I have this application that uses external libraries (downloaded them from the Internet and are just situated locally on my machine). But I need to deploy the program and give it to customer whereas these external libraries should also be included in the deployed application, otherwise it won't work...
Should I just copy the library files in the project directory and then publish the project or something else?
p.s. the application is written in C# with .NET 4 on VS2010, and the external libraries are open source, so no worries on the license.
I'll assume you are using some flavour of visual studio.
If so, you need to set library "copy local" property to true.
See this Microsoft article for more information
This way, when you build the project, it will make a copy of all of the required libraries in the bin folder of the project.
Related
I'm trying to create exe/msi for my solution
it contains the following Projects
ActiveDirectoryEngine: library used to implement AD operations
ADService: windows service - performs the work in the background
CryptographyEngine: library used to encrypt/decrypt data
TerranovaActiveDirectoryHost: Dashboars/win form to manage/check the service's status
SyncToolSetup: the setup project "it only targets TerranovaActiveDirectoryHost"
Here is the contents of the Setup project:
I tried the same steps for different Solution, with ONLY one windows forms application, and it worked fine, but it looks that it doesn't work when I have more than one referenced projects.
The install and Uninstall options are not enabled
Update:
all the previous projects are referenced in the Win forms project, so am I targeting the right one when creating the exe/msi?
The only project with the Install option is the setup project. Other projects in the solution do not have install option just because there is a setup project as part of the solution.
References in a non-setup project (such as a C# build) are not automatically included in a setup project. References used to build code are not necessarily things that need installing on the target system. The setup will try to help with dependencies, but it's unreliable, and only a guide. For example, your Application Folder view contains some files that are part of the .NET Framework, and you definitely don't install them because they are installed as part of the standard .NET framework install.
The setup project must be told what needs to be installed on the target system. There are generally two ways of doing this:
Selecting project output as input to the setup project. This can be rather indeterminate because it's not always obvious what files are included, or what to do if the files need installing to different locations.
Add the files that you know you need one at a time by adding them in the File System view of the directory they need installing into. Typically, executables go into the Application Folder (defaults to Program Files..), data files to User's Application Data, shared files to Common Files folder, some assemblies to the GAC and so on.
I have developed a winform application with C# 4.5. I want to make it portable. I meant that it should not need to be installed. To deploy this application I would like to just copy and paste the folder of application file. Like Tally or VLC Media player.
The environment and dependencies are as follows
C# Winform
.Net Framework 4.5
SQLite
Microsoft Report Viewer
Please suggest a way how to do it.
For each of your project's references, you should verify Copy Local property is set to True. This way, all the references will be copied in your project's bin folder (at compile time).
This should be suficient for a copy/paste deployment of your bin folder.
Keep in mind,
no program is an island -- Don Box
so deployment machines should need at least target framework installed.
.NET Framework will first search inside bin folder and if reference is not found, it will search the GAC (Global Assembly Cache).
XCopy deployment can be used to deploy your application.
I am trying to create a program, allowing silent installation of important updates for Windows. I want it to be a single .exe file, without any additional files, libraries, icons etc. I am using .Net 3.5. I included wuapi.dll to the References folder of my project. After compilation wuapi.dll is copied to the same folder, where goes .exe file (Debug or Release).
I've read different articles about usage of ILMerge for embedding .dll files directly into .exe file. And here is my question - all the Windows computers have wuapi.dll in system32 or SysWow64 folders, so why should I embed it into my project? Is there a way to make a reference to these libraries or use their functions without adding them to project at all?
On the References, select the wuapi and set the property CopyLocal to false. Also, make sure that the SpecificVersion is set to false, otherways it may not work with whatever version is installed on the user machine.
I would assume that wuapi can be found in any Windows version since XP.
This only works on .Net 4.0 on by setting "Embed Interop Types" to true. On .Net 3.5 you don't need to deploy the wuapi.dll itself but you need to deploy the generated Interop file.
For more info check: http://blogs.clariusconsulting.net/kzu/check-your-embed-interop-types-flag-when-doing-visual-studio-extensibility-work/
I have an application depending on the Google Data API SDK (which are .dll's).
When I publish the application (Debug > Build Solution), my EXE-file only works on another computer when I copy the references in the same directory which I have included in my Visual Studio project.
The application is querying my Google Calendar for the current event, so I want to be able to run it from a memory stick.
Is there a solution so I can include those DLL's in one single EXE (make it kind of portable?).
Thank you so much!
You could potentially use ilmerge to do this. However, I don't know what the ramifications of this are in terms of licensing, particularly if you're going to distribute the app.
I would personally vote for keeping them separate, and just deploying them next to each other (whether in an installer or on a memory stick).
Most of the libraries Google provides are open-source and hosted on Google Code. This means you can download the source code and include it in the same project as the .exe project. That eliminates the need to have references to other dlls.
Here is the link to the .Net Google Code project. You'll need svn to check out the latest source code. The svn command is here:
svn checkout http://google-gdata.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ google-gdata-read-only
What exactly is needed for someone to use my C# windows application in executable form? I do know that .NET framework has to be installed on the computer, but I heard there is much more. And is there any way to spread the application besides doing installable form via "Publish"? I mean, which project files are needed? Only exe file, or these pdb and manifest files too? Do they have to be from bin/debug or bin/Release, or makes no difference? (I know files created with this application are saved in "debug") Because I need to show my program (as exe) to certain person with .NET framework...
You only really need the .NET framework, unless you've used third party components.
If you use a Package and Deployment project in your solution it will automatically generate a .msi file for you with everything that your app needs to be installed.
You need .pdb files if you want file and line number detail in any exceptions thrown by your app. If you're selling the app as a product, don't include them as that information poses a security risk. If it's an internal app, then consider including them in your package and deployment project, because it's useful information to get with exception logs.
For runtime etc, .NET should be enough. Or with some tools (like as is used via MonoTouch and some others), not even that.
For the application, just the exe is necessary, but there can be lots of other required files - a config file perhaps, or maybe supporting non-CLR dlls (third party dlls perhaps).
For deployment, you can just use the exe etc (xcopy deployment), or ClickOnce (.application), or an installer (.exe / .msi).
The best option is to give them the files from your bin/release folder.
PDB files (which you should only find in your debug folder) contain the symbols for debugging your application, so you don't need to give them those.
There are other options such as ClickOnce deployment or an MSI, but it sounds like you just need to temporarily show this to only one individual, so it won't be worth it to go down this path.
In short, as long as the user has the correct version of the .NET framework installed on their machine, and you give them all of the relevant files from your bin/release folder (the EXE file, any additional DLLs that your application references, and any miscellaneous files like an app.config file), they should be able to run it just fine.