I have Visual Studio solution with 10 .net core 3.1 library projects (let's call them CORE). One of them is a main project. It has references to other projects.
I want to have one nuget package (stored in azure feed) which I can use in my other solutions because I won't add all dlls every time when I need CORE functionality. I need to define Azure Pipeline to do that job. How to define that pipeline which produce one package containing all other references (dlls)?
When you build the NuGet package, you can provide -IncludeReferencedProjects switch to the nuget pack command, and the referenced projects will be added as part of the package:
nuget pack MyProject.csproj -IncludeReferencedProjects
Note, that according to the docs:
If a referenced project includes a .nuspec file of its own, then NuGet adds that referenced project as a dependency instead. You need to package and publish that project separately.
I would suggest you get acquainted with this article. There are more options to granularly control the contents of your package. The raw nuget commands that are referenced there map easily to the appropriate CI tasks.
I've successfully built a Precompiled Function (DLL) and but ran into some issues regarding Reference from my DLL to other .Net Framework libraries.
I first tried to promote only my DLL to Azure and that failed due to missing dependancies. Next I tried to use Reflector to list the actual dependancies of my DLL and include them with Nuget but ended up just copying every DLL from my project bin directory to Azure and it worked.
So what how do I tell what libraries are actually included by the Azure Function environment and which I need to Nuget or upload myself. I couldn't find any documentation on the subject.
With the pre-compiled model, you need to bring your dependencies with the assembly where your function is defined (much like deploying a console or standard Web Application).
The simplest approach is to deploy the files from your assembly's output folder. The Azure Functions Tools for Visual Studio 2017 will do exactly that for you, giving you the ability to publish directly from VS.
I've been extremely frustrated trying to deploy a C#/WPF application I've created that has some references to 3rd party DLLs. I created a folder in the project, called lib, where I placed all of these DLLs. In VS2012, I added the references by browsing to that folder, and selecting all the DLLs. Copy Local is set to true for all. Everything is fine when I build and run, but when I choose publish, and create a OneClick Installer, things aren't so smooth. During the publish wizard, I set it to install from disk, and set it to never check for updates. I take that folder, place it on a flash drive, plug it into another PC, run the setup, and it throws an Exception. I believe I know what is happening, but I cannot figure out how to package this in order to deploy it correctly.
One of my DLLs is a C# wrapper to a DLL that is designed for a C++ project. We'll say, Application requires DLL1 and DLL1 requires DLL2. DLL2 cannot be added as a reference in the project because is not a .NET DLL. DLL1 requires DLL2 to be in the same folder in order to pick it up. I'm using CefSharp which wraps the Chromium Embedded Framework.
I've tried placing the required DLLs for CefSharp.dll in the publish/Application Files directory, but it did not work. I noticed that all of the DLLs that are there from VS2012 have a .deploy extension on them, I even went and added that extension on to see if it was scanning for that to pick up, but it did not work either. This is my first time doing development and deployment for a Windows application and all of the tutorials on MSDN or blog posts I've read do not seem to cover this case, and I do not see any other options in the deployment manager to handle these types of cases.
If it helps, the Exception Code that is thrown is: CLR20r3
When I catch and display Exception, all of the info I am provided basically says CefSharp.dll or one of it's dependencies cannot be loaded. Which I've gotten before when DLL2 was not in the same folder as DLL1.
Can anyone provide help on how to deploy from VS2012 with a situation like this?
Thanks in advance!
Edit: Info Update
I was attempting to push a debug build version to a test machine without Visual Studio installed. When building for CefSharp or any other C++ Runtime DLL, it will look for all of the Debug versions of the DLL which are usually the same name, but with the letter 'd' added to the end. As mentioned below, the Debug version of the C++ Runtime is not redistributable. Not that you can't manually add those DLLs to your project and set them as Copy Always, but that's kind of a hack job. I started a new project from scratch, added all Release versions of the DLLs, built, and everything was fine.
I've been tearing my hair out trying to fix this very problem this morning and eventually found the solution. It seems you already know which DLLs etc. you need for CefSharp to work but I thought I would run through this in case anyone else is having the same problem. I have a C# WPF application and I'm using CefSharp as the web view. I'm using CefSharp v1 because I need the JavaScript -> C# bridge they provide which isn't yet implemented in v3. Here are the rough steps I went through in setting up the project (I'm using VS2013 but this will probably work in VS2012).
Installing CefSharp
Install CefSharp.Wpf through NuGet (I'm using v1.25.7)
That should put the relevant files in $(SolutionDir)packages\CefSharp.Wpf.1.25.7\cef
Configuring Build
To get the CefSharp DLLs to copy to our build folders, right-click on your project, select Properties -> Build Events and enter the following in the "Post-build event command line":
xcopy "$(SolutionDir)packages\CefSharp.Wpf.1.25.7\cef*" "$(TargetDir)" /s /y /i
That should now copy all of the required DLLs from the cef folder as well as the devtools_resources.pak file and the locales folder plus its contents. I require them in my project as I need the chromium dev tools.
Double-check your project references contain CefSharp and CefSharp.Wpf. That should have been taken care of by NuGet.
