Question

I wrote an add-in for Enterprise Architect. It’s a COM Object. This add-in uses some other project dll’s.

I created an installer which registers the Add-In’s dll. This class is in the add-in’s project, let’s call it MyProject.dll.

/// <summary>
/// Installer class for Enterprise Architect Add-In
/// </summary>
[RunInstaller(true)]
public class ComInstaller : Installer
{
    #region Public Methods

    public override void Install( System.Collections.IDictionary stateSaver )
    {
        base.Install( stateSaver );
        RegistrationServices regsrv = new RegistrationServices();
        if ( !regsrv.RegisterAssembly( GetType().Assembly, AssemblyRegistrationFlags.SetCodeBase ) )
        {
            throw new InstallException( "Failed to register type library for COM" );
        }            
    }

    public override void Uninstall( System.Collections.IDictionary savedState )
    {
        base.Uninstall( savedState );
        RegistrationServices regsrv = new RegistrationServices();
        if ( !regsrv.UnregisterAssembly( GetType().Assembly ) )
        {
            throw new InstallException("Failed to unregister type library for COM");
        }
    }

    #endregion
}

If the add-in runs, I can’t build my solution because access is denied. The add-in uses the MyProject.dll which is in the Debug folder instead of the installed one.

How can I solve this?

Thanks,
Maestro

Answer 1

This is how registration works. You can disable automatic registration at build:

Note that there is a way out of COM DLL hell with (Vista+?) manifest files:

• Generate manifest files for registration-free COM
• Avoid DLL Hell with Registration-free COM