I'm new to C# and .net in general, and I need to use it to work with the SDK for a major piece of software we use.
I can add the assemblies they tell me to add in a console application and everything works fine. When I try to add them to any web application (either MVC or WebAPI), I keep getting errors saying other assemblies are missing. Eventually I just added every assembly/reference (not sure the correct term for this, pretty much just .dll files) in the sdk folder and now it is working. This definitely cannot be the correct way to do this.
Is there something I am missing that allows assemblies/references to load other assemblies/references, or is something else the cause of my issue?
UPDATE:
The exceptions are usually something like this:
Could not load file or assembly 'Server, Version=1.5.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=d11ef57bba4acf91' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
And it does not occur during build, only when the function is actually being called from the web application( in my case, since it's an api, when I visit the URL that returns my JSON data)
You can use a tool called "IL Disassembler" that is installed along with Visual Studio to see what other dependencies the SDK's Assembly depends on.
The install location may vary but mine is here...
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.6 Tools\ildasm.exe"
Drag and drop the SDK's assembly that you are using onto the tool and click the manifest field. A dialog will open with the other assemblies that you'll need to include.
If your console application works but the web application does not then the exception should specify which assembly is missing.
Compare you console output directory with the output directory of you web build. Make sure the dll that is required is being deployed to the web directory you are running.
In visual studio with your web project find the assembly under references and select it. Make sure that the property "Copy Local" is set to TRUE.
Related
my visual studio project has some includes (i use the .net framework 4.6.1).
So I wanted to do a loader in .net 2.0 for unpacking the needed files without admin rights into a user folder with the EXE together.
My idea was to add them as type "FILE" resource into the "loader" project and then extract them as a file again in the user directory together with the .net 4.6.1 EXE. As soon I add one of the files to my NET 2.0 loader project as resource in the designer, the whole project is broken and spits out errors, which I do not understand.
How I can add a complex file as a resource in my project (DLL / EXE)? Simple TEXT-Files work so far. (The extracting routine works also). I get the error right after adding a binary dependency file (DLL) like "System.Data.dll". It says after adding the resource that I have a wrong reference or something alike. The project becomes immediately unusable after it with that error persisting. If I delete the file out of the resource again, the error persists. I have to start all over again with the project.
Any ideas?
Exception screenshot
I am pretty sure the C:/test/AdPlatform.Shared.dll is exist.
When I run this in Rider/VisoStudio, it works well.
When I try to run it as a system service, it does not work. There is no error and it creates null instance.
Adding custom Reference of Assemblies/DLL in any project will work only in Local Machine, not in other machine/Environments
ADDING THIRD PARTY DLLs IN ANY PROJECT FROM LOCAL PATH IS ALWAYS RISKER
Correct Way:
Registering the Custom DLL in GAC then Add the reference from SYSTEM PATH
For Web service/MVC Related Project(s) creating custom folders(lib) in the Solution itself and adding the DLL from that folder will be the best way to achieve it.
If you want a external library in your solution you need to place its file in a place the solution can access from anywhere (aka deploy location), meaning, put the file in a solution folder and set its using statements to its namespace anywhere you reference it in your project(s), so it will be sure to find the library you need.
I'm having a problem with a third party C# class library:
The given .net dll requires additional files to be in the same directory than the .dll (config files etc.).
When I load the library as reference into asp.net project everything works smoothly until first call to the library. I get exceptions from the library saying that the required files are missing.
Now the question is where should I put those required files into? I've tried obj/debug/, bin/ and including the files in the project and selecting "Always copy to output directory", but none helped.
I guess it's something to do with IIS and its way of handling the reference/additional files?
Edit: It's working fine in Windows Forms application, but not in ASP.NET web application.
You can view source code of external class library with iLSpy or Reflector to find how exactly additional files are referenced.
It's can be an application execute path (so it must be IIS shadow copy directory) or GAC.
For that you need to read the documentation. The method throwing the error should be expecting the file in some other folder other than bin, debug or obj.
I made a WPF program which uses SQLite. And by using Visual Studio 2012, it generates both Debug and Release version exe file. When I go to Debug or Release directory and run my exe file, e.g. MultiStart.exe, it can run normally.
But if I copy the MultiStart.exe to my Desktop and try to run it, it failed.
By several tests, I found that I also need to copy files MultiStart.exe.config and System.Data.SQLite.dll to my Desktop. And then it can run now.
But why? Do we have better solution so that I can make it run without addition files?
Thanks!
Why my WPF program cannot run without Visual Studio?
The question title is not really accurate since it's not really related Visual Studio. MultiStart.exe is dependent on configuration (MultiStart.exe.config) as well as other assemblies (System.Data.SQLite.dll). Without these dependencies the application cannot run (because that is how .NET works).
WPF doesn't necessarily need a config file to run so the question is what is in your config file that the application needs. It might be possible to move this configuration information into the code (e.g. connection string) and remove the app.config but then the values will be hard coded in the application.