Taking care of Visual C++ 2012 Runtime Files
I didn't want the user to have to download the whole Visual C++ 2012 Runtime Files as part of the deployment so through Visual Studio, add the folder Lib\Microsoft.VC110.CRT and add the 3 DLLs (msvcp110.dll, msvcr110.dll, vccorlib110.dll) from the following folder on your machine to the folder you just created in your project:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\redist\x86\Microsoft.VC110.CRT
Select the 3 DLL files in Visual Studio, right-click -> properties. Make sure Build Action is set to "None" and Copy to Output Directory is set to "Do not copy". Now you need to add another post-build event to make sure these are copied properly (i.e. copied to the root so they sit alongside the CEF dlls and your project exe) for debug.
Right-click on your project, select Properties -> Build Events and enter the following in the "Post-build event command line" just after your other xcopy command for CEF:
xcopy "$(ProjectDir)Lib\Microsoft.VC110.CRT*.*" "$(TargetDir)" /s /y /i
At this point, everything should be building. To publish the app with ClickOnce, I need it to push all of the CEF DLLs out as well as ensuring the files/folders required for chromium dev tools are present. If you don't need the dev tools or all of the DLLs then you can tweak this accordingly.
Ensuring CEF and C++ runtime files are deployed with ClickOnce
Right click your project in Visual Studio and select "unload project".
Right click and select to edit the csproj file.
Before the closing </Project> tag add this
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)packages\CefSharp.Wpf.1.25.7\cef\**\*">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(ProjectDir)Lib\Microsoft.VC110.CRT\**\*">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
That will add everything from the cef folder into the project and make sure the C++ binaries are copied to the root of the project on deployment. In my case for CEF, I'm using the \**\* syntax at the end of the Include and %(RecursiveDir) to ensure all of the files are copied as well as the locales folder with its contents and structure preserved. Having set <Visible>false</Visible> you won't see the items in the solution explorer.
Relax
Now if you publish your app, it should copy over all of the required files and folders.
You could try this which solved a similar issue for me:
Add the DLL's that are not .NET libraries to the solution as files:
Right click project > Add > Existing Item
Then set their build action to Content and "Copy to output directory" to "Copy Always".
That way the libraries will be included in the output directory.
Since you already tried manually adding the suspect dll and it still does not work, the next thing I would do is run fusion and see what it really is complaining about, in other words what exactly is the dependency that can not be loaded. Here is a good tutorial on how to hunt down these types of errors:
Back to Basics: Using Fusion Log Viewer to Debug Obscure Loader Errors
Maybe you can work it out from the https://github.com/Code52/DownmarkerWPF sources?
They have at least a working ClickOnce installer for their app embedding CefSharp. I know because that's the way it got installed on my machine!
update just saw in comments that it's the VC Redist that you say you are missing then Distributing the Visual C++ Runtime Libraries (MSVCRT) seems relevant.
Also I seem to remember something vaguely about that for "VCRedist reasons" you are not supposed to distribute debug versions of your application. Can't you just switch from a Debug to a Release version? With this I think you can either bundle the needed VCRedist files as suggested in the CefSharp FAQ or add VCRedist as a prerequisite in your installer. DownmarkerWPF does it with their WIX installer setup which you can find on a branch in their GitHub repo. Something similar is AFAIK possible with the VStudio bundled installer if that's what you use.
Thanks to Barrie's answer to this, it helped me greatly. I'm using his answer below, but updating it to work for the latest CEF using Visual Studio 2015.
NOTE: I am only building/targeting the x86 platform. You may need to change or include x64 in the copy commands below to suit your needs.
Installing CefSharp
Install CefSharp.Wpf through NuGet (I'm using v51.0.0)
NuGet Library After Install
That should put the relevant files in
$(SolutionDir)packages\CefSharp.Wpf.51.0.0\CefSharp (CefSharp.Wpf)
$(SolutionDir)packages\CefSharp.Common.51.0.0\CefSharp (CefSharp.Common)
$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF (Cef x86 redist)
$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x64.3.2704.1432\CEF (Cef x64 redist)
Configuring Build
To get the CefSharp DLLs to copy to our build folders... I don't believe this is necessary anymore with the later versions of CefSharp. I found that I didn't need any of the "Post-build event command-line" xcopy stuff to get Click-Once to ship it out. (And yes, DevTools works too!)
Taking care of Visual C++ 2012 Runtime Files
(Switched to VCR 2013) I didn't want the user to have to download the whole Visual C++ 2013 Runtime Files as part of the deployment, so through Visual Studio, add the folder lib\Microsoft.VC120.CRT and add the 3 DLLs (msvcp110.dll, msvcr110.dll, vccorlib110.dll) from the following folder on your machine to the folder you just created in your project:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64
(Didn't see them in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\redist)
At this point, everything should be building. To publish the app with ClickOnce, we need it to push all of the CEF DLLs. You can tweak this accordingly...
Ensuring CEF and C++ runtime files are deployed with ClickOnce
Right click your project in Visual Studio and select "unload project".
Right click and select to edit the csproj file.
