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Build TagLib# DLL from source and make it COM Visible to PHP

Hello I want to scan audio-video files and store their metadata in a database using php. I found this Command-line wrapper that uses TagLib.dll compiled by banshee developpers to do the job. It's works fine but it limited by the functions implemented. I want to access directly to the dll methods via PHP.
In PHP we have a function (DOTNET) that allows me to instantiate a class from a .Net assembly and call its methods and access its properties like this :
/*$obj = new DOTNET("assembly", "classname");*/
$stack = new DOTNET("mscorlib", "System.Collections.Stack");
$stack->Push(".Net");
$stack->Push("Hello ");
echo $stack->Pop() . $stack->Pop();
//Returns string(10) "Hello .Net";
Here is the Taglib# project sources in github
I saw many questions relatives to PHP-DLL-COM and there is some recommendations :
Make the dll comVisible;
Register the dll with regsvr32;
Use a module definition file similar to
;
;
DESCRIPTION "Simple COM object"
EXPORTS
DllGetClassObject PRIVATE
DllCanUnloadNow PRIVATE
DllRegisterServer PRIVATE
DllUnregisterServer PRIVATE
My question is : How can I build the DLL and use its method via PHP ?
My config :
OS
Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition i586
Apache :
Apache/2.2.21 (Win32) DAV/2 PHP/5.4.42 mod_ssl/2.2.21 OpenSSL/0.9.8r
PHP
PHP Version : 5.4.42
Arch : x86
Compiler : MSVC9 (Visual C++ 2008)
COM support : enabled
DCOM support : disabled
.Net support enabled
Microsoft Visual Studio 2013

Give the following steps a try:
Download taglib source code from github
Remove the ApplicationIcon tag from the .csproj file and open .sln in Visual Studio
Unload the test project (you don't need to build this)
Right-click on taglib-sharp project --> properties --> build --> enable 'Register for COM interop'. Also clear the conditional compilation symbols textbox so that you don't have to bother with downloading SharpZipLib for now.
Observe #1: in project properties --> Application --> Assembly information --> 'Make assembly COM visible' is checked
Observe #2: in project properties --> Application --> target framework is set to 3.5 (make sure you leave it as that)
Build the project (F6)
Read the contents of the output window to see some warnings
Now that you have src\taglib-sharp.dll you need to register it into the global assembly cache in order for the DOTNET class to find it. See PHP DOTNET hell for details if you are not familiar with this.
If all is good, you can get yourself a copy of SharpZipLib, and reenter the HAVE_SHARPZIPLIB conditional compilation symbol --> rebuild --> redeploy to GAC --> and be a happy man! :)

You may compile you DLL with .NET Framework 3.5 if not, PHP do not be able to load it via DOTNET class.
Download .NET 3.5

TuesPechkin unable to load DLL 'wkhtmltox.dll'

I've been using TuesPechkin for some time now and today I went to update the nuget package to the new version 2.0.0+ and noticed that Factory.Create() no longer resolved, so I went to read on the GitHub the changes made and noticed it now expects the path to the dll?
IConverter converter =
new ThreadSafeConverter(
new PdfToolset(
new StaticDeployment(DLL_FOLDER_PATH)));
For the past few hours I've tried almost all the paths I can think of, "\bin", "\app_data", "\app_start", etc and I can't seem to find or figure out what it wants for the path and what dll?
I can see the TuesPechkin dll in my bin folder and it was the first path I tried, but I got the following error:
Additional information: Unable to load DLL 'wkhtmltox.dll': The
specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT:
0x8007007E)
Where is that dll and now can I get it as the library doesn't seem to contain it, I tried installing the TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.Win32 package but the dll still is nowhere to be found. Also I am using this in a asp.net website project so I assume that using the following should work for obtaining the path, right?
var path = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(#"~\bin\TuesPechkin.dll");
Further information: https://github.com/tuespetre/TuesPechkin/issues/57

