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How to load a class from .cs file and use it in code

I want to load a class form a .cs file and use it in another code.
Assume I have a .cs file which contains code like that:
//some imports
public class Commands
{
//a lot of commands
}
What I am trying is to load this class from a file using CSharpCodeProvider or whatever and create a list of Commands.
A piece of code from a console app.
list<Commands> lst;
The question is how can I load Commands class dynamically (at runtime) (without restarting the console app or starting VS) and create the list of Commands?

Try this example, which I have put together and tested:
Build program.cs as a .Net Framework Console App in e.g. Visual Studio.
// program.cs
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.CodeDom.Compiler;
using System.Reflection;
namespace RuntimeCompile
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Get a path to the file(s) to compile.
FileInfo sourceFile = new FileInfo("mySource.cs");
Console.WriteLine("Loading file: " + sourceFile.Exists);
// Prepary a file path for the compiled library.
string outputName = string.Format(#"{0}\{1}.dll",
Environment.CurrentDirectory,
Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(sourceFile.Name));
// Compile the code as a dynamic-link library.
bool success = Compile(sourceFile, new CompilerParameters()
{
GenerateExecutable = false, // compile as library (dll)
OutputAssembly = outputName,
GenerateInMemory = false, // as a physical file
});
if (success)
{
// Load the compiled library.
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(outputName);
// Now, since we didn't have reference to the library when building
// the RuntimeCompile program, we can use reflection to create
// and use the dynamically created objects.
Type commandType = assembly.GetType("Command");
// Create an instance of the loaded class from its type information.
object commandInstance = Activator.CreateInstance(commandType);
// Invoke the method by name.
MethodInfo sayHelloMethod = commandType.GetMethod("SayHello", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
sayHelloMethod.Invoke(commandInstance, null); // no arguments, no return type
}
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit...");
Console.Read();
}
private static bool Compile(FileInfo sourceFile, CompilerParameters options)
{
CodeDomProvider provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("CSharp");
CompilerResults results = provider.CompileAssemblyFromFile(options, sourceFile.FullName);
if (results.Errors.Count > 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("Errors building {0} into {1}", sourceFile.Name, results.PathToAssembly);
foreach (CompilerError error in results.Errors)
{
Console.WriteLine(" {0}", error.ToString());
Console.WriteLine();
}
return false;
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Source {0} built into {1} successfully.", sourceFile.Name, results.PathToAssembly);
return true;
}
}
}
}
In the output directory (bin), next to the console app executable place a text file named mySource.cs with this content:
// mySource.cs
using System;
internal class Program
{
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello from mySource!");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
public class Command
{
public void SayHello()
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello (Command)");
}
}
Then run the first console app and observe it's output. It should log "Hello (Command)", showing that the code was correctly compiled, loaded and executed.
The example shows how to use the CodeDom.Compiler to compile a cs-file at runtime and then load it as dll to run code within it. Be aware, that almost no error handling was implemented.
This should answer the question, but there may still be better approaches to handling your use-case. In case of plugin loading it makes sense to use interfaces which are added as a reference to both assemblies to avoid the use of reflection, etc.

There is probably a better way to achieve your overall goal, like dependency injection.
However, you can do it with the ICodeCompiler.
See this article https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/304655/how-to-programmatically-compile-code-using-c-compiler

To load the c# class from another c# class you need to use "using"
using Commands;
public class class1
{
private list<Commands>lst;
//...
}

How to get debuginfo to work on compiled delegate

I am working on a pet project: A programing language in the Javascript/Scheme mindset the project can be found here
I have looked through existing Stackoverflow questions such as Making a CLR/.NET Language Debuggable. However most of these solutions deal with generating assemblies. For numerous reasons I would prefer to avoid creating a new assembly.
class Program
{
public static void ThrowingFunction()
{
throw new Exception("Test Exception");
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Action thw = ThrowingFunction;
ParameterExpression param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(int), "arg");
SymbolDocumentInfo info = Expression.SymbolDocument("example-script", new Guid("83c65910-8376-11e2-9e96-0800200c9a66"));
Expression<Func<int,int>> exp = Expression.Lambda<Func<int,int>>(
Expression.Block(
Expression.DebugInfo(info,1,1,1,20),
Expression.Invoke(Expression.Constant(thw, typeof(Action))),
Expression.Add(param,Expression.Constant(1))
),
new List<ParameterExpression> { param }
);
Console.WriteLine(exp);
Func<int,int> Fn = exp.Compile(DebugInfoGenerator.CreatePdbGenerator());
try {
Fn(1);
}
catch (Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine(e);
Console.WriteLine(e.InnerException);
}
}
}
The above code works however the debug info does not contain the line information for the lambda instead referring obliquely to lambda_method with no other information in the stack trace.
How can I get the stack trace to also show line information.

