I am trying to implement a COM interface in my C# dll for others to consume. I have defined an interface in foo.idl.
I've run foo.idl through tlbimp to produce foo.dll, a .Net assembly. Now to implement my interface, I can reference foo.dll in my dll to implement the interface.
This works perfectly as it stands with one exception: I now have to distribute two dlls instead of one. This actually goes against the requirements of the project I'm working on: deliver one DLL.
Is there a way to merge the tlbimp dll into mine, or any other way to do this (implement a COM interface in C# without the second dll)?
A good disassembler gets the job done, like Reflector. You can simply disassemble the interop assembly and copy the generated C# interface declarations into your source code. Of course you should only do this if the interface declarations and IIDs are stable.
And definitely consider upgrading to VS2010. Its "embed interop types" feature allows you to ship your assembly without the interop assembly.
You could probably cheat by using a .tlb instead of the 'glue' dll.
I'd suggest you create a mixed-mode assembly using MSVC++/CLR
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k8d11d4s(v=vs.100).aspx
Interop (How Do I in Visual C++)
This might have the drawback that you can't use C# in the same assembly. Should you want to add C# code to the mix, you might be able to squeeze out of your tough situation using
IlMerge
For other, possibly interesting, thoughts see my earlier answer:
Is it possible to compile a console application into a single .dll file?
Related
I have two projects:
ProjectMain (class library)
LibraryProject (class library)
ProjectMain is a class library that should only be compiled as a singular library, no referenced libraries. I require a static class reference from LibraryProject BUT I don't want the LibraryProject assembly to be compiled together with the ProjectMain assembly.
I've tried 'link references' in visual studio but this is no solution as the library assembly is always compiled with the main assembly.
There are clear standard solutions to this issue but I am severely limited by the existing implementation requirements. Only one DLL can be compiled without any of the dependent assemblies being in the execution folder, GAC, private path, reflection etc.
The exact limitations are as follows:
Assembly executed in a sandbox from a third party provider, it only supports adding a single assembly with no direct references/reflection etc (it's horrible but my hands are tied)
We would like to handle the code organisation as best possible which means following standard best practices, unfortunately, due to the above limitation that's proving difficult.
What I would like to know is if there is a way to reference a class within another project without also compiling/using that referenced classes assembly. Possibly a method where the compiler 'embeds' the referenced class at compile time.
If your sandbox does not allow loading other dlls in AppDomain, load it yourself by embedding it. You can use Costura.Fody for this purpose, it is easy to use/install, just reference it from nuget.
Of course, embedding it in every scenario is madness and often comes with completely obscure bugs, which often solvable only by enabling traces in regedit.
So, in your case I would create two projects:
MyDll.csproj //it is my original project, with perfect code design and etc. Lovely.
MyDll.Sandbox.csproj //this one is the same as MyDll.csproj, except it is compiled with additional Costura.Fody reference, into single dll (every reference is put inside)
This way you just need to maintenance that MyDll and MyDll.Sandbox files are the same.
I have a DLL written in C# for which I don't have the sources. I have tried different C# decompiler to modify the DLL, but they all give me errors in my attempts to recompile with the modifications, I suppose due to IL decompilation limitations. Is it possible to add a .cs file to the root of the DLL in order or inject a method to add a functionality ?
PS: This is not intended to hack a software but to create a mod of a game which requires DLL modification.
Your best approach may be to just create a wrapper project around the dll to add the functionality that you want. Your code could them reference the project instead of the dll. As long as the classes aren't sealed you should be able to inherit from them.
Modifying code you don't have access to probably isn't a good idea to begin with. Especially if the dll could be updated in the future.
You can also create a new DLL with the same namespace. This might make things look as if they're in the same location, but it's not the best practice and it could be confusing since namespaces are expected to match the project/dll name.
Benjamin's solution with the wrapper seems reasonable.
The Reflexil plugin for .NET Reflector could inject a method or a class in a DLL as illustrate in a video by its creator.
It prevents decompilation-compilation errors as it just injects IL code in the assembly.
To install this plugin follow these steps.
I wrote a Win32-DLL (with clr support in VS 2010/13, c++) as extension for another/old VB6 app and use the opensource-dll PDFSharp.
It works fine, but if the "PDFSharp.dll" removed from Directory the Application crashes if the program try to load my dll.
I want to include the Sharp DLL into mine, so that only one DLL is needed.
I tried to add it to resources, and load/catch the error during run time by
AppDomain^ root = AppDomain::CurrentDomain;
root->CurrentDomain->AssemblyResolve += gcnew ResolveEventHandler(MyResolveEventHandler);
in the first Function that the app calls, but my Problem is, the app/dll crashes before i can handle something.
ILMerge can't help, because it is a Win32/net(clr) DLL not a 100% NET-DLL.
C++/CLI mixed-mode DLLs have two sets of references: the native imports in the PE header, and the .NET assembly references. Problems finding the native imports will cause the symptom you observed, that loading the assembly fails early during load and cannot be intercepted and recovered.
