I have written a small program with a reference to a dll file that will be included in the setup file.
What I still need is a way to update the dll (in case I change some functions), without the need to re-download the whole program again, just replace the dll file...
Is this possible ?
I just read somewhere that I have to update the xml file with the new dll version, but I really need the full steps to update the dll successfully...
Any help is really appreciated... Thanks a lot
Update
I really don't know what to say... Both ways are really great... Thanks a lot for the help... I will test them tonight and write the answer here...
Thanks again :)
If you already distributed your application, you can redirect the assembly binding by configuration.
You can redirect an assembly binding
reference to another version of an
assembly by using entries in the
application or machine configuration
files. You can redirect references to
.NET Framework assemblies, third-party
assemblies, or assemblies of your own
application.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2fc472t2%28VS.71%29.aspx
Another article about Configuring Assembly Binding Redirection.
When you add a reference to a DLL, the visual studio takes binds it to the specific version (in case of 'Copy local' is true). Go to visual studio project, select the reference and view properties. You will see a property as 'Specific version'. The value will be true, set it to false. You have got what you wished.
Related
I am getting this error:
Could not load file or assembly, system could not find the file specified.
Images:
http://s30.postimg.org/4x936f6ch/error2.png
http://s17.postimg.org/41ta9aaj3/errro3.png
I have a solution built in .NET 4.0
In it I have projects that act as plugins. They use dlls and the issue is that one of the solutions projects dlls is being called, and that references the dll that is causing the issue.
I get no error when rebuilding etc just when the program gets to the part where it uses the dll that references this one.
I have also made sure that in the projects bin folder that it has the dll that it is complaining about.
I have opened the dll in reflector and I don't think it has any issues.
COuld someone point me to the next step to try with fixing this issue?
Thanks!
Couple of tips - hard to know if they'll help you:
Open the csproj file(s) in a text editor and see where the dlls are being referenced (GAC possibly)
If it's a signed assembly, make sure you've got a signed copy (if you've built an Open Source project yourself the signing will be lost)
Look at the references in Visual Studio - do you have Copy Local set to True and Specific Version set to False?
Look at you're App.config or Web.config - is there a binding redirect that failing to load
I remember reading a post about assemblies not being able to be unloaded - probably not an issue on this one but I think the trick was
to load the DLL in a separate AppDomain to keep it isolated - loadable
and unloadable.
When I add a reference to my dll in Visual Studio project, I am able to use it, but when I compile my code or try to run it, I get an are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?_ Error. I am able to confirm that I have the right using statement for my namespace and I am able to confirm that the dll is correctly loaded.
Anyone have any idea what I may not have right in this?
Go to project settings and make sure that you are not compiling the project for a .net version that includes the text "client profile".
I had just had an issue precisely like this, even if this is an old question thought I would add my 2c on what fixed it as none of the other answers helped:
For whatever reason, when I built the solution top to bottom a certain dll was not getting updated and output that held changed code. So while my solution had no visible errors, when you attempted to build, it was still referencing the old dll and started complaining.
It was simply a case of directly re-building the offending project and after that it picked up the latest dll and built happily.
This seemed to be a freak accident as no configuration had changed between when it worked / when it didn't.
Sometimes, JUST REBUILD THE SOLUTION.
The location of the DLL is important.
If you add a reference on your local machine to a DLL that is outside of your Visual Studio solution, it isn't necessarily copied into your solution files (depends on the type of solution/project).
If this is your problem, then you need to either put the DLL in the same path on the other machine, or copy it into your solution so it gets deployed along with the solution files, and change the reference.
You can also handle this with build instructions, but that might be beyond your aspirations at the moment.
Most likely your dll is referencing another dll that the client project is not referencing and your dll code is exposing a type or an interface from the 3rd dll to the client code.
If you post the exaCt message, we'll be able to help better.
Are you using .net 4.0?
If yes, this dll is probably not compatible with .net 4.0
In my case, the main project (WinForm) was configured Framework Target: FW 4.0 "client profile". I change to FW 4.0 and work perfect!!.
At first time i was looking in the referenced projects and they were ok, but de main project doesn't. I hope this help. Thank you.
In my case this compilation error has gone after adding the reference to Microsoft BCL Build Components via "Manage NuGet packages" context menu on problem project.
Before: I had project Main (console application) referencing project A (class library).
Project A had dependency on Microsoft BCL Build Components.
After: I started refactoring where I picked out several classes to the separate project New. It also depended on A. But the compilation error occurred on project New as if there was no reference New -> A (although Visual Studio didn't highlight allegedly not found interfaces and classes listed in the error list of compilation).
So I checked project A's dependencies and found there Microsoft BCL Build Components.
After adding it to New's dependencies everything worked fine.
