How to include a dynamic link library in my setup? - c#

I have written a program, where I use the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel library. Now I want to create (my first) setup of this program. I use the setup project of Visual studio,
Everything works great, but now I have to include the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll to my setup, so if Microsoft excel isn't installed to the computer he can also use my program...
How can I do that?

In your project, in Solution Explorer, right click your project name --> properties --> Publish --> Application Files. In there you will find all the parts of your app. You might need to check the box "Show all Files" as it hides some things. Find what you need to be included and set it so using the little drop down next to it in the column "Publish Status".

The office interop required office to be installed on the machine.
You can use Open XML http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh180830(v=office.14).aspx or EPPlus http://epplus.codeplex.com/ to work with excel files without installing Microsoft Office.

Related

What reference do I need to use Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel in .NET?

I am interested in using C# to manipulate/Automate Excel files.
After browsing the web I have found VSTO but it seems you can not use that in Visual Studio Express Edition so I can not use that.
Just few minutes ago I noticed a question in this site that used this namespace in its code:
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
So I am wondering if all I need to use that is add necessary reference and if so which reference to add?
UPDATE
I installed "Primary Interop Assemblies" as the accepted answer suggested but for some reason they are still missing in the Add Reference dialog under ".NET" but they are present in GAC.
So I just added the reference using "Browse" and located Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll in GAC folder.
But looking for similar questions on this site regarding adding reference from GAC it seems this is not recommended.
Update (thanks user2347528)
These assemblies are available as NuGet packages, which is much easier than my original answer.
You can install by either right clicking on References in your project and selecting Manage NuGet packages... and searching for one of the packages listed below, or install using the Package Manager Console:
PM> Install-Package Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Graph
These are available as "Primary Interop Assemblies", which can be installed with Office, or downloaded and installed separately. How to: Install Office Primary Interop Assemblies.
Once those are installed, you can reference them in your project in the Add Reference dialog, under .NET. If you do not see those Microsoft.Office.Interop assemblies listed, then they have not been installed yet. Install them from your setup, or download and install them separately (see my link above for the downloads).
Just had this problem myself and accepted answer didn't help me but I solved it with:
Add reference > Browse > C: > Windows > assembly > GAC > Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel > 12.0.0.0_etc > Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll
Answers didn't help me to solve my problem, I couldn't find (and browse) the assemblies although I installed them using Microsoft's msi installer. For me, the excel assembly is located under C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel\14.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll
Just add reference of Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.
It includes MicroSoft Excel related classes, no need to add more references.
I guess what you are trying to do is add Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel with using statement with out adding its reference in your application, in that case it wont be found. Before calling it with using statement you need to add a reference to ur application. Right click on References and add the Excel Interop reference.
Add reference > Browse > C: > Windows > assembly > GAC > Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel > 12.0.0.0_wasd.. > Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll
I found it located under Assemblies->Extensions in VS2013.
If you have Microsoft Office installed, then you should be able to add a reference to Interop.Excel.
For example, the PC I'm typing this on has MSVS 2010 C# Express and Office 2010. I can add a reference to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel 11.0.0.0.
'Hope that helps
its in the com component, named:
"Microsoft Office 14 Object Library"
I just had the same problem, but none of these answers helped me. I did find the dll on my pc in the location Mostey noted: (C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel\14.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll), but this is not the one that was referenced in the project I was trying to get building.
The reference in our project in Visual Studio 2012 was pointing to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\. This location was empty for me, but it worked fine for everyone else. It took a number of tries, but I finally tracked down a working installer. I hope this saves others the same hassle!
--> Office Tools Bundle installer for VS2012 <--
This was located on the Office Documentation and Download page. Scroll down to Tools Downloads. There's also currently one for VS2013.
The best option since office 2007 is using Open XML SDK for it.
We used Word.Interop but it halt sometimes, and it is not recommend for Microsoft, to use it as a server side document formatting, so Open XML SDK lets you creates word documents on DOCX and Open XML formats very easily.
It lets you going well with scability, confidence ( the files, if it is corrupted can be rebuild ), and another very fine characteristics.
Here is super solid solution, you just need have excell.dll in your Debug/Release folder
Mine is 77,824 bytes, I downloaded it as a file, this also explain why some people have Debug compiled but Release not or vice versa.
Trento
1.Download and install: Microsoft Office Developer Tools
2.Add references from:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Visual Studio Tools for Office\PIA\Office15
I had the same issue and the Microsoft.Office.Interop was not appearing in "Add Reference" option once I upgraded VS2012 to VS2015. I basically repaired the installation (Control Panel > Programs & Features > VS 2012 > Right click Change > Repair) and added the Microsoft Office component. After that the same solution started working.
Make sure your project is 32 bit.
I had this problem, as soon as I ticked "Prefer 32 bit and rebuilt" all the Office Interop assemblies where available in Reference->Assemblies->Search "Office".