The Tuespechkin has a zip file as a resource in the Win32 and Win64 embedded packages for the 'wkhtmltox.dll' file.
What it does when you use the Win32 or Win64 Embedded package is unzips the file and places it in the directory that you specify.
I have been putting a copy of the wkhtmltox dll at the root portion of my web app directory and pointing the DLL_FOLDER_PATH to it using the server physical path of my web app to get to it.
According to the author, you must set the converter in a static field for best results.
I do that, but set the converter to null when I am finished using it, and that seems to work.
Tuespechkin is wrapper for the wmkhtmlox dll file.
The original file is written in C++ and so will not automatically be usable in C# or VB.NET or any of the other managed code domains.
The Tuespechkin.dll file DOES NOT contain a copy of 'wkhtmltox.dll'. You either have to use one of the other embedded deployment modules or install a copy of the 'wkhtmltox.dll' in your web app after downloading it from the internet. That is what I do, and it seems to work just fine.
I am using Team Foundation Server, and attempts to compile code after using the Tuespechkin routines will fail the first time because the 'wkhtmltox.dll' file gets locked, but all you have to do is simply retry your build and it will go through.
I had issues with the 32-bit routine not working in a 64-bit environment and the 64-bit environment not being testable on localhost. I went with the workaround I came up with after examining the source code for Tuespechkin and the Win32 and Win64 embedded deployment packages.
It works well as long as you specify a url for the input rather than raw html.
The older package didn't render css very well.
If you are using a print.aspx routine, you can create the url for it as an offset from your main url.
I don't have the source code I am using with me at this point to offset to your base url for your web application, but it is simply an offshoot of HttpRequest.
You have to use the physical path to find the .dll, but you can use a web path for the print routine.
I hope this answers your question a bit.

If you are getting this error -> Could not load file or assembly 'TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.Win64' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.
In Visual Studio Go to -
Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Web Projects -> Use the 64 bit version of IIS Express for web sites and projects.

I installed TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.Win64 Nuget package and used the following code in a singleton:
public class PechkinPDFConvertor : IPDFConvertor
{
IConverter converter =
new ThreadSafeConverter(
new RemotingToolset<PdfToolset>(
new Win64EmbeddedDeployment(
new TempFolderDeployment())));
public byte[] Convert(string html)
{
// return PechkinSync.Convert(new GlobalConfig(), html);
return converter.Convert(new HtmlToPdfDocument(html));
}
}
The web application then has to be run in x64 otherwise you will get an error about trying to load an x64 assembly in an x86 environment. Presumably you have to choose x64 or x86 at design time and use the corresponding nuget package, it would be nicer to choose this in the web.config.
EDIT: The above code failed on one server with the exact same message as yours - it was due to having not installed VC++ 2013. So the new code is running x86 as follows
try
{
string path = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "MyApp_PDF_32");
Converter = new ThreadSafeConverter(
new RemotingToolset<PdfToolset>(
new Win32EmbeddedDeployment(
new StaticDeployment(path))));
}
catch (Exception e)
{
if (e.Message.StartsWith("Unable to load DLL 'wkhtmltox.dll'"))
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(
"Ensure the prerequisite C++ 2013 Redistributable is installed", e);
}
else
throw;
}

If you do not want run the installer for wkhtmltox just to get the dll, you can do the following:
As #Timothy suggests, if you use the embedded version of wkhtmltox.dll from TuesPechkin, it will unzip it and place it in a temp directory. I copied this dll and referenced it with the StaticDeployment option without any issues.
To find the exact location, I just used Process Monitor (procmon.exe). For me it was C:\Windows\Temp\-169958574\8\0.12.2.1\wkhtmltox.dll

In my case, I am deploying on a 64-bit VPS then I got this error. I have solved the problem by installing the wkhtmltopdf that I downloaded from http://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html. I chose the 32-bit installer.

In my case, I have solved the problem by installing the Wkhtmltox for win32 at https://www.nuget.org/packages/TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.Win32/

This error: Unable to load DLL 'wkhtmltox.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E) is returned in two situations:
1- Deploy dependency not installed:
For solve this, you can install nuget package "TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.Win64" and use this code (for WebApplications running in IIS):
IConverter converter =
new ThreadSafeConverter(
new RemotingToolset<PdfToolset>(
new Win64EmbeddedDeployment(
new TempFolderDeployment())));
// Keep the converter somewhere static, or as a singleton instance!
// Do NOT run the above code more than once in the application lifecycle!
byte[] result = converter.Convert(document);
In runtime this code will copy the dependency "wkhtmltox.dll" in a temporary directory like: "C:\Windows\Temp\1402166677\8\0.12.2.1". It's possible to get the destination of file using:
var deployment = new Win64EmbeddedDeployment(new TempFolderDeployment());
Console.WriteLine(deployment.Path);
2- Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable not installed:
As described here:
https://github.com/tuespetre/TuesPechkin/issues/65#issuecomment-71266114, the Visual C++ 2013 Runtime is required.
The solution from README is:
You must have Visual C++ 2013 runtime installed to use these packages. Otherwise, you will need to download the MingW build of wkhtmltopdf and its dependencies from their website and use that with the library. https://github.com/tuespetre/TuesPechkin#wkhtmltoxdll
or, you can install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable:
choco install msvisualcplusplus2013-redist

