I have created an extension for VS 2010 that deploys a project template. The project template uses a custom wizard (in a specific assembly) that is called when I create a new project based on this template.
I want to package the assembly containing the wizard within the VSIX, so that it gets deployed somewhere the template can find it (I know GAC is not an option with VSIX).
Basically if I deploy the assembly to the GAC, install the VSIX and then create the project the wizard is invoked successfully.
If I do the same without deploying the assembly first, the project templates does not find the assembly when I create the project.
My question is: how to deploy a project template and the assembly it needs using a VSIX package?
Thank you for your help
EDIT: I changed the VSIX Sub Path of the wizard assembly reference to "ProjectTemplates" in both the installer project and updated the vsixmanifest content assembly reference accordingly. It seems to work now.
You don't need to get your assembly containing the IWizard implementation in the GAC. You can simply declare it in your extension.vsixmanifest file as an Assembly element in the Content section.
Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be documented well anywhere.
The only tricky part is making sure that the AssemblyName attribute has the correct value.
I had no luck with the Assembly element technique to work, so in case anyone else runs into the same problem, here's another solution.
Visual Studio looks for wizard DLLs using the BindingPaths registry key. If you add the folder containing your DLL in a subkey of BindingPaths, then Visual Studio will find your DLL.
To do this from a VSIX, create a .pkgdef file in your VSIX project. Set its Include in VSIX property to True, and paste the following text into it:
[$RootKey$\BindingPaths\{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}]
"$PackageFolder$"=""
(where the Xs represent the package GUID, though I suspect any GUID will do).
This works for me:
[$RootKey$\BindingPaths\{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}]
"$PackageFolder$"=""
But assembly element doesn't work.
I have installed the strong named assembly TestReflection into the GAC (I am using .NET 4.0 and VS 2010).
Different versions of the TestReflection DLL are in GAC of .NET 4.0 (C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_32\TestReflection\), however, the assembly does not appear in the "Project" -> "Add reference" box of VS 2010.
How can I refer to my assembly deployed in GAC at design time from another project?
This page says that:
You cannot add references from the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), as it is strictly part of the run-time environment.
Referring to this statement, I would like to know how to make your project's DLL shared assembly for other consumers if it's the requirement?
The dll's shown in the .Net tab of the "Add references" dialog are not actually the ones registered in the GAC. They are found by searching a few paths on your filesystem.
The paths being searched are located by Visual Studio by looking up the following registry entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NetFramework\{Version}\AssemblyFoldersEx\
There should be some keys added there already, so if you want your own dll to show up on the .Net tab, you can add it to one of the folders defined there. You could also add a new registry key pointing to a custom folder, which would only contain your own dll's.
The GAC is only meant for loading assemblies at runtime after your application has been deployed, so I don't think you should use it while developing. When you deploy your app, make sure to set "Copy local" to false on your reference so the dll won't be copied to the bin folder, and then install it into the GAC and it will be loaded from there instead.
Another simple option would be to manually edit the project file as XML in visual studio (You will have to unload the project first), and simply add node <Reference Include="<name of dll>" /> in MSBuild project file. After reloading the project, VS will pick up the reference without problem.
If you want to add Global Assembly Cache references to your VS2010 project, there is an extension you can use: Muse.VSExtensions.
It has some quirks but does a decent job. Check it out...
The answer is the Reference Paths in the property windows, you have to set it with the GAC path
Please see my post here:
We have several external DLL files being referenced in our Web Application Project. We have a deployment project for installing on the hosting servers. When we were using .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 the DLL files were being copied to the bin folder. Since we have upgraded to .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 this no longer happens, and we are getting server errors since the references cannot be found.
CopyLocal is set to true, and I cannot find anything inside the web.config which suggests this is being set elsewhere.
There is a bug in Visual Studio 2010. By default the XML in the solution file looks like this:
<Reference Include="DevExpress.SpellChecker.v11.1.Core,
Version=11.1.5.0,
Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a,
processorArchitecture=MSIL">
<HintPath>..\References\DevExpress.SpellChecker.v11.1.Core.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
Whereas MSBuild is expecting this below, so that the DLL file will be included in the deployment:
<Reference Include="DevExpress.SpellChecker.v11.1.Core,
Version=11.1.5.0,
Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a,
processorArchitecture=MSIL">
<HintPath>..\References\DevExpress.SpellChecker.v11.1.Core.dll</HintPath>
<Private>True</Private>
</Reference>
The trick is to set Copy Local to False, save the project and then reset it to True - save again. This includes the Private node correctly, which MSBuild respects.
