I'm trying to use AppDomain to load and unload assemblies run-time. I'm trying to get the example on MSDN working in my application before implementing assembly loading, but I'm running into issues - the DoCallback-invokation fails with exception
Could not load file or assembly '[MyPluginAssembly], Version=1.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The
system cannot find the file specified.
My assembly ([MyPluginAssembly]) is running loaded by a host application (i.e. it is a plugin). The plugins AppDomain seem to be the application-domain (i.e. it is not sandboxed in a separate domain). I've tried loading the entry/calling/executing-assembly in the new domain to ensure [MyPluginAssembly] is loaded, but even though these calls return non-null I still get the exception above.
The code I use (as in the example on MSDN + the code to load the "parent"-assemblies):
public class PingPong : MarshalByRefObject
{
private string greetings = "PING!";
public static void Main()
{
AppDomain otherDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("otherDomain");
// All of these Load()-calls returns non-null
Assembly entryAssembly = otherDomain.Load(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetName());
Assembly callingAssembly = otherDomain.Load(Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().GetName());
Assembly executingAssembly = otherDomain.Load(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName());
PingPong pp = new PingPong();
pp.MyCallBack();
pp.greetings = "PONG!";
otherDomain.DoCallBack(new CrossAppDomainDelegate(pp.MyCallBack));
// Output:
// PING! from defaultDomain
// PONG! from defaultDomain
}
// Callback will always execute within defaultDomain due to inheritance from
// MarshalByRefObject
public void MyCallBack()
{
string name = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName;
if (name == AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationName)
{
name = "defaultDomain";
}
Console.WriteLine(greetings + " from " + name);
}
}
What circumstances can cause the exception I get?
You should look at the CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap method. It is the one to use for sandboxed add-in scenarios like yours. System.AddIn (MAF) is using this method to load the add-in pipeline segments.
Related
Here is how my application folders looks like:
Application:
+ App.exe
+ App.exe.config
Application/Plugins:
+ Plugin1 (folder)
Application/Plugins/Plugin1:
+ Plugin1.dll
+ SomeDll.dll
So main application App.exe looking for plugins folder and load {PluginName}.dll into memory to run it. This plugin usually uses it's own dependant assemblies which must be loaded (like SomeDll.dll). It appears that it make serious troubles sometimes. I receive exception that for example dependant assembly of dependant assembly cannot be found and I don't know why.
For example, My plugin must load lots of additional dlls becouse plugin runs OwinSelfHost service.
So it must load for example:
System.Web.Http.Owin
Owin
Microsoft.Owin
Microsoft.Owin.Host.HttpListener
Microsoft.Owin.Hosting
and when load Microsoft.Owin.Hosting then throw exception that cannot load Microsoft.Owin
Exception looks like:
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Owin, Version=2.0.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of it's dependencies. File not found.
I wrote this method to resolve assemblies. It is tweaked to fit my needs.
It basically hooks a AssemblyResolve event to the current application domain to retrieve an requested assembly from a list of directories.
There is no easy way to find where the assembly file that match the namespace to resolve, except by loading an assembly file and check to which namespace it belongs to.
Plus, it discards some unwanted assemblies (like serializers, resources...) and detects dlls or exes that are not .NET assemblies.
A better approach would consist in using the Global Assembly Cache, but we want our plugins to be fully moveable. So here it is.
public static class AssemblyResolver
{
internal static void Hook(params string[] folders)
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += (sender, args) =>
{
// Check if the requested assembly is part of the loaded assemblies
var loadedAssembly = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().FirstOrDefault(a => a.FullName == args.Name);
if (loadedAssembly != null)
return loadedAssembly;
// This resolver is called when an loaded control tries to load a generated XmlSerializer - We need to discard it.
// http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/88566/bindingfailure-an-assembly-failed-to-load-while-using-xmlserialization
var n = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
if (n.Name.EndsWith(".xmlserializers", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
return null;
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4368201/appdomain-currentdomain-assemblyresolve-asking-for-a-appname-resources-assembl
if (n.Name.EndsWith(".resources", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
return null;
string assy = null;
// Find the corresponding assembly file
foreach (var dir in folders)
{
assy = new[] { "*.dll", "*.exe" }.SelectMany(g => Directory.EnumerateFiles(dir, g)).FirstOrDefault(f =>
{
try { return n.Name.Equals(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(f).Name, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase); }
catch (BadImageFormatException) { return false; /* Bypass assembly is not a .net exe */ }
catch (Exception ex) { throw new ApplicationException("Error loading assembly " + f, ex); }
});
if (assy != null)
return Assembly.LoadFrom(assy);
}
throw new ApplicationException("Assembly " + args.Name + " not found");
};
}
}
Here is how it works:
AssemblyResolver.Hook("\Plugins", "\CommonReferences");
Everytime some assemblies needs to be resolved, it will get the one that is loaded in memory, otherwise it will search in any given folders.
You can use "AssemblyResolve Event" (Method 3):
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/837908
Suppose I have a Host / Plugin scenario:
Host:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var path = #"D:\Plugin.dll";
var assembly = Assembly.LoadFile(path);
var type = assembly.GetType("Plugin.K");
var method = type.GetMethod("Run");
var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
method.Invoke(instance, new object[] {});
}
Plugin:
public class K {
public void Run() {
// EXCEPTION THROWN HERE:
var x = Activator.CreateInstance("Plugin", "Plugin.K");
}
}
Then why is the following exception thrown?
An exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in mscorlib.dll but was not handled in user code
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'Plugin' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Isn't the assembly already loaded in the AppDomain?
Per MSDN:
The LoadFrom method of the Assembly class loads an assembly given its file location. Loading assemblies with this method uses a different load context.
The recommended way is to use the static (Shared in Visual Basic) Load method of the System.Reflection.Assembly class.
See the above link for additional options.
The assembly is already loaded by the appdomain.
after I looked over the source code of Activator.CreateInstance
I found a solution for you:
public class K
{
public void Run()
{
//var f1 = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof (K)).CreateInstance("Plugin.K");
//var f2 = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CreateInstance("Plugin.K");
//var f3 = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(K));
//won't throw exception
var x = Activator.CreateInstance(null, "Plugin.K");
}
}
the problem was inside the activator.createinstance, when the activator tried to load the assembly name and then the assembly.
when you pass null as assembly name the activator will use:
assembly = RuntimeAssembly.GetExecutingAssembly(ref stackMark);
note: examples f1-3 also work.
To debug this turn on Fusion logging in .net
How to enable assembly bind failure logging (Fusion) in .NET
If it is a failure to find a dependency then that will be present in the logs.
If not, it will give you more detailed info on why the exception is being thrown.
I have a library that contains some reflection code which inspects an Asp.Net's primary assembly, any referenced assemblies and does cool stuff. I'm trying to get the same exact code to execute in a console application while still reflecting on an Asp.Net's assemblies and I'm seeing odd results. I've got everything wired up and the code executes, however the reflection code returns false when I know it should be returning true as I'm stepping through it in the debugger.. It's driving me nuts and I can't figure out why reflection is exhibiting different behavior when running from the console app.
Here's a perfect example of some reflection code that gets all of the types that are area registrations in an Asp.Net application (type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(System.Web.Mvc.AreaRegistration))). This returns true for several types when executing in the app domain of an Asp.Net application, however it returns false for those same types when executed under the console application, but still reflecting on those same Asp.Net types.
I've also tried using the Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom method but even after writing all the code to manually resolve referenced assemblies the reflection code shown below returns false on types that it should be returning true for.
What can I try to make this work?
public static Assembly EntryAssembly { get; set; } // this is set during runtime if within the Asp.Net domain and set manually when called from the console application.
public CodeGenerator(string entryAssemblyPath = null)
{
if (entryAssemblyPath == null) // running under the Asp.Net domain
EntryAssembly = GetWebEntryAssembly(); // get the Asp.Net main assembly
else
{
// manually load the assembly into the domain via a file path
// e:\inetpub\wwwroot\myAspNetMVCApp\bin\myApp.dll
EntryAssembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(entryAssemblyPath);
}
var areas = GetAreaRegistrations(); // returns zero results under console app domain
... code ...
}
private static List<Type> GetAreaRegistrations()
{
return EntryAssembly.GetTypes().Where(type => type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(System.Web.Mvc.AreaRegistration)) && type.IsPublic).ToList();
}
This has to do with the assembly context in which LoadFrom loads assemblies. Dependencies loaded during LoadFrom will not be used when resolving "regular" assemblies in the Load context.
The same appies the ReflectionOnly overloads, which load into the ReflectionOnly context.
For detailed information see https://stackoverflow.com/a/2493855/292411, and Avoid Assembly.LoadFrom; instead use Assembly.Load for an issue with LoadFrom similar to yours.
When I ran into this issue I switched to using Load and demanded "plugin" assemblies to be in the same path as the executable; I don't know if there are tricks to make things work if the assemblies are in different paths.
Ok, after a lot of debugging I've got this working! It turned out that my library project was compiling against Asp.Net MVC 4.0 even though Nuget and the properties window claimed 5.1. Nuget/MS fail again. The Asp.Net MVC application that my library is reflecting on is using MVC 5.1 so when the Assembly.LoadFrom and the AssemblyResolve event ran it was loading two versions of System.Web.Mvc.dll into the LoadFrom context (4.0 & 5.1) and this caused the IsSubclassOf() method to return false when the expected result should have been true.
The very odd error I mentioned in the comments above while debugging: The type 'System.Web.Mvc.AreaRegistration' exists in both 'System.Web.Mvc.dll' and 'System.Web.Mvc.dll' now makes sense, but only after the fact.
The way I finally tracked this down was by writing out all of the assemblies that AssemblyResolve was called upon to resolve and noticed that System.Web.Mvc.dll was not in the list. I fired up the Assembly Binding Log Viewer and was clearly able to see that System.Web.Mvc.dll was being loaded twice.
In retrospect, one should just skip all the custom logging and just use the Assembly Binding Log Viewer to verify only one of each assembly is being loaded and that it's the correct version your expecting.
Figuring out how to use AssemblyResolve properly was a nightmare so here is my unfinished, but working code for posterity.
public class CodeGenerator
{
public static string BaseDirectory { get; set; }
public static string BinDirectory { get; set; }
static CodeGenerator()
{
BinDirectory = "bin";
// setting this in a static constructor is best practice
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve;
}
public CodeGenerator(string entryAssemblyPath = null, string baseDirectory = null, string binDirectory = null)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(baseDirectory))
BaseDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
else
BaseDirectory = baseDirectory;
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(binDirectory) == false)
BinDirectory = binDirectory;
if (entryAssemblyPath == null) // running under the Asp.Net domain
EntryAssembly = GetWebEntryAssembly(); // get the Asp.Net main assembly
else
{
// manually load the assembly into the domain via a file path
// e:\inetpub\wwwroot\myAspNetMVCApp\bin\myApp.dll
EntryAssembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(entryAssemblyPath);
}
var areas = GetAreaRegistrations(); // reflect away!
... code ...
}
static Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
try
{
if (args == null || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(args.Name))
{
Logger.WriteLine("cannot determine assembly name!", Logger.LogType.Debug);
return null;
}
AssemblyName assemblyNameToLookFor = new AssemblyName(args.Name);
Logger.WriteLine("FullName is {0}", Logger.LogType.Debug, assemblyNameToLookFor.FullName);
// don't load the same assembly twice!
var domainAssemblies = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies();
var skipLoading = false;
foreach (var dAssembly in domainAssemblies)
{
if (dAssembly.FullName.Equals(assemblyNameToLookFor.FullName))
{
skipLoading = true;
Logger.WriteLine("skipping {0} because its already loaded into the domain", Logger.LogType.Error, assemblyNameToLookFor.FullName);
break;
}
}
if (skipLoading == false)
{
var requestedFilePath = Path.Combine(Path.Combine(BaseDirectory, BinDirectory), assemblyNameToLookFor.Name + ".dll");
Logger.WriteLine("looking for {0}...", Logger.LogType.Warning, requestedFilePath);
if (File.Exists(requestedFilePath))
{
try
{
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(requestedFilePath);
if (assembly != null)
Logger.WriteLine("loaded {0} successfully!", Logger.LogType.Success, requestedFilePath);
// todo: write an else to handle load failure and search various probe paths in a loop
return assembly;
}
catch (FileNotFoundException)
{
Logger.WriteLine("failed to load {0}", Logger.LogType.Error, requestedFilePath);
}
}
else
{
try
{
// ugh, hard-coding, but I need to get on with the real programming for now
var refedAssembliesPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86), #"Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.5.1");
requestedFilePath = Path.Combine(refedAssembliesPath, assemblyNameToLookFor.Name + ".dll");
Logger.WriteLine("looking for {0}...", Logger.LogType.Warning, requestedFilePath);
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(requestedFilePath);
if (assembly != null)
Logger.WriteLine("loaded {0} successfully!", Logger.LogType.Success, requestedFilePath);
// todo: write an else to handle load failure and search various probe paths in a loop
return assembly;
}
catch (FileNotFoundException)
{
Logger.WriteLine("failed to load {0}", Logger.LogType.Error, requestedFilePath);
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Logger.WriteLine("exception {0}", Logger.LogType.Error, e.Message);
}
return null;
}
}
I want to load to a new AppDomain some assembly which has a complex references tree (MyDll.dll -> Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll -> Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.dll -> Office.dll -> stdole.dll)
As far as I understood, when an assembly is being loaded to AppDomain, its references would not be loaded automatically, and I have to load them manually.
