Question

I have a .dll I’m trying to embed as a resource inside an executable. The following two questions are somewhat helpful, but are not a full help:

Embedding assemblies inside another assembly

This doesn’t seem to work as written; the args.Name cannot be used as written, but even if it’s fixed, the program still complains of a missing .dll, indicating that the assembly is not properly loaded.

Embedding DLLs in a compiled executable

and the link in one of the answers of:

http://codeblog.larsholm.net/2011/06/embed-dlls-easily-in-a-net-assembly/

However, there is no “App.xaml*” file in my project of any sort – I’m not using WPF; I’m using WinForms for my executable (changing isn’t really an option, due to the nature of the executable).

I’m therefore looking for a complete set of instructions for embedding a class library in an executable as a resource and loading that .dll from the resource, without needing a .dll file outside of the embedded resource.

For example, would it be practical to simply add an “App.xaml” file to a WinForms project, or would there be negative interactions I’m not aware of?

Thanks.

Edit: This is what I’m currently using:

/// <summary>
/// Stores the very few things that need to be global.
/// </summary>
static class AssemblyResolver
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Call in the static constructor of the startup class.
    /// </summary>
    public static void Initialize( )
    {
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve +=
            new ResolveEventHandler( Resolver ) ;
    }


    /// <summary>
    /// Use this to resolve assemblies.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="sender"></param>
    /// <param name="args"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static Assembly Resolver( object sender, ResolveEventArgs args )
    {
        Assembly executingAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly( ) ;
        if ( args.Name == null )
            throw new NullReferenceException(
                "Item name is null and could not be resolved."
            ) ;
        if ( !executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceNames().Contains( 
                "Many_Objects_Display.Resources." +
                new AssemblyName( args.Name ).Name.Replace( ".resources", ".dll" ) )
            )
            throw new ArgumentException( "Resource name does not exist." ) ;

        Stream resourceStream =
            executingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(
                "Many_Objects_Display.Resources." +
                new AssemblyName( args.Name ).Name.Replace( ".resources", ".dll" )
            ) ;
        if ( resourceStream == null )
            throw new NullReferenceException( "Resource stream is null." ) ;
        if ( resourceStream.Length >  104857600)
            throw new ArgumentException(
                "Exceedingly long resource - greater than 100 MB. Aborting..."
            ) ;

        byte[] block = new byte[ resourceStream.Length ] ;
        resourceStream.Read( block, 0, block.Length ) ;

        Assembly resourceAssembly = Assembly.Load( block ) ;
        if ( resourceAssembly == null )
            throw new NullReferenceException( "Assembly is a null value." ) ;
        return resourceAssembly ;
    }
}

Answer 1

You need to put the code in your main entry point. Something like this:

class Program
{
  static Program()
  {
     AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
  }

  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    // what was here is the same
  }

  static System.Reflection.Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
  {
      // the rest of sample code
  }

}

You can’t just add an App.xaml file to a windows forms application.

Also that sample code for CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve is bizarre, I would try this code first. I haven’t tested it but it looks more like the code I’ve used before.