It appears that the default for no included private node (Copy Local) in Visual Studio 2010 is True, while MSBuild reads that missing node as False.
I was getting the same problem and rather than add a "BeforeBuild" step I created a test that simply did this
[TestMethod]
public void ReferenceAssemblyThatDoesNotCopyToBuildFolder()
{
Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging.LoggingExceptionHandler referenceThisButDoNotUseIt = null;
}
And that fixed the error The type 'Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging.LoggingExceptionHandler...' cannot be resolved
Something weird had happened to my deployment project. When I saw it had no detected dependencies, I removed the primary output and re-added it.
The dependencies are now showing up and being placed in the bin folder when installed.
I was getting exactly the same issue. We have a Visual Studio 2008 project which references the EnterpriseLibrary. When we run our integrated build using TFS and our Web deployment project, all the DLL files are copied over. When we upgraded to Visual Studio 2010, TFS 2010 and WDP 2010, some of the DLL file's were missing. Strangely, this only occurs to some DLL files and not others.
For example, we get the Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.dll copied in both cases, but not the Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging.dll.
As a workaround I copied the files accross using a "BeforeBuild" step.
It now seems to build OK.
I just had the same issue and wanted to share what I found as it might help someone:
The reason in my case was that the assembly was installed in the GAC during an installation of some third-party application.
If the DLL file is in the GAC, the compiler won't bother to copy it to the destination folder, unless you specifically mark it for "copy local" using the "Private" node in the project file as mentioned by Junto.
The thing is that if you don't add that node, and you develop on one machine and build on a different one, and the DLL file is only in the GAC of the build machine, the default behavior without the private node will cause the file to be copied correctly on the development machine, but not on the build machine.
The bigger problem is if the DLL file is not referenced directly, but the project references a second project that in turn references the DLL file. In that case, you cannot mark the DLL file to be "copy local" in the project, as it is not referenced by it. So if the DLL file exists in the GAC - it won't get copied to your output folder.
Possible solutions to this case are:
Uninstall the DLL file from the GAC
Add a direct reference to the DLL file in the end project(s)
Re-sign the DLL file with a new strong name, which will differentiate it from the DLL file in the GAC.
I am not sure how it was set up in Visual Studio 2008, but I am almost positive that you might have been using the Post-Build event command line. In there you can tell to copy the DLL files you need for deployment. An example is given below:
mkdir $(SolutionDir)\Deployment
copy "$(SolutionDir)Your_Library_Name\Your_Dll_ForDeployement.dll"
$(SolutionDir)\Deployment\
I didn't meet the same problem but similar. I had WPF main project and referenced project where the referenced did not copy. I found that in my case the main project was set for NET 4.0 Client Profile and the referenced for NET 3.5. When I set the main project to 3.5 the compiled dll of the referenced project started to copy.
(I don't know why because I solved it by practice)
I too ran into a similar issue where referenced dlls were not copied into the bin in published folder. I was using a TFS checked out copy that didn't include the bin folder into the application.
-> So just included the bin folder.
-> Built the referenced applications
-> Published the website project
Now I see all the referenced dlls in bin in the published folder
I had a similar issue with VS 2012 Express. I used Tesseract libraries in my project. Everything worked well until I used this project in a solution where were more than one project. Problem was that some DLLs (liblept168.dll, libtesseract302.dll) that are normally placed in folders bin/debug/x86 or bin/debug/x64 were copied only when I rebuilt whole solution.
Changing a single line and building it again caused that the DLLs were deleted and not copied back.
I solved this issue by adding a reference of the project that creates missing DLLs to the startup project.
rzen and others, thanks - your comments led to a solution for us.
We have a project that targets version 10 of the Microsoft.ReportViewer.Common.dll and Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms.dll assemblies (separate "libs" folder we created at the 'src' level). But when we did a build, the output included version 12, which was recently installed on the build server.
