I am using a 3rd party API which is defined in 2 DLLs. I have included those DLLs in my project and set references to them. So far so good.
However, these DLLs have at least one dependent DLL which cannot be found at runtime. I copied the missing DLL into the project and set the 'Copy to output' flag but without success.
What should I be doing here to tell the project where it should find the dependent DLL?
Clarification
I tried adding a reference to the missing DLL but as it wasn't recognised as a .Net component. In desperation, I added it directly to the output folder but without success.
Finally, I installed the API on the PC and it all worked. The installation sets the PATH variable and the DLL is found in the installation folder. But how to tell the project to look in one of its internal folders?
It sounds like you need to better understand the third-party library and how it uses its own dependencies. If the installation of the API solves the problem, but copying the files manually does not, then you're missing something. There's either a missing file, or some environment variable or registry entry that's required. Two things that will really help you in this is the depends tool (which is part of the C++ installation) and procmon, which will tell you all the registry keys and files that get used at runtime.
If you're lucky, it's just a file that you're missing. If that's all it is, you can use the "Build Events" section of the project to copy the needed files to the right location on a successful build. If not, you're going to have to solve this some other way - either by requiring the API be installed, or rolling your own installation project.
How are you deploying? Just flat files? If so, it should work as long as the file ends up in the project output directory. Does it?
If you are using another deployment, you will need to tell that engine to include it. This is different for each of msi/ClickOnce/etc.
You can either slowly add the downstream dependencies as references to your project. This is cumbersome, and somewhat fragile
Or your could use a tool like "Depends.exe" from microsoft to inspect your top level assemblies and get a reference list to the dependencies.
Related
I might be a bit stupid, but I want to create a tool in Visual Studio in C# and want to call third party tools via their API-DLLs. The only topics I found here are dealing with one of the two methods that I already know:
Compilation time: add a reference to "C:\FooTool\foo.dll" in my project + "using fooToolNamespace.fooToolClass" in my code (compilation time) --> I can "naturally" use the classes of the DLL and will even get full IntelliSense support if a suiting XML-file is available with the DLL. Also compilation time checks will be done for my usage of the dll.
Dynamic (run time): calling e.g. Assembly.LoadFile(#"C:\FooTool\foo.dll") and then using reflection on it to find functions, fields and so on --> no IntelliSense, no compilation time checks
So I actually have the DLL at hand and thus option 1) would be nice during development. But if my tool is used on a different PC, the third-party DLL might be in a different path there, e.g. "C:\foo\foo.dll" and "C:\bar\foo.dll".
In my understanding using a copy of "foo.dll" will not work, because "foo.dll" might have dependencies, e.g. requiring other files of the FooTool-directory. Thus in my understanding I have to call the DLL which is "installed" to the target PC and not a local copy of it.
So can I somehow change the path where my tool accesses the "foo.dll" at runtime and still use method 1) during development?
Or is there another way of doing things?
Or am I just dumb and there is a simple solution for all this?
Thanks a lot for the help and have a great day
Janis
To be able to use option 1 (a referenced DLL), you need to put the DLL somewhere "where your EXE (or, more precisely, the Assembly Resolver) can find it" on the customer's PC.
So where does the assembly resolver look for your DLL?
In the directory where the EXE resides (for desktop/console applications) or the bin subdirectory (for web applications). Since you mention that your DLL requires other dependencies as well, you'd need to copy them to that location as well.
The Global Assembly Cache (GAC). If your dependency supports this, installing it to the GAC ensures that it can be found by your application.
These two are the "supported" scenarios. There is also the possibility to tweak the assembly resolver to look into other directories as well, but that should be reserved for special cases where the other two options failed. (We had such a case and solved it with a custom AssemblyResolve handler on the application domain.)
So, I'm having trouble adding a git project to my net Core solution, and after spending hours trying to figure this out and being uncapable of finding a solution online, I decided to ask here.
I have a forked github repo (link) in which I modified some files to suit my needs, but I simply can't seem to get it to work with my current project.
The problem I'm having is that normally, when I want a package for a .NET project, I usually simply go to nuget and fetch the necessary dependencies. This is usually very simple and straight forward. But now that I have these modified files, I'm unsure on how to proceed.
I have tried adding it as a submodule, but after I built the project, I got an exception saying that the dll could not be found.
Then I've tried adding the dll itself as a reference, but the ImGui.dll depends on a C dll which couldn't be found then (nor added to the project).
Finally, I've tried adding the csproj as a project of my solution, but that didn't work either
Do you know what am I doing wrong here? Am I missing a key piece or is it just something obvious I'm not seeing? It can't be this hard to get it to work
From the look of it, that repository produces a DLL (output type Class Library). So modify it to your liking, and use the sample program build (ImGui.NET.SampleProgram) to test your changes. Once you're happy, build the DLL project (ImGui.NET) and use the resulting DLL as a Reference in your own app.
In Visual Studio:
Solution Explorer>YourApp>References>Right Click>Add Reference...>Locate your DLL
This means you should also keep track of your modifications to the ImGui.NET project itself, since you may/will be required to maintain this in the future.
Hope this gets you started -- update your question with more specific issues once you're underway.