How to compile C# DLL on the fly, Load, and Use

A) compiling C# EXE's and DLL's on the fly are relatively easy.
B) Executing an EXE means that a new application is run. Loading a DLL means that methods and functions can be used in cases that may be shared between applications or projects.
Now, the quickest and easiest way to compile your EXE (or with mild modifications, DLL) can be found from the MSDN or for your convenience:
private bool CompileCSharpCode(string script)
{
lvErrors.Items.Clear();
try
{
CSharpCodeProvider provider = new CSharpCodeProvider();
// Build the parameters for source compilation.
CompilerParameters cp = new CompilerParameters
{
GenerateInMemory = false,
GenerateExecutable = false, // True = EXE, False = DLL
IncludeDebugInformation = true,
OutputAssembly = "eventHandler.dll", // Compilation name
};
// Add in our included libs.
cp.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.dll");
cp.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Windows.Forms.dll");
cp.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll");
// Invoke compilation. This works from a string, but you can also load from a file using FromFile()
CompilerResults cr = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(cp, script);
if (cr.Errors.Count > 0)
{
// Display compilation errors.
foreach (CompilerError ce in cr.Errors)
{
//I have a listview to display errors.
lvErrors.Items.Add(ce.ToString());
}
return false;
}
else
{
lvErrors.Items.Add("Compiled Successfully.");
}
provider.Dispose();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// never really reached, but better safe than sorry?
lvErrors.Items.Add("SEVERE! "+e.Message + e.StackTrace.ToString());
return false;
}
return true;
}
Now that you can compile on the fly, there are a few variances between how to load the DLL. Typically speaking, you would add it as a reference in Visual Studios to be compiled into the project. This is rather easy and you have probably done it many times over, but we want to use it in our current project, and we can't very well require the user to recompile the entire project every time they want to test out their new DLL. Therefor, I will simply discuss how one loads a library 'on the fly'. Another term here would by "programmatically". To do this, after a successful compile, we load up an Assembly as follows:
Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom("yourfilenamehere.dll");
If you have an AppDomain, you can try this:
Assembly assembly = domain.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName("yourfilenamehere.dll"));
Now that the lib is "referenced", we can open it up and use it. There are 2 ways to do this. One requires you to know if the method has parameters, another will check for you. I'll do the later, you can check the MSDN for the other.
// replace with your namespace.class
Type type = assembly.GetType("company.project");
if (type != null)
{
// replace with your function's name
MethodInfo method = type.GetMethod("method");
if (method != null)
{
object result = null;
ParameterInfo[] parameters = method.GetParameters();
object classInstance = Activator.CreateInstance(type, null);
if (parameters.Length == 0) // takes no parameters
{
// method A:
result = method.Invoke(classInstance, null);
// method B:
//result = type.InvokeMember("method", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, classInstance, null);
}
else // takes 1+ parameters
{
object[] parametersArray = new object[] { }; // add parameters here
// method A:
result = method.Invoke(classInstance, parametersArray);
// method B:
//result = type.InvokeMember("method", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, classInstance, parametersArray);
}
}
}
PROBLEM:
First compile works fine. First execution works fine. However, the recompile attempt will error, saying that your *.PDP (debugger database) is in use. I've heard some hints about marshaling, and AppDomains, but I haven't quite cleared up the problem. Recompile will only fail after the DLL has been loaded.
Current attempt at Marshaling && AppDomain:
class ProxyDomain : MarshalByRefObject
{
private object _instance;
public object Instance
{
get { return _instance; }
}
private AppDomain _domain;
public AppDomain Domain
{
get
{
return _domain;
}
}
public void CreateDomain(string friendlyName, System.Security.Policy.Evidence securityinfo)
{
_domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain(friendlyName, securityinfo);
}
public void UnloadDomain()
{
try
{
AppDomain.Unload(_domain);
}
catch (ArgumentNullException dne)
{
// ignore null exceptions
return;
}
}
private Assembly _assembly;
public Assembly Assembly
{
get
{
return _assembly;
}
}
private byte[] loadFile(string filename)
{
FileStream fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open);
byte[] buffer = new byte[(int)fs.Length];
fs.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
fs.Close();
return buffer;
}
public void LoadAssembly(string path, string typeName)
{
try
{
if (_domain == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("_domain does not exist.");
byte[] Assembly_data = loadFile(path);
byte[] Symbol_data = loadFile(path.Replace(".dll", ".pdb"));
_assembly = _domain.Load(Assembly_data, Symbol_data);
//_assembly = _domain.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path));
_type = _assembly.GetType(typeName);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(ex.ToString());
}
}
private Type _type;
public Type Type
{
get
{
return _type;
}
}
public void CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(string typeName)
{
_instance = _domain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(_assembly.FullName, typeName);
}
}
Errors on _instance = _domain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(_assembly.FullName, typeName); saying that my Assembly isn't serializable. Tried adding [Serializable] tag to my class with no luck. Still researching fixes.
Seems things can get a bit confusing when you can't see how they're being used, so here's making it easy?
private void pictureBox1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
pd.UnloadDomain();
if (CompileCSharpCode(header + tScript.Text + footer))
{
try
{
pd.CreateDomain("DLLDomain", null);
pd.LoadAssembly("eventHandler.dll", "Events.eventHandler");
pd.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap("Events.eventHandler"); // Assembly not Serializable error!
/*if (pd.type != null)
{
MethodInfo onConnect = pd.type.GetMethod("onConnect");
if (onConnect != null)
{
object result = null;
ParameterInfo[] parameters = onConnect.GetParameters();
object classInstance = Activator.CreateInstance(pd.type, null);
if (parameters.Length == 0)
{
result = pd.type.InvokeMember("onConnect", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, classInstance, null);
//result = onConnect.Invoke(classInstance, null);
}
else
{
object[] parametersArray = new object[] { };
//result = onConnect.Invoke(classInstance, parametersArray);
//result = type.InvokeMember("onConnect", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, classInstance, parametersArray);
}
}
}*/
//assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(null);
}
catch (Exception er)
{
MessageBox.Show("There was an error executing the script.\n>" + er.Message + "\n - " + er.StackTrace.ToString());
}
finally
{
}
}
}