Skip DLL files in .NET setup project

everyone, I am having a question or problem when building a setup project for an add-in (both are developed in c#). The add-in is used for a big software, and it needs a DLL from the software. If I just build the add-in and use it, it is fine. But if I install it using a setup project, the DLL provided by the software should also be copied to make the add-in work. But since if the client who uses the software, has already the DLL (coming along with the software), so I wanted to skip this DLL, so exclude it from the setup. But if I do so, I will get error 1001 when installing the add-in, saying at least one type from the assembly (the add-in) cannot be loaded. If I include everything (all the dependencies), it works.
So does anyone have idea about this? How can I skip the already available DLL that comes along with the software?
you can use web deployment project to build your application instead of the default publish in visual studio and before building it right click on the WDP and select Open Project File:
inside the .wdproj file search for item group <ItemGroup></ItemGroup> tag and add the following
<ExcludeFromBuild Include=”$(SourceWebPhysicalPath)\FolderName\**\*.*” />

How do I include Visual C++ 2010 redistribuable in my setup?

When my application runs, it requires that Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) is installed. How do I include it in my app setup?
I use the setup wizard of Visual Studio 2010 to create it.
Prerequisites Dialog Box
This dialog box specifies which prerequisite components are installed,
how they are installed, and which order the packages are installed.
To access this dialog box, select a project node in Solution Explorer,
and then, on the Project menu, click Properties. When the Project
Designer appears, click the Publish tab. On the Publish page, click
Prerequisites. For Setup projects, on the Project menu, click
Properties. When the Property Pages dialog box appears, click
Prerequisites.
it's all explained here, follow the suggested steps then add VC++ 2010 runtime as prerequisite. Done!
I would include the VC++ 2010 merge module into the setup project. Information on redistribution via merge module can be found in this MSDN article. General resitribution is available from the parent article.
Take a look at the following articles. They explain how to include requisite resources in a setup project.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235317%28v=vs.90%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k3bxs9z6.aspx
If you're using a deployment project, I would recommend using Merge Modules.
Redistributing By Using Merge Modules
Visual Studio installs several merge modules for each Visual C++
component that may be redistributed with your application. They may be
found in the Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules folder. Each of
these merge modules may be used to deploy Visual C++ DLLs to the
target system.
Adding merge modules to your project is fairly straight forward.
To add a merge module to a deployment project
Select the deployment project in Solution Explorer.
On the Project menu, point to Add, and then click Merge Module.
In the resulting Add Modules dialog box, browse to the location of the
merge module that you want to add.

Using excel in c#

I'm running Visual Studio 2010 Express, and in C# I'm trying to display Excel workbook.
I'm trying to use
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
I have office 2007. Why doesn't this show up when I go to add> reference and navigate to the .NET or COM tabs?
Why doesn't this show up?
How can I add this as a reference or is there a better to show a workbook to the user in Excel?
For whatever reason VS 2010 doesn't like to show it in the .NET tab of the Add Reference window, you have to manually browse for it. The path to the assembly is C:\Windows\assembly\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.
Go to Add Reference
Click on the Browse tab
Browse to C:\windows\assembly
Choose Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
I've had decent luck using EPPlus. It was awhile ago but I chose it since at the time the interop library was specific to a single version of Office whereas epplus was compatible with any version supporting the Open Office Xml format

Office 2010 Add-in deployment

I'm searching the way in order to properly deploy a Visio 2010 Add-in.
I tried to publish it via ClickOnce, and it does the job. But I would like to have just one file, in Setup.exe style.
So I oped for a Setup Project, unfortunately with no success. The files are copied, I see it under the Programs list, but the add in is not registered.
Perhaps you know how to check if Visio 2010 is installed during the installation process, if not abort it, and then register the add in?
Any other solution?
After a long research I found this guide that explains everything, step by step and has an working example! Well done Microsoft!
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff937654.aspx
Thanks
In order to deploy the addin you have to
Create entry in registry form
installer in
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office... (manifest, loadBehavior, friendlyname, culuture etc)
Attach to the installed files .VSTO
and .manifest file
Add VSTO runtime and proper .NET version to the pre-requisites

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