I'm using VS.NET 2010 integrated shell with F# and I'm trying to consume a soap web service... How do I go about generating F# source? I tried
wsdl l:"C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharpPowerPack-2.0.0.0\bin\FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.dll" http://localhost/?wsdl
Along with
wsdl /language:"Microsoft.FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.FSharpCodeProvider, Microsoft.FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom, Version=1.9.2.9, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a19089b1c74d0809"
However I can't seem to get the /language switch to work.
EDIT:
taspeotis' answer got me going... This generated F# source for the web service:
gacutil -i "C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharpPowerPack-2.0.0.0\bin\FSharp.PowerPack.dll"
svcutil /language:"Microsoft.FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.FSharpCodeProvider, FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a19089b1c74d0809" http://localhost/?wsdl
Have you added FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.dll to the GAC? Use gacutil.exe to do this.
3rd party edit
Here an example gacutil.exe /l System.XML.Linq to list certain assemblies.
Besides to FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom (source) an alternative might be the FSharp.Data library
Quote from jizugu: This generated F# source for the web service:
gacutil -i
"C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharpPowerPack-2.0.0.0\bin\FSharp.PowerPack.dll"
svcutil
/language:"Microsoft.FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.FSharpCodeProvider
,FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral
,PublicKeyToken=a19089b1c74d0809" http://localhost/?wsdl
This doesn't answer your question, but you may have better luck generating C#, compiling that C# into a library DLL, and referencing that DLL from your F# code. (The C# compiler csc.exe will be part of your .NET installation.)
I would be surprised if the F# Code DOM provider worked with WSDL. I wrote the initial implementation some time ago while at Microsoft and we got it to work with ASP.NET, but unless it has been improved since then, it probably won't work with WSDL or XSD.
Even for ASP.NET, we had to create a separate class that included some ASP.NET specific "hacks". This was partly because the CodeDOM generated by ASP.NET was invalid (in a way) and because the CodeDOM structure is not quite compatible with F#. If you really need to get this to work, you may have to add similar hacks (by modifying the source from CodePlex)
I tink that a safer approach is to include a small C# library project that generates the reference for you or invoking the C# compiler using csc.exe as Brian suggests.
Related
I have a dotnet core library, a framework 4.7.2 library and a vb6 application.
I want to write a common library for them all to access and so choose .netstandard2.0
I tried a the 4.7.2 framework wrapper library between .netstandard2.0 library and vb6.
However I ran into assembly binding problems
Looking at the docs I see
In .NET Core, the process for exposing your .NET objects to COM has been significantly streamlined in comparison to .NET Framework.
However no mention .netstandard2.0
I decided to try following the docs anyway even though my project is using .netstandard2.0
I got up to the instructions on Generating the COM Host in which case the output files ProjectName.dll, ProjectName.deps.json, ProjectName.runtimeconfig.json and ProjectName.comhost.dll should build.
However the ProjectName.comhost.dll and ProjectName.runtimeconfig.json do not create.
I see in this dotnet standard issue that Microsoft plans on having tooling support in "Preview 4"
I am running VS 16.4.5
[Update]
I decided to try making a .net core wrapper library and enabling it for com.
I was able to add my .netstandard to the wrapper library via a nuget package (I build the .netstandard library using azure devops)
When I build my wrapper library the .dll, .deps.json, .pdb, .runtimeconfig.dev.json and .runtimeconfig.json files are created in a bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1 folder.
However none of the .netstandard library files appear in the bin\debug folder.
I copied the .netstandard library and the .netcore wrapper libraries to the same folder and ran
regsvr32 MyCoreComWrapper.comhost.dll
However no .tlb file is created which I need to be able to use from VB6
I note the following in the docs
Unlike in .NET Framework, there is no support in .NET Core for
generating a COM Type Library (TLB) from a .NET Core assembly. The
guidance is to either manually write an IDL file or a C/C++ header for
the native declarations of the COM interfaces.
I found some information on github but would love a step by step guide to making the .tlb
I thought about using latebinding instead but am unsure of how to use it with a com library.
[Update]
I put a sample project on GitHub including some VB6 files.
With VB6 referencing the .tlb referenced with the framework library.