In terms of dependent assemblies, instead of deploying them it is possible to embed them as resources and then use the AppDomain.AssemblyResolve Event to read the assembly from a resource (see Embedding assemblies inside another assembly for an example).
Another approach instead of embedding assemblies as resources is to merge them into one assembly. ILMerge is a popular choice for merging assemblies but I read that it can have issues with WPF assemblies (not sure if that applies to you). See Merging dlls into a single .exe with wpf for some other ideas for merging assemblies with WPF.
Note that setting PATH variables does not work because .NET does not use the PATH for resolving assemblies -- see How the Runtime Locates Assemblies for the details.
Another, option instead of copying the MultiStart.exe to the desktop is to use a shortcut on the desktop that links to the appropriate directory. Perhaps that is a simpler solution
You can also use ILMerge to merge all dependencies into single .exe file to simplify distributiuon of your application.
More detaiils on ILMerge can be found here: ILMerge on CodeProject
Example of usage: ilmerge /target:winexe /out:YourDestinationApp.exe
YourCurrentProgram.exe System.Data.SQLite.dll
Better solution that i used to do with my windows form apps is, Copy the entire folder, which contains supporting files. place it where you want. then create a shortcut of your .exe on your desktop. That always worked for me.
Because you are missing some dependency. You can open your config file and set the dependency...but I wouldn't recommend you to change config file manually.
You can also copy the dependent dll in system32 folder. ..but its only a trick because exe first search dlls in current folder than system 32 folder.
Because you're missing things from your PATH. Visual Studio is probably set to copy DLLs to the target directory on build.
You're almost certainly pulling in external libraries. Some of these are part of .NET, while others are packaged in libraries in specific folders. When you start your exe, it looks in your PATH and the current folder for everything (which includes all DLLs Visual Studio copied).
When you moved the exe to the desktop, suddenly it had no idea where those DLLs are. You haven't specifically added them to your PATH, and they are no longer in the current folder. This is why copying those DLLs to your desktop magically made them work.
Unless you stop use SQLite, there is not a way for you to not need that DLL (there are lots of ways to package/reference it though).
I have a annoying build process from using System.Addins API with ClickOnce. Using System.Addins requires a specific directory structure, and the main project does not reference the adapters, view, and contract directly, which doesn't work well with the ClickOnce architechture.
The annoying part with the build process is that I have to copy, via post build event, the .dlls from the add-in components into the directory of the main app project, then reference those files manually from the main project, so that ClickOnce will include them. Firstly, this takes 2 iterations of build to get it to build correctly, secondly, it interferes with source control (I have to exclude the copied add-in dll files from source control or any changes made to them would require checkout).
So, my question is, is there a way around this hack? Something more elegant?
I can't fully answer your question, but it appears you are creating ClickOnce deployments through Visual Studio. I would ditch that method and use MageUI instead. It's a stand-alone executable that can be found in the framework SDK that will generate your application and deployment manifest files. It comes with a gui version (mageui.exe) and a command line version (mage.exe).
Mage may not get rid of your post-build event but it should do away with having to reference the files to get ClickOnce to see them.
Thanks for your input, I am currently doing it the way you mentioned; creating the folder in my project, and include the dlls that I need. It works, but it's an ugly solution, and it interferes with Source Control.
I'm aware of the limitations of ClickOnce, I was hoping there may be a way around it. For example, I read somewhere that I can use deployment projects to create the appropriate dependencies needed in a specific structure. The problem with that is once it is deployed to the public, there is no easy way (within ClickOnce) to update those dependencies.
The solution I use is to have a single output folder for all projects. Every project puts it's own files in the correct subfolder. The application bootstrapper project puts his dlls also in the output (root) folder. When you then create a click-ones for the bootstrapper, it will take all the content from the output folder.
The hardest part is to actually get all the dll's in the right place (and have every dll only once)
I solved this problem by adding the pipeline assemblies as content into the main solution structure.
To do this, change the output folder from (/bin/debug /bin/Release) to something else. I used ../lib otherwise you would get a visual studio cannot reference this file error.
Create the pipeline folders in your main solution
\AddInSideAdapters
\AddInViews
\Contracts
\HostSideAdapters
Right click on each of the folders and click "add existing item" change to view all files and then browse to your ../lib (or wherever you have the output set) and then pull down the add button (click the down arrow) and click "Add as a Link".
Right click on each file and set it to Content.
This will create a refresh file pointed to your assemblies and they will be included into the clickonce manifest.
ClickOnce do not let you install the software where you want. It will install the binary and dlls in the documents and settings. You can in your project properties go in the Publish tab and select Application Files to select additional file to Include. If the System.Addings require dll in a specific folder relatively to your assembly, you might just create the folder in you project and includes from here the dlls. This might works. If not, I do not have "hack" or other solution, clickonce is great but limited with some functionalities.