Once you have loaded a DLL into (the default appdomain of) a running process, the file on disk cannot be overwritten until the process is terminated. DLLs cannot be unloaded in managed code like they can be in unmanaged code.
You need to create a new appdomain in your host process and load the newly created DLL assembly into that appdomain. When you are ready to compile a new version of the DLL, you can dispose of the appdomain. This will unload the DLL from memory and release the lock on the DLL file, so that you can compile a new DLL to that same file. You can then construct a new appdomain to load the new DLL into.
The main hazard of using appdomains is that all calls across the appdomain boundary must be marshalled, much like an IPC or network RPC. Try to keep the interface of the objects you need to call across the appdomain boundary to a minimum.
You can also compile the assembly to memory, receiving a byte array or stream as the output, then load that assembly into the separate appdomain. This avoids creating debris on disk that will need to be deleted eventually.
Do not use compile to memory as a workaround for the file lock issue. The core issue is that assemblies cannot be removed from memory when they are loaded into the default appdomain of the process. You MUST create a new appdomain and load the DLL into that appdomain if you want to unload that assembly from memory later in the lifetime of the process.
Here's a rough outline of how to construct an object in the context of another appdomain:
var appdomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("scratch");
byte[] assemblyBytes = // bytes of the compiled assembly
var assembly = appdomain.Load(assemblyBytes);
object obj = appdomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(assembly.FullName, "mynamespace.myclass");
After this sequence, obj will contain a reference to a proxy that links to the actual object instance inside the appdomain. You can invoke methods on obj using reflection or typecast obj to a common interface type and call methods directly. Be prepared to make adjustments to support RPC marshalling of the method call parameters. (see .NET remoting)
When working with multiple appdomains, you have to be careful how you access types and assemblies because a lot of .NET functions default to operating in the current appdomain of the caller, which is usually not what you want when you have multiple appdomains. compilerResult.CompiledAssembly, for example, internally performs a Load of the generated assembly in the caller's appdomain. What you want is to load the assembly into your other appdomain. You have to do that explicitly.
Update:
In your recently added code snippet showing how you load your appdomain, this line is your problem:
_assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(path);
That loads the DLL into the current appdomain (the caller's appdomain), not into the target appdomain (referenced by _domain in your example). You need to do use _domain.Load() to load the assembly into that appdomain.

if you have no need to debug, or don't mind to debug the "dynamic" code, with some missing information.
you can generate the code in memory.. this will allow you to compile the code several times.. but will not generate a .pdb
cp.GenerateInMemory = true;
in alternative if you have no need to able to locate the assembly on disk you can ask the compiler to dump all the code in the temp directory and generate a temp name for the dll (wich will always be unique)
cp.TempFiles = new TempFileCollection(Path.GetTempPath(), false);
//cp.OutputAssembly = "eventHandler.dll";
in both this cases to access the dll and it's types you can get it from the compiler results
Assembly assembly = cr.CompiledAssembly;
not explicitly loading is necessary
but if non of this situations apply and you must and a physical .dll with a .pdp in a known folder.. the only advice i can give you it to put a version number on the dll..
and in case you don't have a simple way to control the amount of times the dll was compiled you can always resort to a timestamp..
cp.OutputAssembly = "eventHandler"+DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmssfff")+".dll";
of course you must realize that every time you compile a new .dll will be loaded into memory and wont be unloaded unless you use separate app domains.. but that goes out of scope for this question..

How best to create and execute a method in a .NET (C#) class dynamically through configuration

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the "Inline Task" in MsBuild. For reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd722601.aspx
I'd like to find or create a framework which allows me to override a method via configuration. For example if I have a well known base class which has a method Execute(args), how can I supply an overridden method implementation at deployment time, without requiring new code, build, release cycle? I would like to actually plug in the method body into a config file or preferably a database table.
I assume this would be done either with code dom, dynamic language integration, or perhaps something like powershell(?). I'm looking for recommendations or perhaps a library someone has already written.
The application is written in C#. Preferably the extension would also be in C#, but I'm open to other ideas as well.
Update: Technically I don't even have to actually override a method. It would be sufficient to just be able to dynamically execute some external source code, passing in an arg and returning a result.
Update. I ended up writing code to instantiate a PowerShell object and execute a script dynamically to return a value. Here is a snippet of code I used.
public static Collection<PSObject> ExecuteScript(string code, string variableName, object variableValue)
{
PowerShell ps = PowerShell.Create();
ps.AddScript(code);
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(variableName))
{
ps.Runspace.SessionStateProxy.SetVariable(variableName, variableValue);
}
var result = ps.Invoke();
return result;
}
Then in the calling code, I simply check the first PSObject in the return value, and pull the resulting value from it. It works great. Thanks for all the responses.

Here are two examples of dynamic execution. I have used neither though so I can't comment further.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/evaluator.aspx
http://www.csharpfriends.com/articles/getarticle.aspx?articleid=118
Regarding namespaces, from the second article you can add assemblies through the CompilerParameter class.
// Create the C# compiler
CSharpCodeProvider csCompiler = new CSharpCodeProvider();
ICodeCompiler iCodeCompiler = csCompiler.CreateCompiler();
// input params for the compiler
CompilerParameters compilerParams = new CompilerParameters();
compilerParams.OutputAssembly = "CSharpFriends.dll";
compilerParams.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("system.dll");

One option would be to use Iron Python (or another DLR language). Your Execute method would then lookup the script in your configuration file, compile it and execute it all at runtime.
Including the necessary Iron Python assemblies with your project isn't a significant overhead.
You might need to do some plumbing to expose other parts of your application to the python runtime environment but this is quite easy to do.

You can use interfaces and then resolve the concrete classes at runtime e.g. using configuration files.
Check the various Dependency Injection Containers at http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ListOfNETDependencyInjectionContainersIOC.aspx

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) might be suitable as well. It was included as part of .NET 4.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd460648.aspx
http://mef.codeplex.com/
If the extensibility is just for one method then MEF would be overkill. If what you are extending will grow over time then I think MEF would provide the most robust and long-term manageable framework.

It looks like you might want to have a look at the Factory Pattern; returning delegates. Unfortunately you will need a type to 'house' the method, so you would typically generate code like:
namespace Dynamic {
public static int Foo(int bar) {
// .. Configured body here.
}
}
It's important that your factory does not generate methods it has seen before. Here is an example:
static class Delegates
{
private static Func<Func<int, string>> _test;
public static Func<int, string> Test
{
get
{
return _test();
}
}
static Delegates()
{
// Use your config variables instead of the "return arg.ToString();"
CreateFactory<Func<int, string>>(x => _test = x, "return arg.ToString();");
}
private static void CreateFactory<TDelegate>(Action<Func<TDelegate>> locationSetter, string identifier)
{
locationSetter(() =>
{
var result = Generate<TDelegate>(identifier);
locationSetter(() => result);
return result;
});
}
private static string GenerateSignature<TDelegate>()
{
// Create the signature of the delegate.
var t = typeof(TDelegate);
if (!typeof(Delegate).IsAssignableFrom(t))
throw new Exception("TDelegate must be delegate type.");
var invoke = t.GetMethod("Invoke");
var sig = new StringBuilder();
// Append the return type.
if (invoke.ReturnType == typeof(void))
sig.Append("void");
else
sig.Append(invoke.ReturnType.FullName);
sig.Append(" ");
sig.Append("Invoke(");
// Append the parameters.
var param = invoke.GetParameters();
for (var i = 0; i < param.Length; i++)
{
if (i != 0)
sig.Append(", ");
sig.Append(param[i].ParameterType.FullName);
sig.Append(" ");
sig.Append(param[i].Name);
}
sig.Append(")");
return sig.ToString();
}
private static TDelegate Generate<TDelegate>(string code)
{
// Generate the containing class and method.
var codeBuilder = new StringBuilder(50);
codeBuilder.AppendLine("using System;");
codeBuilder.Append("namespace Dynamic { class DynamicClass { public static ");
codeBuilder.Append(GenerateSignature<TDelegate>());
codeBuilder.AppendLine("{");
codeBuilder.AppendLine(code);
codeBuilder.AppendLine("} } }");
var compilerVersion = new Version(1, 0, 0, 0);
// Create the compiler parameters.
var parameters = new CompilerParameters();
parameters.GenerateInMemory = true;
parameters.GenerateExecutable = false;
parameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Clear();
foreach (var referenceAssembly in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies())
{
parameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(referenceAssembly.Location);
// Figure out which version we are compiling against.
var an = new AssemblyName(referenceAssembly.FullName);
if (an.Name == "mscorlib" && compilerVersion < an.Version)
{
compilerVersion = an.Version;
}
}
var cp = new CSharpCodeProvider(
new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "CompilerVersion", string.Format("v{0}.{1}", compilerVersion.Major, compilerVersion.Minor) } }
);
var results = cp.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, codeBuilder.ToString());
if (results.Errors.HasErrors)
throw new Exception("Method failed to compile.");
var assembly = results.CompiledAssembly;
if (assembly == null)
throw new Exception("Method failed to compile.");
var t = assembly.GetType("Dynamic.DynamicClass");
if (t == null)
throw new Exception("Method failed to compile.");
var m = t.GetMethod("Invoke");
if (m == null)
throw new Exception("Method failed to compile.");
return (TDelegate)(object)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(TDelegate), m);
}
}

Compiling C# at Runtime

I want to implement C# as the scripting language in my game.
My problem is, that my script will not compile if I want to use classes defined in the game core (exe).
The script looks like this:
using System;
using ConsoleApplication1;
class Script
{
private static void Call()
{
Console.WriteLine("called");
}
public static void Init()
{
Console.WriteLine("Script");
Call();
GameObject myO; // THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO GET WORKED,
//IF THIS IS COMMENTED OUT, IT COMPILES FINE, GAMEOBJECT
// IS DEFINED IN THE "ConsoleApplication1" NAMESPACE.
}
}
The script is compiled like in the MDX sample:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
CodeDomProvider provider = new CSharpCodeProvider();
CompilerParameters cp = new CompilerParameters();
//cp.CompilerOptions = "/target:library";
cp.GenerateExecutable = false;
cp.GenerateInMemory = true;
cp.IncludeDebugInformation = false;
cp.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("ConsoleApplication2.exe");
cp.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.dll");
CompilerResults cr = provider.CompileAssemblyFromFile(cp, "script.cs");
if (!cr.Errors.HasErrors)
{
Console.WriteLine("Success");
cr.CompiledAssembly.GetType("Script").GetMethod("Init").Invoke(null, null);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
Is there any way to call functions or create objects defined in the "ConsoleApplication1" namespace via the script?

This is a daily programming problem. It's not working and you think it should be working. So break it down. Instead of working on a big problem, work on a smaller problem. Just tackle trying to compile the script outside of your program. Once you get that working, then you can try to compile it as a script from inside your program, knowing that you've got the basic problem of references and compiler issues sorted out.
Something like:
csc /reference:ConsoleApplication1.exe script.cs
From the looks of it, it might be as simple as changing the reference from ConsoleApplication2.exe to ConsoleApplication1.exe.