Using comments here, we ensured that 'Copy Local' was set to True and that the flag was set in the project file. However, it was still deploying version 12. So what we found that did the trick was ensuring that the 'Specific Version' property was also set on the two references. Voila, version 10 of each file is now being deployed!
There was much rejoicing.
JH
If your project does not directly load the library, it won't always be deployed, even if it is referenced explicitly! I got confused because I could see it in a local Bin directory but not when deployed. The dll in the Bin directory was an old file that wasn't removed during Clean which is why I was confused.
A full clean and rebuild and it wasn't in my local Bin folder either which showed me the problem (I only use it in web.config). I then referenced the dll file itself in the project and set it to copy to output to make sure it gets deployed.
We can use the <Private>False</Private> to not to copy the referenced DLL files to the bin directory. This is useful when we are building applications in a separate TFS build server where we need to build the application and not to copy the DLL files to the bin directory.
Check the framework of the project in which the DLL file has been referenced. The framework should be .NET 4.0. Please correct it if the framework is Client Profile.
Adding the parameter
/deployonbuild=false
to the msbuild command line fixed the issue.
Got a similar issue when upgrading old WebSites into WebApplications.
The "Clean Solution" command would wipe out all external DLL files I purposely left in my bin folders.
Besides, it was not possible to bring those DLL back automatically simply by referencing them all, since many of them have the same file name (it happens when you work with many language specific resources)
Like stevie_c did, I took advantage of the Pre-Build command, but made it simpler:
I just used a xcopy command in the Pre-Build operation of the WebApplication project's properties. This way I could bring over the necessary external DLL files just before the build would start.
When building managed code Visual Studio correctly (and recursively) copies dlls of referenced managed projects to the output folder of the project being build.
However, if one the of those references is a managed DLL that depends on unmanaged dlls then these unmanaged DLLs are not copied to the output folder, even though their corresponding projects in the same solution and are listed as dependencies of the managed DLL.
I realize that this problem can be resolved by having all projects use the same output folder. We already do that for most projects, but we prefer to keep unit test output folders separate, causing the above issue for unit tests that use a managed Dll with unmanaged dependencies.
The solution we are using right now is a pre-build event to copy the necessary DLLs but this wastes time and is error-prone as it needs to be repeated for every project that uses the managed DLL.
I would therefore like to know if there is a way to get the build system to understand that it should always copy the unmanaged dependencies of the managed DLL whenever it decides to copy the managed DLL?
One workaround seems to be to add another node to the managed DLL project, naming the unmanaged DLL and setting the Build Action = "None", and Copy to Output Directory = "Copy if Newer".
Edit: For building a C++/CLR project, I think this would work:
Add the node, and set its build tool to Custom Build Tool. Then, in the Custom Build Step page, set the Command to copy $(InputPath) $(OutDir) and the Outputs to $(OutDir)\$(InputFileName). Looks like that should work.
I'm working in a project which references assemblies from a third company. These assemblies have satellite assemblies that I'm copying with a post-build event to the bin folder.
Is There a way to include those third party satellite assemblies into the project so I have not to care with the post-build events and maintaining the files?
Thanks in advance.
MORE INFORMATION: As the references have only resources they are not added as project references, actually I'm just copying them to the // folder. As each localized reference has the same name I would only be able to add it one time to the project's references.
It is automatic in the C# IDE. Setting Copy Local = True on the assembly reference ensures that the satellite assemblies get copied as well. In the C++ IDE it is a setting: Framework + References, Build properties category, "Copy Local Satellite Assemblies".
There's not enough info in your question to narrow down which IDE you use or why it wouldn't work for you. Maybe that 3rd party is doing something non-standard. Give them a call.
I was researching a related problem and stumbled on this thread. Please note that referencing the satellite assemblies directly (via the 'add reference' dialog) is not the way to incorporate them into your application. In stead just make sure they are located in a folder hierarchy as suggested above (relative to the original location of the binary file they contain resources for).
The only file you add a reference to explicitly is the library itself. Do remember to set 'copy local' to true in the property window of the reference. The runtime will then make sure to pull resources from the file whose directory matches the system locale.
In the references, right click and select properties on your reference to the third party assembly.
Ensure that "copy local" is true.
If this is true, then it should copy the satellite assemblies, as this is the behavior I've experienced in Visual Studio.