Here is AnyCpu version, also support iis-base or winform application
using TuesPechkin.Wkhtmltox.AnyCPU;
...
var converter = PDFHelper.Factory.GetConverter();
var result = converter.Convert(This.Document);
Reference : https://github.com/tloy1966/TuesPechkin

Installing the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2013 resolved the error for me.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784

Import scikit in C# application

I am trying to import scikit-learn in a C# (console) application. I am using Python Tools for Visual Studio and IronPython 2.7.3.
I managed to run an external python script and I also managed to import numpy by declaring the python path: "C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\"
However, when it comes to scikit-learn I get an error message:
Oops! We couldn't execute the script because of an exception: No module named _c
heck_build
___________________________________________________________________________
Contents of C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\sklearn\__check_build:
setup.py setup.pyc setup.pyo
_check_build.pyd __init__.py __init__.pyc
__init__.pyo
___________________________________________________________________________
It seems that scikit-learn has not been built correctly.
If you have installed scikit-learn from source, please do not forget
to build the package before using it: run `python setup.py install` or
`make` in the source directory.
If you have used an installer, please check that it is suited for your
Python version, your operating system and your platform.
The file "_check_build.pyd" exists in "C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\sklearn__check_build\".
My code is based on this article: http://devleader.ca/2013/09/23/visual-studio-c-python-sweet/
The file I am using has only the following code:
from sklearn.svm import SVC
print('Hello Python in C#')
Is it possible to add and use scikit in C#? If yes, could you please provide a workaround?

Looks like scikit-learn requires a C extension, which means it won't run under IronPython.

Beginner ILNumerics: install under VS2012

I am very much interested in ILNUmerics and would like to try the free version, but I am having troubles.
I have started with a console application and was trying to run the 'hello ilnumerics'console application but I noticed that VS fails to find MKL libraries.
I am using VS2012 under Windwos 8 (through Bootcamp on a MacBook Pro mid 2010; should it be relevant); I have installed the NuGet Packages extension from the Project solution. Then right-click on references in the solution explorer, 'Manage Nu Get Packages', fron online/search found ilnumerics in various versions. I chose 'ILNumerics' and install. I got 'ILNumerics' and 'ILNumerics.Native' added to my project. Then I can see ILNumerics under 'References' in Solution Explorer and also get two new folders /bin32/ and /bin64/ they both contain two DLLs named: libiomp5md.dll and mkl_custom.dll. I have checked their
'Copy to Ouput Directory' property and they are all set to 'Copy if newer'.
Apparently mkl_custom is not found. I write the following code, taken from the quickstart guide:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using ILNumerics;
namespace ConsoleApplication3
{
class Program : ILMath
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ILArray<double> A = array<double>
(new double[] { 1,1,1,1,1,2,3,4,1,3,6,10,1,4,10,20} ,4, 4);
ILArray<double> B = counter(4, 2);
ILArray<double> Result = linsolve(A, B);
Console.Out.WriteLine("A: " + Environment.NewLine +
A.ToString());
Console.Out.WriteLine("B: " + Environment.NewLine + B.ToString());
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
and I get this exception:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.DllNotFoundException' occurred in ILNumerics.dll
Additional information: Unable to load DLL 'mkl_custom': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
If I do not invoke linsolve the ToString method of ILArray does work: if I comment // ILArray Result = linsolve(A, B);
I get the two matrices printed on the screen.
I have also tried to compute the determinant of a matrix and got the same exception: apparently any time I call mkl_custom VS is not capable to find it.
Any help/hint, please?
Also, is it necessary to install ILNumerics through NuGet on any project added to the solution? Would it be possible to install it locally once for all and then add the reference if necessary?