Edit:
Like #CoolBots mentions, I probably misread your question. Seems like the build depends on cimgui.dll, which you can hotlink from the ImGui repo along with your custom DLL. In fact, the demo app is using cimgui.dll, cimgui.dylib and cimgui.so. Regardless of linking method, you want the files to copy into your build folder. I don't believe subfolder /bin is necessary.
You can find all the cimgui dependencies for various operating systems in the ~/ImGui.NET/deps/cimgui folder.
The demo also utilizes NuGet packages Velrid and Velrid.StartupUtilities.
Depending on your own codebase, you may or may not require these NuGet packages along with the aforementioned class library.
At the moment of creating a project of type "Library of Classes, usually one can generate a dll when compiling, but how could I generate a dll without losing others that I already have included?
I explain with an example: It turns out that Nuget downloaded an S22.Imap dll with the one I worked with, later I generated the dll in the traditional way that I explained in the beginning, but when I wanted to work with dll in another computer, I got errors that were not I found functions that contained the S22.IMAP dll. So to solve this problem, I had to copy the dll of my project, S22.IMAP in an additional way in a specific path of the other computer.
My question is:
How could you generate a dll that includes the ones included in the project you were working with?
All the referred 3rd party dlls (S22.Imap.dll in your example) will be copied to the output folder together with your own dll file (let's say a.dll) when you build your project. That means you should always copy them together (S22 + a.dll) to the place you want to refer them, on another computer/folder/place.
If you really want to make them only one file (although it is not recommended), you can set the S22 one as some "nested resource". Then you will get only one a.dll file and the S22 one is inside the a.dll. See below page for some reference:
Embedding one dll inside another as an embedded resource and then calling it from my code
AND, ILMerge is some tool that can help you do so.
In general, you don't. A DLL is a dynamic linked library, and you would normally only combine static libraries during a build. Here is an answer on the difference between static and dynamic linking.
Typically you would include all the DLLs you need in the installer package. If you use Visual Studio to create the installer, it can detect the dependencies for you. When you run the installer, all of the necessary DLLs are deployed. Nearly all commercial .NET software follows this pattern.
It is possible to merge an assembly into another assembly using a tool called ILMerge. This would be a very unusual thing to do, and could cause issues with intellectual property and code signing, so it is not recommended.
I found tons of posts asking about how to fix when Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll is missing, but I have the exact opposite issue -- it is in my output directory and I have no idea why.
The project in question references another global project within the solution, but I have checked the references and extensions for both projects -- nothing about Microsoft.SqlServer.Types. So, any idea as to why it would be considered a dependency when I rebuild the solution? I go to "Add Reference...", Extensions, and I can see "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types" in the list, NOT checked. How do I get rid of this reference?
Background: I just added reporting to my project and was using a data source (.xsd file) in my project. I have since switched to using simple class/object references as the data source so I deleted the XSD data source that used OLEDB to Foxpro DBF files. But I am thinking the Microsoft.SqlServer.Types reference got added at that time and now it won't go away.
The DLL (and regional folders for it) copy to my output directory because I am using the trick where all referenced DLLs get copied and then embedded into the application executable (so that I don't need to use ILMerge or deploy a bunch of DLLs -- the exe is standalone in that regard).
How do I find out where this reference is still sticking and get rid of it?
Never mind, it looks like Microsoft.SqlServer.Types is required by Microsoft.ReportViewer.Common. So, just adding reporting to my app brings in a lot of stuff... (well, not really that much, size-wise...)
I have a dll containing classes to access data in SQL (a sort of ORM system) included in my .cs page with a using statement. For some reason the dll (with definition for a new field) isn't seen by the cs code, though I've uploaded the new dll in bin. It won't see my new field in the dll's helper classes (now compiled into the dll).
Is there a way to troubleshoot the dll, or the cs to tell why this won't see the class I updated and rebuilt? The class works fine locally and on another server, but on my prod server, it bombs.
This is using Sitefinity 3.7 with a Subsonic/Substage module if that sheds some light on it.
If you are using Visual Studio, verify 2 things, first:
try deleting csproj.user and .suo files (visual studio will recreate them)
The second thing is the version of the framework your project is running, and the version of the framework the dll was compiled in.
If your project is using .NET 4.0 but the DLL was built using 2.0 or similar you may not be able to use it, you can add it, but it wont be loaded.
This sounds so familiar... have you check to see if there is another dll on the path that gets resolved? Dynamic-Link Library Search Order
Make sure that your dll was not registered on the production service in the GAC.
How to extract an assembly from the GAC?
Perhaps you have a local copy of the DLL in your project and the DLL that gets updated is elsewhere.
I tend to think the dll you build is 32 bit (X86) dll. where as you are trying to consume it from project that targets "Any CPU".
Is your production server a 64 bit ?
If answer is yes, goto project properties => Build tab (of your cs code's project which is not understanding the dll) and set the Platform target as X86.
If the updated DLL has a different version number, you may need to update the Project Reference to it by deleting and re-adding a reference to the DLL in the bin folder.
If the project generating the DLL is present in the same solution, you may have an issue in creating a file reference (may not be updated) instead of a project reference (will be updated).
fuslog.exe is a great tool when troubleshooting assembly (dll) binding issues.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e74a18c4.aspx
Another .net developer helped me figure this out. I had a rogue ToString() in there where there should have been a cast to string, allowing nulls. My dll was okay after all. Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I learned a lot.