Extracting `dll` files from the Resources after they been added using CodeDOM in VB.Net - vb.net

Question

I'v seen a lot of answers here on stackoverflow, but none of them help me with exactly what i need and almost all of them in C# when i need VB, so i hope someone will help me with my problem, which is this :
I have compiled a exe file in vb.net using CodeDOM, and i added two dll file to its resources and that worked just fine and you can even notice that the size of the exe has increase after adding the resources, but when i run the exe file like that My.Resources.Touchless, it gives me an error saying that
"Resources" is not a member of "My".
And what i need is to read these dll files from the compiled exe file and then extract them using File.WriteAllBytes()..., if i didn't try to extract the files from the resources and instead of that i copied them manually to the executable path, the application will work perfectly, so the problem is just with trying to call the dll files from the resources.
Here is some code :
Public Shared Function Compile(ByVal Output As String, ByVal Source As String, ByVal Icon As String, ByVal resources As String) As Boolean
Dim Parameters As New CompilerParameters()
Dim cResults As CompilerResults = Nothing
Dim Compiler As CodeDomProvider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("VB")
Parameters.GenerateExecutable = True
Parameters.TreatWarningsAsErrors = False
Parameters.OutputAssembly = Output
Parameters.MainClass = "MyNamespace.MainWindow"
Parameters.EmbeddedResources.Add(Path.GetTempPath & "TouchlessLib.dll")
Parameters.EmbeddedResources.Add(Path.GetTempPath & "WebCamLib.dll")
Parameters.ReferencedAssemblies.AddRange(New String() {"System.dll", "System.Drawing.dll", "System.Windows.Forms.dll", "System.Management.dll", Path.GetTempPath & "TouchlessLib.dll"})
Parameters.CompilerOptions = "/platform:x86 /target:winexe"
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(Icon) Then
File.Copy(Icon, "icon.ico")
Parameters.CompilerOptions += " /win32icon:" & "icon.ico"
End If
cResults = Compiler.CompileAssemblyFromSource(Parameters, Source)
If cResults.Errors.Count > 0 Then
For Each compile_error As CompilerError In cResults.Errors
Dim [error] As CompilerError = compile_error
Console.Beep()
MsgBox("Error: " & [error].ErrorText & vbCr & vbLf & [error].Line)
Next
Return False
End If
If Not (String.IsNullOrEmpty(Icon)) Then
File.Delete("icon.ico")
End If
Return True
End Function
When i call them from the compiled exe file like this :
File.WriteAllBytes(Application.StartupPath & "\TouchlessLib.dll", My.Resources.TouchlessLib)
File.WriteAllBytes(Application.StartupPath & "\WebCamLib.dll", My.Resources.WebCamLib)
... i get the following error message :
"Resources" is not a member of "My".

Answer 1

Try adding this class:
Imports System.Dynamic
Imports System.Reflection
Public Class DynamicResources
Inherits DynamicObject
Public Overrides Function TryGetMember(binder As GetMemberBinder, ByRef result As Object) As Boolean
Dim asm As Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
Dim resouceNames As String() = asm.GetManifestResourceNames
For Each s As String In resouceNames
Dim name As String = IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(s)
Dim Manager As New Resources.ResourceManager(name, asm)
Try
Dim resource = Manager.GetObject(binder.Name)
If Not resource Is Nothing Then
result = resource
Return True
End If
Catch ex As Exception
End Try
Next
Return False
End Function
End Class
You can use it like this:
Dim root as string=Application.StartupPath
File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(root, "TouchlessLib.dll"), DynamicResources.TouchlessLib)
File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(root, "WebCamLib.dll"), DynamicResources.WebCamLib)

Answer 2

The My namespace and any associated functionality is created via auto-generated code. Since your code is now the code generator and not the IDE, you will not have those niceties unless your code provides it.
To extract an embedded resource, you need to include code similar to the following in the source code you are compiling with CodeDOM.
Dim asm As Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
Dim resouceNames As String() = asm.GetManifestResourceNames
For Each s As String In resouceNames
Dim fi As New FileInfo(s)
Using strm As Stream = asm.GetManifestResourceStream(s)
Using fs As Stream = fi.Create()
strm.CopyTo(fs)
End Using
End Using
Next
Make sure that you also include:
Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO
This code retrieves the executing Assembly obtains an array of embedded resource names. It then calls GetManifestResourceStream method to get the named resource as a stream. This stream is copied to a file stream.
Modify the example to suite your needs.
Note that I have not included any error checking/handling in this example. Anything dealing with IO should have some error handling.
Edit:
Based on the comment below, it appears that only a copy/paste type answer will do for the OP.
Dim asm As Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
Dim resourceName As String
Dim fi As FileInfo
resourceName = "TouchlessLib.dll"
fi = New FileInfo(Path.Combine(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, resourceName))
Using strm As Stream = asm.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName)
Using fs As Stream = fi.Create()
strm.CopyTo(fs)
End Using
End Using