I've sent over a .dl_ file which I need to reference within my visual studio project, from what I have been told the .dl_ file contains 1 interface, 1 model and 1 XML file.
I've never worked with .dl_ before so I'm slightly confused on how I go about getting such information as mentioned above in to my solution, I have googled this but all I get back is information about what is it not how to reference / use it.
I have tried right clicking on references > add reference > browse to .dl_ location and tried adding it but I get the error "Could not be added. Please mark sure that the file is accessible, and that it is a valid assembly or COM component"
A dl_ file sounds like a file that was compressed. Microsoft compresses a lot of their system files on their installation media. To decompress it, you use Expand, a Microsoft command line utility. To expand your file, open a command window and type this:
C:\> CD\
C:\> CD MyDirectory
C:\MyDirectory> Expand MyFile.dl_ MyFile.dll
Replace MyDirectory with whatever directory your dl_ file is in. This will create the DLL file, then you use it like you would a normal dll.
Another possibility is that your friend simply renamed the file from .dll to .dl_. A lot of email clients will not allow you to send an email with a .dll or .exe attachment. This is for security reasons. So a common way to get around this is to rename the extension. Ask your friend if he did this.
Most installers store dll files as dl_ inside them.
But if the extension is dll that doesn't mean the file is an assembly, it could be a native windows library.
Ask the sender about the file.
Related
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 am writing a short batch file to prepare a control library DLL with Examples project for deployment via sip file and have the following question.
Given a csproj file at known location and a DLL at known location, is it possible to programmatically update the csproj from the batch file (via third party command line exe, or other scripting) to add the new DLL?
My folder structure is
/Build
/SDK
/WPF
/4.0 : ControlLibrary.dll sits here
/Examples
/WPF
/4.0 : Examples.csproj sits here
Assuming the batch file is at the /Build level, is there any way to modify Examples.csproj to reference ControlLibrary.dll ?
Just to clarify, the reason why I have the structure like this is I wish to deploy an examples csproj to ship with my control library. Examples.csproj should reference the obfuscated control library under SDK/. Examples.csproj also exists on dev trunk (where it has been copied from) and in the development solution it references output of ControlLibrary.csproj on non obfuscated form.
Essentially what im creating here is a folder structure to zip up and ship the ControlLibrary plus examples, hence, the need to update the reference.
Update - Solved using Powershell
Please see this related question and answer on adding and removing references using Powershell
csproj files are XML files - you can easily write a command line application to manipulate these files (adding, removing nodes etc).
You can call such a command line application from your batch file.
You can find the schema for this file at:
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\[framework version]\Microsoft.Build.xsd
As described in this SO answer.
I don't understand why you would need to modify the csproj file in your case. Just make sure the library reference in the csproj file is relative, i.e. ..\..\..\SDK\WPF\4.0\ControlLibrary.dll and it will keep working fine even if you move the complete folder hierarchy to a new location.
If you're trying to simplify adding the library to new projects though, take a look at NuGet. It's the best way for distributing and deploying libraries.
I wanted to know what part of the project I need to copy for my USB for example in order to get the source code of the project. Do I need to copy the whole folder? Or do I need only the .sln file? Or..?because I've tried to copy the .sln file and when I try to open it with the other computer, it says that it can't open it for some reason.
Thanks in advance.
You need the whole folder. Also, if you have third party references, you'll need those assemblies as well.
You need to copy the entire folder. The source code of a c# visual studio project is the .sln, .csproj, .cs, etc and also the external dependencies, dll:s, etc.
If you view the .sln file in a text editor you can see the references it has. The open up the project files (.csproj) listed in the .sln and see the files they reference.
You have to copy each file because there are many dependencies, like forms, windows, etc.
You need whole folder..
If you just need the source code, you could copy the whole folder. If you're looking for the code, look for the C# (.cs) files within the folder, and open them with notepad++ or something later on.
If you want the project, just copy the whole project folder over.
I have many kinds of xml-files (all with extension .xml) with different root element name and namespace. I want to associate each type with a different application and also make it possible to have different file-icons for each type. Can this be done using C# .NET?
The only way to handle this is in a similar way to that which Visual Studio uses to handle .sln files which is the Visual Studio Version Selector. This application is the one that gets associated with .sln files and handles providing an icon and an eventual process to handle the specific .sln file. Assuming you have Visual Studio installed, take a look in the registry at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.Launcher.sln to see how it's done.
So basically you need to:
Write an executable that can decide what to do with .xml files
Register the process as the one responsible for handling .xml files
Place logic in your executable, or in configuration that your executable consumes, that decides what to do on a per file basis.
For icons, take a look at the subkey ShellEx\IconHandler. You'll see that it points to (on an x64 machine with Visual Studio 2010 installed) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{9A2B23E4-2A50-48DB-B3C3-F5EA12947CB8} which lists under InprocServer32 a DLL that is responsible for providing icons for files, in this instance C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv\VSFileHandler.dll. You'll need to implement a similar DLL that shares the configuration/logic of your launcher process to determine what icon to show on a per file basis.
The usual caveat: Writing shell extensions in managed code has always been a big "no no" because shell extensions get loaded into any process that shows the common file dialogs. This can cause merry chaos as, up until .net 4.0, only one version of the CLR can be loaded into a process, so you have to be very sure before doing this. Given that .net 4.0 supports in-process side by side, this may not be an issue for you.
No. To Windows, an XML file is an XML file. The OS doesn't look inside to see what namespace is associated with it; it's just an XML file.
Windows associates file types with their extension, so again, all XML files are XML files. You can see this for yourself: rename a normal .txt file that contains absolutely no XML, and then refresh the view of it's folder in Explorer. You'll see the icon change from a text file image to an XML file image.
There isn't a way that you can do this without having custom extensions or an intermediary program.
Maybe one option would be to have a custom applicaiton which is assigned to handle XML files. When this is program is spawned it works out what the "type" of the file is using one of the XML tags and spawns the correct process accordingly. It's unlikely, however that you can give different "types" different icons.
I have an image that is used in some PDF files that my C# application generates. I know how to reference the image file when it is located in my workspace, but when I compile the program, I don't see the image anywhere in the compiled directory.
Can someone tell me what happened to that file, or do I have to manually package the file along with my program when I send the program to the users? I added the image to the workspace by drag-drop to the resource directory of one of my namespaces.
Check the file's properties in Visual Studio. Have you set the CopyToOutputDirectory property to something besides Do not copy?
Hmm... I'm not sure about the whole drag-drop business, but if it's all working the resource will have been embedded into your assembly.
I suggest you have a look with Reflector - you can see the resources embedded within assemblies using that.
Have a look at the build properties for the item in Solution Explorer - in particular, if the build action is Embedded Resource then it will indeed be built into the assembly.