VS2012 dll file not found at run time - c#

I have a project that references a dll file. I simply added a reference by right clicking on the properties, selected add reference, and browsed for the dll. Intellisense recognizes the library and all it's classes/methods but when I run it I get this.
An unhandled exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in program.exe
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'Api.dll' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.
The file appears in the bin folder and is still at the location I browsed too. The program runs without errors if I don't use any classes or methods. The library doesn't have any dependencies I'm aware of.
Edit: found a lot of missing dependent DLL files using dependency walker that I thought were causing the problem. After putting all the dependent DLL's in the same folder and referencing it the problem persists

Run Fusion Log Viewer when you run your app. It will tell you exactly what assembly isn't loading.
If nothing shows up in Fusion Log Viewer when you run it, try these settings:
I never did understand why results wouldn't show up unless I used the settings this way. I would delete all entries, run the app, then hit the Refresh button.

Turns out that even once I found the missing DLL's using dependency walker that they weren't being imported into my project with the original DLL. Moving them into the bin/debug folder fixed the error

Related

Consume all source code (non-compiled) from one project into another (PDFSharp)

As the title says, I want to consume all of PDFSharp's source code into my own project. But let me explain why I came to this scenario, so if there is something else I can do, maybe there are other options.
Goal: Compile my project into a single .exe file to use. No installers.
Problem: It uses PDFSharp.dll which is causing me issues.
What I am trying to do, is use ILMerge to create the .exe. I've used this successfully in the past for other projects.
The issue I think is that ILMerge is requiring references to other assemblies that PDFSharp uses. The first being Microsoft.ApplicationInsights. So to by-pass this, I installed Microsoft.ApplicationInsights into my project via Nuget. Then removed the actual reference from the project, but referenced the library in my ILMerge command as below:
/lib:"C:\<path to assembly>\Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.2.16.0\lib\net46"
This actually worked. Except, now it asked for another library and I get this error:
Unresolved assembly reference not allowed: GdPicture.NET.11.
This looks like a paid library, perhaps downloading the trial may get me past this. I didn't try yet. I switched gears as I felt I may be trying to reference an endless amount of assemblies.
I then tried to get the PDFSharp source code and I found that version 1.32 here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsharp/files/pdfsharp/PDFsharp%201.32/
I added a reference to this project within my solution file, so now I have a solution with 2 projects. Great.
I then I tried to link source files into my project. How to do that is here:
https://jeremybytes.blogspot.com/2019/07/linking-files-in-visual-studio.html#:~:text=To%20link%20files%2C%20use%20the,CLICK%20THE%20%22Add%22%20BUTTON.
This seems to work, but every file I add requires another file, which references another file etc. It seemed endless. So that led me to the idea of just consuming the entire source code into my project and I haven't seen a good way to do that yet. I can't add a reference to the project as it just references the compiled dll which again, iLMerge can't combine.
I've also tried updating the tag within the .csproj file of PDFSharp to "module" to create a .netmodule file. This creates the file in the obj directory but throws an error:
\PDFsharp\code\PdfSharp\obj\Release\PdfSharp.netmodule' is not an assembly
Any help is appreciated. thanks.
UPDATE: I reversed everything and added the PdfSharp reference - back to where I was and changed my project to module and built which created a .netmodule file. Then used the assembly linker to create a .exe from that file. That worked using this command from VS Dev prompt.
al MyModule.netmodule /target:exe /out:MyProgram.exe /main:MyNamespace.MyClass.Main
This created the .exe, but when run without any other supporting files produces a file not found error:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'MyModule.netmodule' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Which is interesting since the module should be inside the exe right?
I have this working now, so I just wanted to place my results here since it is already posted.
My initial problem was that I mistakenly thought the PDFSharp.dll was causing the issue, but it was actually another group of 3rd Party dlls I was referencing.
I tried for hours to get iLMerge to work with the only success being it would kick out a single .exe file but it would have runtime errors.
Errors that I encountered:
Error: Unresolved assembly reference not allowed: Custom.Assembly.
Solution: Reference the assembly if possible. If you have many, you can reference a folder with the /lib:"C:\folderpath" switch.
Error: Unresolved assembly reference not allowed: ADotNetFramework.dll.
Solution: You can reference the desired .Net Framework path where iLMerge will search for missing references. Example: /targetplatform:"v4,C:<Path To Framework>.NETFramework\v4.8"
Error: The assembly 'xyz.dll' was not merged in correctly. It is still listed as an external reference in the target assembly.
Solution: You can get past this error with the /closed switch. However, I don't think I should even have gotten this error because 'xyz.dll' was a referenced dll to be combined.
Also - use the /log switch, it is extremely helpful in seeing exactly what iLMerge is doing and figuring out your issue. Example: /log:mylog.txt
This allowed me to see that iLMerge was finding duplicate namespaces, in the 3rd Party assemblies and automatically renaming them. Here is an example from my log:
Merging assembly 'My.Assembly.Name' into target assembly.
Duplicate type name: modifying name of the type '<>f__AnonymousType02' (from assembly 'My.Assembly.Name') to 'My.Assembly.Name.<>f__AnonymousType02'
Duplicate type name: modifying name of the type '<>f__AnonymousType12' (from assembly 'My.Assembly.Name') to 'My.Assembly.Name.<>f__AnonymousType12'
Duplicate type name: modifying name of the type '' (from assembly 'My.Assembly.Name') to 'My.Assembly.Name.
Finally - the solution that I found was not to use iLMerge. I found this Answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/40786196/2596309
which used Costura.Fody
I installed the nuget package with:
Install-Package Costura.Fody -Version 4.1.0
Cleaned and built my solution and it created a single .exe file that I tested and it worked. Literally, I put 3 days of work into this and the solution took 3 minutes...

