Question

I am making an application which is almost done but there is one thing that is bugging me. There are about 12-13 files that must be in the directory of the folder (some .dlls, some .xml files etc.) for the application to run, and I want to make my application as compact as possible, meaning I want as fewer files to go with the application. So my question is, how can I do this? Can all the files be included in the application itself? Is it necessary for the .dlls to be in the application folder or can I reference them from somewhere else? I was thinking to make a folder for all those files but I don’t think my application will run if a .dll file isn’t placed in the same directory as the application.

Answer 1

How to embed and access resources by using Visual C# looks like just what you need.
[edit]
If you want to load DLLs, you can combine the above with the AppDomain.AssemblyResolve event SLaks mentions like this:

using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;

namespace ConsoleApplication3
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        AppDomain currentDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain;
        currentDomain.AssemblyResolve += 
                new ResolveEventHandler(MyResolveEventHandler);
        var myWrappedClass1 = 
            currentDomain.CreateInstance(
                    "ConsoleApplication3.ClassLibrary1.dll", 
                    "ClassLibrary1.Class1");
        var myClass1 = myWrappedClass1.Unwrap();
        Console.WriteLine(myClass1.GetType().InvokeMember(
                    "Add", 
                    BindingFlags.Default | BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, 
                    null,
                    myClass1, 
                    new object[] { 1, 1 }));
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static Assembly MyResolveEventHandler(
            object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
    {
        Assembly currentAssembly=null;
        Stream dllStream;
        try
        {
            currentAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
            dllStream = 
                    currentAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(args.Name);
            var length = (int)dllStream.Length;
            var dllByteArray = new byte[length];
            int bytesRead;
            int offset = 0;
            while ((bytesRead = dllStream.Read(
                                    dllByteArray, 
                                    offset, 
                                    dllByteArray.Length - offset)) 
                    > 0)
                offset += bytesRead;
            return Assembly.Load(dllByteArray);
        }
        catch
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Error accessing resources!");
        }
        return null;
    }
  }
}

where Class1 is a class library containing just:

namespace ClassLibrary1
{
    public class Class1
    {
        public int Add(int x, int y)
        {
            return x + y;
        }
    }
}

and the DLL is added as an Embedded Resource to the file: