject.csproj");
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("TargetFrameworkVersion", true, string.Empty));
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("Platform", true, string.Empty));
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("WarningLevel", true, string.Empty));
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("TreatWarningsAsErrors", true, "false"));
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("OutputPath", false, string.Empty));
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("SignAssembly", true, "false"));
Console.WriteLine(project.GetProperty("AssemblyName", false, string.Empty));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
public static class ProjectExtensions
{
public static string GetProperty(this Project project, string propertyName, bool afterEvaluation, string defaultValue)
{
var property = project.GetProperty(propertyName);
if (property != null)
{
if (afterEvaluation)
return property.EvaluatedValue;
return property.UnevaluatedValue;
}
return defaultValue;
}
}
I also faced this issue and created a small solution that creates a csv file with details to identifies the inconsistences. You can look at it in this url
https://github.com/gdlmanuv/VSProjectConsistencyChecker
I'm trying to extract the version number from a AssemblyInfo.cs file!
And I'm trying to use System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFile(path); But while doing this I get a BadImageFormatException; "The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131018)". So now I wounder, is that not a possible way to go about it? And should I use RegEx instead?
I have read many examples with GetExecutingAssembly() but I do want to get the version from an other project.
Clarification: I want to read the version info from the AssemblyInfo.cs file! And not from a compiled file. I'm trying to make a tool to update my version numbers before I make a new release.
You can get Assembly version without loading it as:
using System.Reflection;
using System.IO;
...
// Get assembly
AssemblyName currentAssembly = AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path);
Version assemblyVersion = currentAssembly.Version;
Edit:
If you want to read file then you can do it like this:
string path = #"d:\AssemblyInfo.cs";
if (File.Exists(path))
{
// Open the file to read from.
string[] readText = File.ReadAllLines(path);
var versionInfoLines = readText.Where(t => t.Contains("[assembly: AssemblyVersion"));
foreach (string item in versionInfoLines)
{
string version = item.Substring(item.IndexOf('(') + 2, item.LastIndexOf(')') - item.IndexOf('(') - 3);
//Console.WriteLine(Regex.Replace(version, #"\P{S}", string.Empty));
Console.WriteLine(version);
}
}
//Output
1.0.*
1.0.0.0
Hope this help...
You can specify the target assembly path in AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName
AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName("ProjectB.exe").Version
AssemblyInfo.cs file gets compiled to IL assembly.
If you load that assembly you can read the version with all the examples that you have already seen. Which is reading an embedded version information from a compiled assembly file, and it may be overwritten by compilation process to a value different from what is in AssemblyInfo.cs
However it sounds like what you want instead is to read a version number from AssemblyInfo.cs text file, without compiling it down.
If this is the case you really just have to use regex with a format appropriate for your project, or even come up with a convention that will keep it simple.
This could be as simple as
var versionMatch = Regex.Match(File.ReadAllText(filename), #"AssemblyVersion\s*\(\s*""([0-9\.\*]*?)""\s*\)");
if (versionMatch.Success)
{
Console.WriteLine(versionMatch.Groups[1].Value);
}
You would have to consider convention around what goes there, since 1.0.* is a valid version string that translates to timestamp values of form 1.0.nnn.mmm at compile time, and nnn and mmm part closely guessable but not precisely guessable.
It sounds like you're trying to load an assembly compiled for x86 in an x64 environment or vice-versa.
Ensure the assembly this code resides in is built for the same environment as the target and you can get it with the examples it sounds like you've read.
You can proceed with Assembly.GetName().Version where your assembly could be the type of your class
public class Test
{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Current assembly : " + typeof(Test).Assembly.GetName().Version);
}
}
For the test application I have working on, shows me below details using above code: