I'm getting this error message on my PC when I try to build my Windows Phone app:
Xap packaging failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object
I'm using Dropbox. On my laptop, It works perfectly fine and I can debug etc...On my PC however, I can't.
I tried many things such as:
Delete obj/Debug Folder
Check for files which are missing on the Solution Explorer
So far, nothing has helped.
Any idea how I can fix this?
You should check, in every folder of your project, for missing files or wrong references.
You can get this problem just with a single missing image, if its Build Action property is set to Content or similar...
Check your files and then Rebuild your project!
This can happen if a file is removed from the disk itself, but not from the Solution through Visual Studio. Delete the file through Visual Studio (it should be marked with a little yellow hazard icon) and Rebuild.
Credit to Andreas Hammar via http://blog.jayway.com/2011/06/03/wp7-build-error-xap-packaging-failed/ - his solution worked for me.
I am adding this reply because although the problem with app icons is covered in brief in some of the answers above, I wanted to give exact steps since it just happened to me. I got this error and then found this web page:
Xap Packaging Error
It turned out that my App icon file name was wrong due to a rename. I double-clicked on WMAppManifest.xml, found in the Properties folder, to open the editor for that file. I simply used the button to update the App Icon, re-found the file and selected it, and the error went away after rebuilding the project.
The problem lies in your startup object in your Application. I have met this error to many times.
It usually happens when I change the name of my class/namespace Application class. Or it might even be conflicting with your dropbox locations.
To Fix this.
Right click your main project or Alt+Enter
Go to the silverlight tab and set your startup object
Try the following:
Have Visual Studio closed
Download all your files to your computer
Delete Bin and obj folders completely.
Open the .sln
Rebuild
If if fails expand the References in te Solution explorer and make sure all your dll's are found. If a dll have a yellow exclamation point that means its not found. I'm thinking that one of your references are set to an absolute path on your laptop and that's missing on your PC.
If someone comes across this post and still has the issue I had where XAP packaging failed and that VS2012 can not find the file then check for spaces in the file name.
I had the issue where my tiles were "tilename 99.png" and it keep giving me the XAP packaging failed message. So I finally changed the file name to "tilename_99.png" and it worked.
Hope this helps someone in the same predicament.
In my case, I'd accidentally moved Background.png to a resource folder. Moved it back and it worked!
In my case, this error didn't go away even after trying all the above methods. Actually I had renamed the ApplicationIcon.png to "xyz.png". And reverting this, fixed the issue.
One more possibility is that you have a wrong path to an image in the project/options/Application dialog (icon, bg image, etc).
I had this error message, after some frustration I look in the obj folder, is was no part of the solution(but visual studio need it) but I had some conflicts files with dropbox. I deleted the obj folder rebuild, visual studio recreates the folder and the content of it and problem solved.
Ahh finally found my problem.
I'm using Visual Studio 2012, which doesn't always point out the "missing" file and makes it a little harder to fix.
MY SHORT SOLUTION
Relink the "linked" configuration file in the main project. It is a linked file because the original file remains in a referenced assembly, not in the current assembly. The file wasn't marked YELLOW so it wasn't obvious that it would be the problem, but when I double clicked on it, it failed to open, so I knew this was the problem file.
The silverlight application itself had a "linked" file called "ServiceReferences.ClientConfig" which contains information needed by a referenced project to make a web service call.
So the main project didn't have the web service reference itself, but it referenced a project which did, which is why it linked the "ServiceReferences.ClientConfig" file.
MY LONG SOLUTION
Keep rebuilding the main project file, and commenting out, and excluding project by project, file by file, until you CAN build the main project again. At that point it should be clear(er) which part of the solution is causing the problem.
Related
I don't understand how it works. I'm new to Team Foundation Server and currently I have a small team. The co-worker can open my project file and run just fine (by double clicking the solution file right in the source control explorer window).
I can open my project file the same way but cannot open his project file. Clicking the solution file does load the solution but the files in there cannot be opened. It says something like this:
Cannot find the file "d:\....". It may have been moved or deleted.
The path "d:...." is actually the path on his machine. While in my machine it's mapped to a different path. But I don't understand why it cannot recognize it.
At first I thought the mapped path structure should be the same across all members' machines but if so my co-worker could have not opened my project file.
The status of the solution is Yes for Latest, meaning the files are loaded and copied to my local folder normally. Not sure if it matters but I'm using Visual Studio 2015 and my co-worker uses Visual Studio 2013.
I've tried searching around but could not find anything with the error message. It's so interesting that my co-worker does not have to do something special or self-aware so that he could tell me something to solve this. I hope you have some experience on this and give me some helpful suggestion. Thank you!
Edit:
To clarify it more, if I browse the file directly inside the source control explorer window, the file can be opened (but if it such as is some designer-supported file like .xaml - the designer then is not shown up). What I'm having trouble with is opening the file loaded in the solution (inside the Solution Explorer window). As I said clicking the solution file in Source Control Explorer window does load the solution, but because there is something wrong with the files path, I cannot open them as well as build and run the solution.
Right-clicking on the file in the loaded solution, select Properties, I can see that the Full Path is actually the path on his machine, so weird.
It sounds like your workspace is all messed up. Are you trying to share a workspace?
If so you should not. Each developer should have their own workspace local to their computer that is unique to them.
Try creating a new workspace and using that...
I'm working with XNA 4 in VS2010. Recently a crash corrupted a .contentproj file of mine. So I deleted the content project inside VS, created a new one and repopulated it with the contents of the old one. However the new content project did not properly hook up to the rest of the program, whenever I build the program its contents aren't translated to .xnb-s and placed inside the content folder of the game as when I built the program with the original content project.
I'm sure I'm missing a step in reconnecting the new content project, I just can't seem to be able to find out what that step is. Any ideas?
Thank you.
Take a look at the properties of the imported files in Visual Studio and check they are correct. Check the Build Action specifically. It should be set to Compile.
I found a way to make it work. More a workaround than a solution, I created a new VS solution, imported everything other than the content project from the old one and used the content project that came with the new solution.
I've run into a problem with VS2010 (it also exists in the latest version, SP1 (10.0.40219.1)):
Add an existing Word file to the "Solution Items" and check this new file in.
Check the file out for editing
Double click on the file and edit it in Word (just make some minor changes)
Save the file (CTRL-S)
Now the file is removed from the "Solution Items" in Visual Studio (you may have to repeat the editing and saving a couple of times)
Update: I'm using Visual SourceSafe 2005.
Despite my research efforts I haven't really found anything on this issue apart from this Microsoft page, and I'd like to know whether there is a way to prevent this problem from happening.
Any ideas are more than welcome, thanks in advance.
G.
After further investigation I think I found the reason behind this behaviour and a workaround.
Please also note that the behaviour described in the original question only occurs for files that are added directly underneath a solution or to a folder that is directly underneath a solution.
The reason
I'm not sure whether the following is 100% correct, but the main point is how Word (and probably other MS Office apps as well) saves an existing file:
Save the current version of the file to a temporary file
Rename the original file so it can be used later in case something goes wrong
Copy the temporary file to the location of the original file, using the original file's name
Delete the original file (that was renamed in step 2)
Visual Studio picks up that the file doesn't exist (for a very short time though) and removes it from its tree and the .sln file. This can also be reproduced by manually adding any kind of file, checking it out (if not checked out), renaming it to a different name and then back to its original name => file is no longer shown in Visual Studio.
The workaround
I've created an empty project template following the steps on Microsoft's site. I also set the output to "Class Library" so that the project would compile even if no static main method exists. This template can be used to add a "Documentation" project to an existing solution. Underneath this project you can add files and edit them as you wish, as Visual Studio behaves differently and does not remove the file when it is saved in this constellation.
Obviously this approach is still not very satisfying or elegant, but I hope that it may be helpful for others who might run into the same problem.
G.
I've run into the same issue. I simply undo changes for the solution after I've closed the document file and the solution files will be as they originally were before your document changes.
I am currently bug hunting and need to debug into a specific dll in the release configuration in Visual Studio 2005.
At some point I closed the solution, did some other stuff and reloaded it. From that point on my breakpoint doesn't get hit and I get the infamous "No symbols have been loaded..." message. So I opened the modules window and the dll that I want to debug doesn't appear in the list anymore, therefore I cannot load symbols manually. The application behaves normal so I am absolutely sure that the dll MUST have been loaded to execute certain functions. Sure enough, if I rename the dll and start up the application it doesn't work anymore, so it also must be the right dll.
I tried setting the dll project as startup project and the command to execute to the application's exe and starting the application from outside visual studio and then attaching to the process, all to no avail.