The most interesting thing is that Main did not contain this dependency and it didn't need it.
Hope this helps.
You just Have to check your namespace of that class file again...it will work
This has to be a pretty common issue, and while we have answers, I'm trying to determine if there is any better way. We are using IoC / DI with structuremap. This means that our final application (an Asp.Net MVC 2 app) requires the presence of some assemblies which aren't being referenced anywhere else (our implemention of IRepository, etc).
In VS, I've added a Post Build event that simply goes to our lib folder (containing the already build assemblies which are not part of our solution) and copies everything with *Repository*.dll to the $(TargetDir).
On the build server, were we are also building packages for deployment (and hoping to automate deployment to some environments), I've done something similar to get those assemblies.
Is there any better way though? Or do you just accept that this is one of the issues with IoC and have to remember to add a bit of script to include the service assemblies as part of the process?
Thanks
Andy
You should be able to create a project of any type, and then reference everything you need. Then just copy everything, except the dll from that project. At least you don't have to edit a lot of scripts just to add a new project..?
I suppose you could add the assemblies you want into your project just as linked files, not as assembly references, and then mark them as 'Content' as the build type and 'Copy if newer' so they will get copied to your bin folder.
Never tried this, but it ought to work.
I have a deployment project in visual studio 2008 that installs several C# projects. Among other things, I'd like it to write projects assembly version to registry.
Is there a way to automatically find out whats the projects assembly version (written in AssemblyInfo.cs) and write that as value of a registry property?
If not, is there any way to do this better than by hand? It is important that these values are correct because they are used by our updating software.
Thank you.
EDIT: I'm not sure I was completely clear in my question. I don't want to get this number and store it to a string. I want to write it to registry with Deployment Projects Registry Editor (not sure if that's the official name, you can get to it by right clicking the deployment project in solution explorer and navigating to View->Registry)
This should work:
Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.ToString();
Make sure this is called from each Projects main assembly.
The GetName method returns an AssemblyName object that has other useful info as well.
Edit:
You could make the assemblies self-registering, that requires them to be run once to update the registry.
If that is not acceptable can write a plugin for setup (and/or run a separate program). And from within that code you need to get the filename of the assembly being installed.
I've got a C# project in visual studio that is building a DLL, and another console project which includes the first as a reference. These are both in the same solution.
The trouble is when I add methods to the DLL, then rebuild the console project doesn't seem to pick them up.
For example, in the DLL I have a class Converters. If I add a method
public static void test() {}
it just doesnt' show up in the console app at all. Intellisense doesn't autocomplete it, and if I manually type it in it gives a compiler error.
If I go in and delete the dll files then rebuild that works (or better yet, delete the bin and obj directories) but that seems rather drastic.
I'm sure this is a basic error, but I can't seem to find the solution after some googling.
How are you adding the reference? As a project reference or by browsing to the DLL? If you're using the latter then it will copy it locally to the bin directory of your console app and won't refresh it unless you manually delete it. If you add it as a project reference it will copy it as and when it needs to.
The exact thing happened to me once on a project - it turned out the build command wasn't configured to build these DLLs.
Check Build - Configuration Manager, and make sure the project is checked:
(Image from msdb - Setting the Build Configuration)
close Project visualStudio and
rebuild again your dll (other project visualStudio)
One of the things to note is the Target Framework of the Projects, if you compile your Project A with target framework different then that of Project B and it is referencing the dlls of Project A you may run into this kind of trouble. So, make sure that the target framework for both Projects is same.
Check that you don't have the ddl inside the bin folder of your project. Whilst I was adding the reference by browsing for the dll, I had forgotten that I manually copy pasted a version into that folder. No matter how many times I cleaned and rebuilt, it didn't seem to update.
Deleting that dll and re-referencing fixed the issue.
Change the reference to the dll to the Project, instead of the output.
This is certainly unexpected behavior. It sounds like the reference between the two projects is broken in some way. Two issues come to mind.
Possible problem with the reference. Try deleting the reference in solution explorer and readding the reference and seeing if that fixes things. When you re-add make sure it's a project reference and not a file reference.
It's possible that the time stamps on the files in your project are off. See if they are in the future.
check the folder which contains the reference. does it contain a refresh file with a relative path in it? if so, and if assembly names in the location pointed to by the relative path are common with those in of (project) references which should auto update, then these references no longer auto update! what you end up is a static reference to the assemblies present in the relative path contained in the refresh file.
you may also have to delete the projectreferences key in the sln file and add references afresh
I hate to beat a dead SO question but 8 years after the original question and none of the above solving the issue for me, my problem was in VS2013, but to solve it I simply removed and re-added the reference to the DLL in the project that invokes it.
I hope this helps some people in the newer VS realm having the same issue.