So when I do:
string dir = #"SomePath"; // different from AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
string path = System.IO.Path.Combine(dir, "MyDll.dll");
AppDomainSetup setup = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation;
setup.ApplicationBase = dir;
AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("SomeAppDomain", null, setup);
domain.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path));
and got FileNotFoundException:
Could not load file or assembly 'MyDll, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
I think the key part is one of its dependencies.
Ok, I do next before domain.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path));
foreach (AssemblyName refAsmName in Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(path).GetReferencedAssemblies())
{
domain.Load(refAsmName);
}
But got FileNotFoundException again, on another (referenced) assembly.
How to load all references recursively?
Do I have to create references tree before loading root assembly? How to get an assembly's references without loading it?
You need to invoke CreateInstanceAndUnwrap before your proxy object will execute in the foreign application domain.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
AppDomainSetup domaininfo = new AppDomainSetup();
domaininfo.ApplicationBase = System.Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Evidence adevidence = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Evidence;
AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", adevidence, domaininfo);
Type type = typeof(Proxy);
var value = (Proxy)domain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(
type.Assembly.FullName,
type.FullName);
var assembly = value.GetAssembly(args[0]);
// AppDomain.Unload(domain);
}
}
public class Proxy : MarshalByRefObject
{
public Assembly GetAssembly(string assemblyPath)
{
try
{
return Assembly.LoadFile(assemblyPath);
}
catch (Exception)
{
return null;
// throw new InvalidOperationException(ex);
}
}
}
Also, note that if you use LoadFrom you'll likely get a FileNotFound exception because the Assembly resolver will attempt to find the assembly you're loading in the GAC or the current application's bin folder. Use LoadFile to load an arbitrary assembly file instead--but note that if you do this you'll need to load any dependencies yourself.
Once you pass the assembly instance back to the caller domain, the caller domain will try to load it! This is why you get the exception. This happens in your last line of code:
domain.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path));
Thus, whatever you want to do with the assembly, should be done in a proxy class - a class which inherit MarshalByRefObject.
Take in count that the caller domain and the new created domain should both have access to the proxy class assembly. If your issue is not too complicated, consider leaving the ApplicationBase folder unchanged, so it will be same as the caller domain folder (the new domain will only load Assemblies it needs).
In simple code:
public void DoStuffInOtherDomain()
{
const string assemblyPath = #"[AsmPath]";
var newDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("newDomain");
var asmLoaderProxy = (ProxyDomain)newDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName, typeof(ProxyDomain).FullName);
asmLoaderProxy.GetAssembly(assemblyPath);
}
class ProxyDomain : MarshalByRefObject
{
public void GetAssembly(string AssemblyPath)
{
try
{
Assembly.LoadFrom(AssemblyPath);
//If you want to do anything further to that assembly, you need to do it here.
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(ex.Message, ex);
}
}
}
If you do need to load the assemblies from a folder which is different than you current app domain folder, create the new app domain with specific dlls search path folder.