Question is, why is the dll not appearing in the list of loaded modules although it must have been loaded? I cannot think of any other changes that I've done, that could cause this, am I missing something? (Maybe something really obvious?)
Any help appreciated!
Use process explorer to check if the dll is loaded or not.
When you attach the process make sure that you are enabling both 'Native' and 'Managed' code type (in the code type selection option).
See also this question: Visual Studio is not loading modules when attaching to process
I encountered a similar issue after transferring a project from one computer to another. I will simply explain what I discovered and how I fixed it, and you can determine if it fits your problem and solution.
The work computer I wrote an application on contained a .dll file which my program was referencing. After moving the application to my home computer, the application could no longer locate the .dll file it was previously referencing because the file was no longer there.
The application compiled and ran even without the referenced resource (.dll file) because the previously compiled assembly (debug folder) contained its own copy of the .dll file and other resources. Put simply, it is the old assembly build that is running and not the current application you're working on. This is also why this error tends to suspend the designer window and throw an error after the app is done running.
I would take a look at the following:
a) Under Solution Explorer, go into the References folder and right click the missing reference node and select properties. In the properties box, observe the Path of the resource being referenced. Is the resource still located at this path?
b) Check the debug folder for a copy of the resource you're looking for. If the resource is there, make a copy and save it to your desktop. If it's not there, get the file from the original source.
c) Under Solution Explorer, right click 'Properties' and 'open'. From the menu that appears select 'Resources' from the left and at the top of the new window that appears you you should see 'Add Resource' with a small drop down arrow. Click the arrow and select 'Add existing file' and then browse to the file. If you don't see it you may have to change the file being browsed from the small drop down above the 'open' and 'Cancel' buttons. After the file is located it should create a new folder in the solution explorer called 'resources.' Now the file is a permanent part of your application and not merely a reference to it.
I had the same issue today with Visual Studio 2008. I was using a simple tester to test a new method in an assembly. So added a reference to my assembly I wrote the code to load the assembly and call the new method, build, everything OK. But during execution the debugger would throw an exception saying that new new method did not exist, and the modules window was empty.
Turns out the assembly I was modifying was in the GAC, and was using instead of the new one in my build directory.
I had the same issue with visual studio 2017 Pro and searched for a week but no luck then i installed VS2019 Pro and test with same project but the break point wasn't working at all and the project's DLL was missing from the modules list.
I was running multiple projects under one solution and i suddenly observed that if select project1 as "Startup Project" the DLL of that project is loaded only in the module list. So as i was testing an API and I switched API project as Startup Project and observed now the API DLL files are loaded into the modules list.
Right Click on your required project that you want to include it's DLL files in the module list and set it as "Startup Project"
Every few days VS2008 decides to get mad at me and fails to generate a designer file claiming it cannot find the file specified and that it's missing an assembly. Here's the scenario:
The aspx page has a reference to a custom user control (inheriting UserControl) which references another assembly in the backend. There are many other references to this "missing" assembly in other places in code which don't throw errors. rebuilding, updating the source to the clean copy, shouting at the computer, punching the screen, etc all fail to work.
Any suggestions? This is quite annoying.
We've had similar problems before, unfortunately I don't remember the exact solution.
If your using a "Web Site" project (no project file) then start by checking that both your page and your control both set the ClassName property in the first line of your aspx/ascx file and that you specify the full name of the class including the namespace.
Example:
<#Control Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false"
ClassName="YourProjectName.YourUserControl"
Inherits="YourProjectName.YourUserControl"
CodeFile="YourUserControl.ascx.vb"
%>
Many times not setting all of these will still work but you will get odd compiler errors and behavior in VS.
If you using a Web Site Application project try deleting the designer file manually and then right click on your project and choose "Convert from Web Application." This will should recreate the designer file for you.
My only other suggestion would be to recreate the page and/or the user control from scratch.
Jared, you've hit it. Using "Convert to Web Application" to manually generate the designer file solves my problem. I'm glad you posted this before i started reinstalling. Thanks.
You might try archiving a template of a new file with its designer equivalent. If VS coughs then you can do an "Add Existing" option with the file you already have.
It seems, however, to be an issue with your installation of VS2008 so you might try reinstalling it.
I found that using a custom control, you would need to add a reference to the .dll. This fixed it for me after migrating from a web site to web app.