Before the closing tag add the following:
<!-- BEGIN: CUSTOM ITEM GROUP INCLUDES INTO THE PROJECT (SO CLICK-ONCE PUBLISHES THEM) -->
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF\**\*" Exclude="$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF\x86\**\*;$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF\locales\**\*.pak">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF\**\en-GB.*;$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF\**\en-US.*">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)packages\cef.redist.x86.3.2704.1432\CEF\x86\**\*">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)packages\CefSharp.Common.51.0.0\CefSharp\x86\**\CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.*">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(ProjectDir)lib\Microsoft.VC120.CRT\**\*">
<Link>%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<!-- END: CUSTOM ITEM GROUP INCLUDES INTO THE PROJECT (SO CLICK-ONCE PUBLISHES THEM) -->
That will add everything from the cef folder into the project and make sure the C++ binaries are copied to the root of the project on deployment. Having set false you won't see the items in the solution explorer.
REMEMBER: I am only building/targeting the x86 platform. You may need to change or include x64 in the copy commands below to suit your needs.
Publish
Now if you publish your app, it should copy over all of the required files and folders.
(EXTRA INFO) Supporting Older Operating Systems Info Below
If you need to use CefSharp for older machines (XP & Vista), simply
install CefSharp.Wpf through NuGet using the older v47.0.0 version and change your .NET targeting to .NET 4.0 Client Profile.
Chromium ended support for XP and Vista in April 2016, CefSharp version 47 (or there abouts) still had support for it.
Another note on a problem and fix for XP:
There is a Chromium issue for XP deployments. Below is the article describing the fix followed by steps to deploy fix for JBCB.
Here's the link to the article:
https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef/issues/1787
...in it you'll see a reference to download a "dbghelp.dll". Download and extract.
YOU CAN TAKE A POST-INSTALL APPROACH LIKE BELOW OR CHOOSE TO INCLUDE THE DLL ALONG WITH YOUR OTHER PUBLISHED FILES. I'M CHOOSING NOT TO DEPLOY THE EXTRA DLL AND ONLY DEPLOY ON XP MACHINES (WE ONLY HAVE FEW) MANUALLY.
Take these steps to fix deployment on an XP machine:
Install the CefSharp Browser on the XP machine (via Click-Once)
Copy the "dbghelp.dll"
Paste it in the local install directory on the XP machine (per the instructions in previous link: along side the "libcef.dll" file).
NOTE: For click-once installs, will be in a sub-folder under this location:
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Apps\2.0\<auto-gen ostificated ID>
Read very carefully the official list of CefSharp dependencies - there are a lot of them! You need to get them all into the ClickOnce bin folder somehow.
Here is how I solved it:
Before deploying, install the latest version of Visual C++ Redistributable. on each PC you are deploying to (using group policy or just manually).
Start with a blank test project.
Add project references to CefSharp, CefSharp.Core, etc.
Add each dependency into a single folder in the project directory to keep them organised (Files\CefSharp\).
Ensure all files are configured with Build Action: Content, and Copy to Output Dir: Copy always.
Make a function Initalise_CefSharpFiles() to copy the files/folders into the bin root folder (where CefSharp looks for them). For example, copy from: Bin\Files\CefSharp\* to: Bin\*.
And finally at run time, call Initalise_CefSharpFiles() once after the app loads, and before initialising CefSharp's settings.
I am building a class library. This library will be deployed to the GAC.
In my library, I have references to some external dependencies. The dependencies cannot be deployed to the GAC.
When I deploy my library, and use it, it complains that it can't load the dependencies.
How do I deploy the third-party DLLs so my assembly can reference them?
To add an assembly to the GAC, you don't need to have all the references of that assembly into the GAC as well. So as long as the application that is using your assembly can find all the references it is no problem.
So either deploy all the assemblies privately (in the same folder as the application) or deploy them into that GAC and deploy only that exchange assembly privately.
UPDATE
The same rules apply if you're not the one building the application, but are just providing a library.
There is no way you can have another central folder which acts like the GAC but is not the GAC.
The users of your library should deploy at least that assembly privately with their application. That is no problem if you just provide the library and the users of your library do the deployment.
You can't provide an installer and have all applications use your library without at least requiring them to provide that assembly with the application. Usually that is not a problem for a .Net application. Not using the GAC makes installing basically 'xcopy deployment'.
Of course the other solution would be not depending on that assembly.
Unfortunately, due to issues with Azure's lack of EF 5 spatial support, I need to include the relevant DLL myself: related link
Once I included the SqlServerSpatial.dll I was able to complete successfully deploy by using the Publish tool inside of Visual Studio.
However, when I try to use the Github -> Azure deployment with the relevant DLLs being available in the github repro, the deployment fails with the message:
The process cannot access the file 'C:\DWASFiles\Sites\<my app name>\VirtualDirectory0
\site\wwwroot\bin\SqlServerSpatial.dll' because it is being used by another process.
I'm not really sure how to troubleshoot from here and could use some help. Thanks!
use nuget package manager instead of adding the dll and pushing dlls using git.
PM> Install-Package Microsoft.SqlServer.Types
Ignore the bin folder from git by adding bin/ in .gitignore file
usually adding dlls in source control causing issues and its not a good behavior.