For example, the app domain creation line from the above code should be replaced with:
var dllsSearchPath = #"[dlls search path for new app domain]";
AppDomain newDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("newDomain", new Evidence(), dllsSearchPath, "", true);
This way, all the dlls will automaically be resolved from dllsSearchPath.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837908/en-us
C# version:
Create a moderator class and inherit it from MarshalByRefObject:
class ProxyDomain : MarshalByRefObject
{
public Assembly GetAssembly(string assemblyPath)
{
try
{
return Assembly.LoadFrom(assemblyPath);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(ex.Message);
}
}
}
call from client site
ProxyDomain pd = new ProxyDomain();
Assembly assembly = pd.GetAssembly(assemblyFilePath);
On your new AppDomain, try setting an AssemblyResolve event handler. That event gets called when a dependency is missing.
You need to handle the AppDomain.AssemblyResolve or AppDomain.ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve events (depending on which load you're doing) in case the referenced assembly is not in the GAC or on the CLR's probing path.
AppDomain.AssemblyResolve
AppDomain.ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve
It took me a while to understand #user1996230's answer so I decided to provide a more explicit example. In the below example I make a proxy for an object loaded in another AppDomain and call a method on that object from another domain.
class ProxyObject : MarshalByRefObject
{
private Type _type;
private Object _object;
public void InstantiateObject(string AssemblyPath, string typeName, object[] args)
{
assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + AssemblyPath); //LoadFrom loads dependent DLLs (assuming they are in the app domain's base directory
_type = assembly.GetType(typeName);
_object = Activator.CreateInstance(_type, args); ;
}
public void InvokeMethod(string methodName, object[] args)
{
var methodinfo = _type.GetMethod(methodName);
methodinfo.Invoke(_object, args);
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
AppDomainSetup setup = new AppDomainSetup();
setup.ApplicationBase = #"SomePathWithDLLs";
AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", null, setup);
ProxyObject proxyObject = (ProxyObject)domain.CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap(typeof(ProxyObject).Assembly.Location,"ProxyObject");
proxyObject.InstantiateObject("SomeDLL","SomeType", new object[] { "someArgs});
proxyObject.InvokeMethod("foo",new object[] { "bar"});
}
The Key is the AssemblyResolve event raised by the AppDomain.
[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
fileDialog.ShowDialog();
string fileName = fileDialog.FileName;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName) == false)
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve;
if (Directory.Exists(#"c:\Provisioning\") == false)
Directory.CreateDirectory(#"c:\Provisioning\");
assemblyDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(fileName);
Assembly loadedAssembly = Assembly.LoadFile(fileName);
List<Type> assemblyTypes = loadedAssembly.GetTypes().ToList<Type>();
foreach (var type in assemblyTypes)
{
if (type.IsInterface == false)
{
StreamWriter jsonFile = File.CreateText(string.Format(#"c:\Provisioning\{0}.json", type.Name));
JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
jsonFile.WriteLine(serializer.Serialize(Activator.CreateInstance(type)));
jsonFile.Close();
}
}
}
}
static Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
string[] tokens = args.Name.Split(",".ToCharArray());
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Resolving : " + args.Name);
return Assembly.LoadFile(Path.Combine(new string[]{assemblyDirectory,tokens[0]+ ".dll"}));
}
I have had to do this several times and have researched many different solutions.
The solution I find in most elegant and easy to accomplish can be implemented as such.
1. Create a project that you can create a simple interface
the interface will contain signatures of any members you wish to call.
public interface IExampleProxy
{
string HelloWorld( string name );
}
Its important to keep this project clean and lite. It is a project that both AppDomain's can reference and will allow us to not reference the Assembly we wish to load in seprate domain from our client assembly.
2. Now create project that has the code you want to load in seperate AppDomain.
This project as with the client proj will reference the proxy proj and you will implement the interface.
public interface Example : MarshalByRefObject, IExampleProxy
{
public string HelloWorld( string name )
{
return $"Hello '{ name }'";
}
}
3. Next, in the client project, load code in another AppDomain.
So, now we create a new AppDomain. Can specify the base location for assembly references. Probing will check for dependent assemblies in GAC and in current directory and the AppDomain base loc.