It's not clear to me why the native dependency rules are applicable here. For a true native dependency that needs to be located using an alternate search order under your control, delay-loading could be applied. But that can't be used with a referenced .NET assembly.
In any case, the simplest fix is to not need a separate assembly at all. Your goal is single file deployment, and the ideal single file deployment scenario is when all the code is contained in a single DLL and you don't need to unpack a second file at runtime.
For pure .NET assemblies, there is an ILMerge tool that combines multiple DLLs into a single file. But your case has a C++/CLI mixed mode DLL, not pure MSIL.
Using multiple languages in a native program generally works a little bit differently. Instead of producing a complete executable from each toolset, native code standardizes an object file format (Windows .obj, Linux .o) which all the various toolsets know how to produce, and then the link step can link together object files from a variety of languages. The object files are often bundled into static libraries. (A static library is just an archive of object files, with a symbol index) Because the C++/CLI toolset is patterned on native C++, it uses this model as well.
The .NET version of this language-independent "object file" which can be further linked is a .netmodule file. Internally, it is a .NET assembly without a manifest. Functionally, it acts like a static library. And the C++/CLI link.exe can link together C# (and VB, and F#, etc) .netmodule static libraries together with the C++/CLI object files and static libraries, and native object files and libraries, when it creates the mixed-mode assembly.
This isn't the most straightforward process, because while it is supported by the underlying toolchains, the Visual Studio project options dialog boxes don't have a UI for either creating or consuming .netmodule static libraries.
For the C# side to produce a .netmodule, you should open your .csproj file and change the <OutputType> setting to module. Then reopen the project in Visual Studio and build as usual.
On the C++/CLI side, the project options dialog allows you to customize the compile and link command-lines. Change the linker command to include /link and the name of the .netmodule file.
If you've done it right, the C++/CLI linker will create a single mixed-mode DLL with all the types and code from both the C# and C++/CLI source files. And all the internal usage between C# and C++/CLI will be already resolved, so you won't have to worry about missing dependencies at run time. Well, at least not these dependencies; any you didn't choose to link in will still be handled normally.
I have a c++/CLI library that is in turn calling a c# library. That is fine, it is linking implicitly and all is good with the world. But for various reasons the libraries are not getting quite the prefect treatment by our automated build process, and the libraries are not finding each other unless we move the libraries to locations that we would rather not have them in, and would rather not fold into our build process.
It is suggested to me that we/I could write a post-build event that uses XCOPY. but lets say we don't want to do that.
Another suggestion is to explicitly load the dll. Windows says that to link explicitly "Applications must make a function call to explicitly load the DLL at run time." The problem is that Microsoft's example is not enough for my small mind to understand how to proceed with this idea. Worse, the only example I could find is out of date. Perhaps I am not using the right search terms but I am having difficulty finding more about it with google.
How do we explicitly Link a c++/Cli Library to a C# .dll?
----edit
OK, How do we explicitly Link a C++/CLI code, which exports a library using __declspec(), to a C# .dll.
There is no such thing as a "C++/CLI library", only assemblies are supported. There is no explicit or implicit linking, binding always happens at runtime. Assemblies are found at runtime by the CLR, the rules it uses to locate them are described in detail in the MSDN library.
Copying all dependencies into the same directory as the EXE is the sane way to go about it while you are developing the code. Well supported by build system, the C# and C++ rules are however different. C++ projects build to the solution's Debug directory, C# projects build to the EXE project's bin\Debug directory. So yes, altering a C++ project's Output Directory setting or copying files with a post build event is usually required to get everything together.
I am trying to read GUID attribute of a C#.net assembly from c++ (VC++ 10).
I should mention that, I don't want to use .net or .net reflection. looking for a pure c++ way.
what is the solution ?
Thanks in advance.
You need to use the Unamanaged Metadata API
and especially the IMetaDataImport::EnumCustomAttributes Method
That's going to be quite a work... Here is a link that gives a good starting point on this (it's C#, but the ideas are exactly the same, and is in fact easier to program in C++): Reading types from assembly
Check out the The .NET File Format MetaSection over at CodeProject.
i understand you don't want to use reflection or .net.
You do however want to get the GUID from a C# dll you have, that was built with .NET.
The common way C# developers make their class libraries available to COM-based developers is to use the tlbexp.exe (type library export) tool to export a type library file.
The COM-developer can then use the .tlb file in their COM code.
When the C# developer builds the dll they either put the Guid manually in the AssemblyInfo level (in .NET) or the compiler will generate the Guid automatically when building the dll.
show how the COM client (C++) is built to use the COM server (C#)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa645738%28v=vs.71%29.aspx
note that in this article refers to another tool regasm.exe which registers the dll and can export the tlb at the same time but it is not necessary to register the dll on your system
as a developer you can just use the tlb file