Couldnot load file or assembly for Coded UI

I'm getting an exception while debugging my code in VS2010 premium. Its about version of the dll that I'm using
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.Communication.Interop
Couldnot load file or assembly
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.Communication.Interop
version=9.0.0.0
Which version of the dll is to be used and where it is available?
We are getting this exception because the dll is missing in the
solution bin folder. If you are debugging the solution keep the dll
under the folder Debug, or else release then keep it under the folder
Release. If you are adding reference by using the option 'add
reference', may be it won't be in these folders, so it happens to get
this exception. So if you are getting this exception make sure that
dll is added properly.

c# app can't find dll in its working directory

I just switched from C++ to C# and I am a bit confused about referencing DLLs.
I have a third party DLL and a simple testing application that uses some of its methods. When I compile the project, everything goes well, but when I run the compiled app on another computer, I've got an error that says that the DLL is missing even though the DLL is in the app's working directory. What's even more strange is that I have access to the source code of another app that is dependent on an older version of this DLL and this app works well.
I've gone through the code and all the solution settings without finding anything really different.
Can you tell me how to reference a .dll from a working dir (Visual Studio 2010)?
Below is the exception:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException was unhandled
Message=Could not load file or assembly 'TIS.Imaging.ICImagingControl32, Version=3.2.4.1146, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=257805929e8b7928' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Source=ICtestapp
FileName=TIS.Imaging.ICImagingControl32, Version=3.2.4.1146, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=257805929e8b7928
FusionLog=WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].
StackTrace:
at ICtestapp.Form1.InitializeComponent()
at ICtestapp.Form1..ctor()
at ICtestapp.Program.Main()
InnerException:
Here's a good blog post from Suzanne Cook from the .net team on debugging .net loader issues.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/suzcook/archive/2003/05/29/57120.aspx
and here's the details on how it loads:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yx7xezcf(v=vs.71).aspx
You have to add the dll as reference in your project references, once you added the library in the reference, when you compile the program the dll will be automatically copied to the compilation output folder unless otherwise specified in the reference properties ...
Then if you copy all items that you will find in the compilation output folder in the new location in the other PC, you should not have any problems.
Check also that the .NET framework installed on the other machine is at least as the same level of the project target ..
This also happens when you copy the debug executables over to another machine. Try compiling in release and moving over.

Accessing assemblies at design time in Blend 4

I am getting an exception from my code while designing in Blend 4.
I have narrowed the issue down to loading a specific library. Other libraries can be loaded fine, just this one fails. So, for this code:
var a = Assembly.Load("lib1");
var b = Assembly.Load("lib2");
Line two will throw an exception: Could not load file or assembly 'lib2' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
If the same code is run outside of Blend, it does not throw. Both assemblies appear to be referenced the same way in the project, and both are marked Copy Local.
Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this issue?
At design time Blend copies your assemblies to a temporary folder other than your output folder so things can behave differently than when you run the program normally. Blend also requires the "Any CPU" configuration for design time so if you run "x86" normally you can get different results simply because of that.
But Blend itself is a managed program like any other and to diagnose the problem in detail you can crack open the Fusion Log Viewer to see assembly binding errors to try to find out what is going wrong. Presumably the library itself is where it ought to be (in Blend's temporary folder) but one of its indirect dependencies is not being found. By using the log viewer with sufficient detail, you should be able to see the specific binding failure that is causing the problem.
Here is a link:
Fuslogvw.exe (Assembly Binding Log Viewer)

PowerShell + SharePoint cannot seem to add an assembly

I am having an issue 'using' a custom field I have created. In power shell, the assembly is being loaded into the script using the LoadFrom function, and it throws no errors in loading the assembly, yet it acts as if the assembly wasn't loaded.
When trying to enumerate fields, I will get a 'not installed properly' error on one of my custom fields. When trying to access a custom field via myListItem["myCustomField"] I get a CannotIndex error.
I get these same errors when writing the exact code in Visual Studio with C#, however, once I add the reference to my assembly it works fine there. (Important part here, this should indicate that I am not doing anything incorrectly in power shell, i.e. accessing the field by its display name rather than internal name etc).
If I add my assembly to the GAC, everything works fine in power shell, but this is not an option for me at the moment. I need to be able to load the assembly from the dll.
Any clues?
An assembly loaded via LoadFrom does not behave the same way as one loaded from the GAC. It's more than just trust issues. If you have the patience, start here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/suzcook/archive/2003/05/29/choosing-a-binding-context.aspx
Adding a reference in visual studio is just for the compilation process, not the runtime loading. At runtime, the the dependent assemblies (references) are placed in the same directory as the process executable (if they were not GAC references.) In the powershell case, your dependent assemblies are not in the same location as the process executable (powershell.exe). This is why probing for their dependencies fails. If you copied them into $PSHOME it would probably work, but this is not a workable solution as this is a privileged location under system32.
-Oisin
PowerShell 2:
Add-Type -Path C:\Path\To\Assembly.dll
PowerShell 1:
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom('C:\Path\To\Assembly.dll')

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