// set up domain and create
AppDomainSetup domaininfo = new AppDomainSetup
{
ApplicationBase = System.Environment.CurrentDirectory
};
Evidence adevidence = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Evidence;
AppDomain exampleDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("Example", adevidence, domaininfo);
// assembly ant data names
var assemblyName = "<AssemblyName>, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null|<keyIfSigned>";
var exampleTypeName = "Example";
// Optional - get a reflection only assembly type reference
var #type = Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoad( assemblyName ).GetType( exampleTypeName );
// create a instance of the `Example` and assign to proxy type variable
IExampleProxy proxy= ( IExampleProxy )exampleDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap( assemblyName, exampleTypeName );
// Optional - if you got a type ref
IExampleProxy proxy= ( IExampleProxy )exampleDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap( #type.Assembly.Name, #type.Name );
// call any members you wish
var stringFromOtherAd = proxy.HelloWorld( "Tommy" );
// unload the `AppDomain`
AppDomain.Unload( exampleDomain );
if you need to, there are a ton of different ways to load an assembly. You can use a different way with this solution. If you have the assembly qualified name then I like to use the CreateInstanceAndUnwrap since it loads the assembly bytes and then instantiates your type for you and returns an object that you can simple cast to your proxy type or if you not that into strongly-typed code you could use the dynamic language runtime and assign the returned object to a dynamic typed variable then just call members on that directly.
There you have it.
This allows to load an assembly that your client proj doesnt have reference to in a seperate AppDomain and call members on it from client.
To test, I like to use the Modules window in Visual Studio. It will show you your client assembly domain and what all modules are loaded in that domain as well your new app domain and what assemblies or modules are loaded in that domain.
The key is to either make sure you code either derives MarshalByRefObject or is serializable.
`MarshalByRefObject will allow you to configure the lifetime of the domain its in. Example, say you want the domain to destroy if the proxy hasnt been called in 20 minutes.
I hope this helps.
I'm trying to create a sandboxed AppDomain for loading extensions/plugins. I have a MarshalByRefObject that in instantiate inside the appdomain to load the dll. I'm getting SecurityExceptions when trying to load the dll and I can't figure out how to get around them while still limiting what the third party code can do. All my projects are .net 4.
The InDomainLoader class is in a fully trusted domain, the method is marked SecuritySafeCritical. From everything I've read, I think this should work.
Here is my Loader class that creates the AppDomain and jumps into it:
public class Loader
{
public void Load(string dll, string typeName)
{
Log.PrintSecurity();
// Create new AppDomain
var setup = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation;
var permissions = new PermissionSet(null);
permissions.AddPermission(new SecurityPermission(SecurityPermissionFlag.Execution));
var strongname = typeof(InDomainLoader).Assembly.Evidence.GetHostEvidence<StrongName>();
var strongname2 = typeof(IPlugin).Assembly.Evidence.GetHostEvidence<StrongName>();
AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("plugin", null, setup, permissions, strongname, strongname2);
// Create instance
var loader = (InDomainLoader)domain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(
typeof (InDomainLoader).Assembly.FullName, typeof (InDomainLoader).FullName);
// Jump into domain
loader.Load(dll, typeName);
}
}
And here's the bootstrap loader that runs in the domain:
public class InDomainLoader : MarshalByRefObject
{
[SecuritySafeCritical]
public void Load(string dll, string typeName)
{
Log.PrintSecurity();
var assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(dll); // <!-- SecurityException!
var pluginType = assembly.GetType(typeName);
var demoRepository = new DemoRepository();
var plugin = (IPlugin)Activator.CreateInstance(pluginType, demoRepository);
Console.WriteLine(plugin.Run());
}
}
Some logging statements tell me that the assembly's IsFullyTrusted is true and the method has both IsSecurityCritical and IsSecuritySafeCritical set to true, IsSecurityTransparent is false.
I zipped up the whole project to http://davidhogue.com/files/PluginLoader.zip in case that makes this easier.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd be very grateful. I seem to be stuck at a dead end here.
Well for a start you probably shouldn't be marking the function as SecuritySafeCritical as that implies untrusted callers can call you, which you probably don't really want (not that it should be a major issue).
As for your problem the issue is that by default you still don't run with any special permissions, the normal easy way to do the assembly loading is you create your own AppDomainSetup and point it's ApplicationBase at a Plugin directory of some kind (which isn't a bad idea in general), you can then use the normal Assembly.Load("AssemblyName") to load out of the base. However if you must load an arbitrary file then you need to assert FileIOPermission for the plugin dll (full path), i.e.
private Assembly LoadAssemblyFromFile(string file)
{
FileIOPermission perm = new FileIOPermission(FileIOPermissionAccess.AllAccess, file);
perm.Assert();
return Assembly.LoadFile(file);
}