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.
Related
I have 3 C# projects, A (WPF application), B (class library), and C (class library), such that A references B, and B reference C. Project C needs to call some native methods from a C++ DLL via P/Invoke. I added the native DLLs to the C# project and marked them a "Copy to Output Directory". When I build my solution, the native DLLs show up in the output directory for Projects B and C (correctly), but not for Project A. Is there a project setting that allows these to be copied by any project that ultimately references Project C (even if not directly)? Or do I just need to post-build event on Project A to copy this files to my application output folder?
I've looked at Dependencies of references not copied to output directory, but this was referring to project references, so I'm wondering if there is a solution in my case.
I also considered embedding the native DLLs as resources and modifying my DLLImport as in this MSDN article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.interopservices.dllimportattribute.dllimportattribute.aspx. But I get an E_ACCESSDENIED error (I've seen others with this same issue as well, as well as some concerns about triggering antivirus behavior when extracting the DLL to disk). I also noticed the article mentions linking the resource, rather than embedding it. Is this something I need to do as an MSBuild task, rather than through some project properties?
Worst case, I could just add a post-build event to my WPF application that copies the native files, but it would be nice if Visual Studio would recognize that these files should be copied.
I solved this by customizing the output for debug/release mode compiles (on the project properties window) so that all of my projects outputted to the same folder... Much like how an ASP.NET application is published where all DLLs end up in a single /bin folder. That fixed my issue.
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:
I'm new to visual studio and can't seem to find an answer to this anywhere.
I'm working on a project in VC++ with VS2010. I have another project that builds into a .lib file set up as a reference, but can't figure out how to actually include the headers. Google has proved useless. Please help!
Generally this is done by adding the directory where the include files live to the project's "Additional Include Directories" property (in the "C/C++ | General" property page).
Note that the location can be a relative path if the different projects will always be at the same file system level relative to one another, or they can use VS macros or environment variables.
What is the best way to reference DLL (without copying localy into the projet) when creating a project from a "Template" project in VS.net 2010? Because, as known, project template can only make a template for a Project, not solution.
UPDATE
My question were not clear :
I want to know how to a project, lets say "Project1", that has few libraries with property "Copy Local" set to false in ASP.net and then use this project as "Template". Referencing DLL in the "project2", the one who use the "project1" as template, is not done properly without bringing each DLL into the project2 directory and recreate the same directory listning as project1. Is there a way to make a template do it all for ya?
A reference DLL won't get copied if it is registered in the GAC. Trying to avoid the copy for non-GAC-ed assemblies is possible, set the Copy Local property to False. It is however pretty unusual to do so, you can't debug the code because the CLR cannot find the required assembly at run time. Not being able to debug code is, well, a problem.
When you unload a project in Visual Studio, any referencing projects get warning triangles on their reference to the unloaded project. I've written myself a macro to do clever stuff (detect add/remove of project and transform any references from-to file/project dependency), but I can't believe that I'm not missing something much simpler. How can the unload function be any use if I have to go around manually changing references (and it breaks the 'personal solutions/shared projects' team development paradigm).
(This question is related to answers to this question about structuring large solutions in Visual Studio - some answers mentioned having solutions with lots of projects, but 'unloading' unused projects to improve performance.)
For my projects, I create an assemblies folder which the projects automatically copy into from a set location to which other projects copy builds.
Post-build for referenced assembly's project:
if not exist "C:\builds\Project1" md "C:\builds\Project1\"
copy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).*" "C:\builds\Project1\"
Pre-build for referencing projects:
if exist "c:\builds\Project1\" copy "c:\builds\Project1*.*" "$(ProjectDir)assemblies"
The project file points to its assemblies subfolder for references so even if the source projects are unloaded from the solution, the last-built assemblies will be used without the performance problems of having the whole project in memory while developing.
What are the advantages of having projects in the same solution if you use file references?
If your app.exe uses utils.dll and you change the code for utils.dll, then if it's in the same solution VS will notice the dependency and recompile both. If it's not in the solution you'll have to jump out, recompile utils.dll seperately, then jump back in and recompile app.exe.
This becomes either more or less important depending on how many other dll's your exe is referencing, and how often they change (in team environments shared dll's change often in my experience).
There is also the side effect that if you have 100 projects in VS it will take a long time to process them all just to figure out if they need recompiling or not.
Unloading projects is meant to be a temporary action so you can edit the actual project file as XML (text). If you want to completely remove a project from your solution, you should use the "Remove" menu option, which will take care of removing any references to that project.
One advantage to using project references is that it allows you to easily debug through the code. It also automatically ensures that you are using the correct configuration build (ie, if you are building in "Debug" mode it will use the Debug version of the assembly). That being said, you loose some determinisim about which version/build of the dependent project you will pick up - project references mean you always use the latest.
Yes, for Visual Studio to determine build dependencies it must be able to see and build all of the projects which would mean project references.
I've just had a eureka moment reading through MSDN doc on structuring solutions and projects.
What I hadn't noticed is that in a multi-project solution, the context menu in the Solution Explorer proposes a Project Dependencies popup. Here you can define the project dependencies manually, if you haven't defined them by project references between projects.
See here (MSDN link, so will self destruct after a few weeks)