Two options:
1) Make sure, all binaries are accesible as intended: ILNumerics uses AnyCPU targets and chooses the platform dependend subfolder by adding the "bin32" / "bin64" directories to the PATH envoronment variable on startup. Possibly there is something failing on your machine? You can make sure by placing the correct binaries (depending on your platform) directly into the output path manually.
2) In case the error persists: mkl_custom.dll depends on some other dlls itself. One (libiomp5md.dll) is delivered with the ILNumerics nuget package. Others are expected to exist on your system: KERNEL32.DLL and MSVCR110.DLL. Make sure, you have these! If the kernel dll was missing -> call it a miracle and reinstall your system. If the msvcr110 is missing -> go here and install the "Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012".
In case the problem persists, you may file a bug on the ILNumerics bugtracker, because, the runtime should be there, as you wrote you are using VS2012. Possibly it is a versioning problem though.
EDIT: Since version 4.0 ILNumerics does not deploy the native binaries in bin32/ bin64/ subfolder anymore but installs all native dependencies systemwide into the GAC and System32/WOW folders. The old scheme will still work (for compatibility with old projects) though. But it is not necessary anymore to deal with any dependancies for ILNumerics explicitly. They should simply be found at runtime.

Like numbers303 said, ILNumerics.dll can't find a required dependency. You can brute force fixing this dependency by copying the required DLLs to the same directory as the ILNumerics.dll as a post build step, but I think there's a more elegant solution.
A VS2010 .NET console solution gets created by default with the x86 configuration. Compiling and running the ILNumerics example Hello ILNumerics! code with this configuration results in a DLL not found exception (mkl_custom.dll).
Re-targeting the solution via configuration manager to 'Any CPU' fixed the issue for me:
In Solution Explorer, right click on the solution and select properties. Select Configuration Properties and click on the Configuration Manager... button in the upper right hand corner. Make sure that the project that uses ILNumerics has the 'Any CPU' selected. If 'Any CPU' isn't available as a selection, select '' from the pulldown and create an 'Any CPU' platform based on your current platform. Usually this just means accepting the default in the 'New Project Platform' dialog. You'll probably also want to modify the 'Active solution platform:' to contain an 'Any CPU' target as well.
Rebuild/run.

In my case it helped to install "Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012" although I work with Visual Studio 2010 with the corresponding "Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2010" installed. Which worked fine as long as the mkl_custom.dll is not needed. But colleagues of mine dosn't have this problem without having the 2012 Redistributable installed.

Class not registered error from PHP

We've created a C# class library assembly and made it COM visible to be able to call its methods from PHP. This used to work fine, but now we wanted to install it on a Windows Server 2008 server and we keep walking into the error "Class not registered".
To rule out any dependency problems I made a tiny little test class library in C#. The class library is built for Any CPU and it is COM visible (also set COMVisible to true in AssemblyInfo.cs). The test class library only contains one class with one method. The class is called TestLib and the namespace is also called TestLib. The method is called Test and only returns a string.
What we have done is the following:
- built the TestLib.dll
- copied it to the Windows Server 2008 machine
- registered the dll with: regasm /codebase TestLib.dll
- the regasm tool returns a success message
- in PHP we simply try to create a new COM instance:
try
{
$test = new COM("TestLib.TestLib");
}
catch (Exception $e)
{
die($e->getMessage());
}
when we call this test script from either the browser or the commandline (php -f test.php) we get the error "Class not registered" in both cases
I also tried adding TestLib to the GAC by using gacutil -i, but to no avail; still the class not registered error.
Then I tried compiling the testlibrary with .NET 2.0 instead of 4.0 as the target framework, same result. The .NET framework 4.0 is installed on the server by the way.
Any ideas?

Okay, so after some more research I figured it out. The php.exe process is 32 bit. The COM visible assembly is compiled for Any CPU so it should be accessible to both 32 and 64 bit applications.
The problem is that on a 64 bit OS php.exe, and any 32 bit process for that matter, searches in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID instead of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID and in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID. The registry entries in the Wow6432 keys aren't created by regasm that is shipped with .NET framework v4 on Windows Server 2008. On Windows 7 they are created, don't ask me why.
It also turned out that if I create a little test assembly for .NET v2.0 and register it with regasm that ships with .NET framework v2.0 that it does create the Wow6432Node entries on Windows 2008. Strange.
So my solution is to create a basic registry file on the server using:
regasm /regfile MyClassLib.dll
This creates a file MyClassLib.reg with only the 'normal' 64 bit entries. Then I exported the Wow6432Node keys from a Windows 7 machine and added it to that .reg file. Now when I import that reg file into the registry on Windows 2008 everything works fine.
For more info on the Wow6432Node entries check out: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724072%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Hope this saves someone else some time and headaches.

If you are trying to call a 32-bit COM DLL on 64-bit Windows, you will need to register it.
Copy your 32-bit DLL to C:\Windows\sysWOW64
Run C:\Windows\sysWOW64\regsvr32.exe your_com_32.dll
A bit more info with screenshots.