When I try to run that I get
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore, Version=3.1.2.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=adb9793829ddae60' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
So I copied all the files from my framework test project to my vb6 folder, rebuilt and ran.
Then I got the error
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions, Version=3.1.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=adb9793829ddae60' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
I see the file Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.dll is present with File version 3.100.220.6706
Regarding the .NET standard, I may be wrong but I think this is not applicable here because the COM interop stuff are at a higher level than the one .NET standard is targeting; we can only talk about either .NET Core or .NET Framework for COM interop.
If you want to generate a type library, you have few options.
By far, the easiest method is just to use .NET Framework. The fact that you are wanting to create a type library negates the advantages of .NET Core already because several COM, especially the "Automation" features are Windows-only. Using framework will be fine at least until .NET Core 5 comes out.
That said, if you have a business reason for using .NET Core but still need COM support, including the type library, then based on this GitHub comment, you should be able to compile your own IDL. Note that requires you to install C++ build tools because the MIDL compiler is not really a standalone thing that you can get without the rest of the C++ build tools.
It is strongly suggested to have had read the documentation on how .NET Core handles COM activation.
Assuming having the C++ build tools is not a barrier for you, the steps would be the following:
1) Create a .idl file that defines all your COM interfaces in the IDL format. That requires some translation between the .NET interface and the COM interface. Here's a partial example of how you'd need to translate between your C# interface and COM interface as defined in IDL:
[
Guid("<some gooey>"),
InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsDual)
]
public interface IFoo
{
string Bar { get; }
string Baz(int Fizz);
}
Would be translated into IDL:
[
uuid(<assembly gooey>),
version(1.0)
]
library myFoo
{
[
uuid(<some gooey>),
object,
dual
]
interface IFoo : IDispatch {
[propget] HRESULT Bar([out, retval] BSTR* retVal);
HRESULT Baz([in] long Fizz, [out, retval] BSTR* retVal);
}
}
Once you've defined the .idl file and it is an accurate representation, you can then use MIDL to compile the .idl file into a .tlb file. Usually something like midl foo.idl /tlb: foo.tlb. You should make use of the MIDL language reference to help you write the .idl file. As a quick way to get started, you could copy your C# interfaces to a .NET framework project, use tlbexp, then use oleview (available via Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt) or olewoo to view the resulting IDL file to get you started.
The next step is to then create registry keys so that your CLSID can reference the type library. You will need to have your assembly's GUID handy and it must be used as the library's uuid in the .idl file as well.
Using IFoo interface example, you would need to create the registry similar to below (using .reg format for easy sharing/comprehension and assuming per-user installation, rather than per-machine):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Interface\{<some gooey>}]
#="IFoo"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Interface\{<some gooey>}\ProxyStubClsid32]
#="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Interface\{<some gooey>}\TypeLib]
#="{assembly gooey}"
"Version"="1.0"
You will also need to create the registry in the CLSID, Interface, TypeLib, and Record as needed. This article provides a good overview of all registry keys but keep in mind it's assuming .NET framework, not .NET Core, so not all keys are applicable, especially under the CLSID branch.
Note that when you run the regsvr32, it will normally create the keys in the CLSID and Interface branches but you will need to add the TypeLib keys under the Interface's branch and also an entry to the TypeLib branch. You also will need to create the ProgId keys, too if you want to support CreateObject functionality.
Initially, you can start with just a .reg file that you can manually update & maintain but if you have several objects, then it becomes desirable to automate this. This can be also managed via the DllRegisterServer call so that when you execute regsvr32, it will take care of registering the keys. On the other hand, you're now polluting your codebase with registration code. Some elect to use installers to do the registry keys write instead.
I hope that helps you get started!
The issue is due to assembly binding resolution that fails when ran from VB6 (IDE or compiled .exe file).
Here are the steps to solve it:
Compile the VB project, for example, let's assume the compiled file is Project1.exe.
Copy all .NET assemblies (including x86 and x64 directories, and languages directory if localized version is important) aside the compiled VB6 file
Now run Project1.exe, you will get an error like this:
The error is clearly a mismatch between the version of your assemblies aside the Project1.exe file and the version of referenced assemblies (not references you've created yourself but reference embedded in these assemblies... ). You don't see that when you start a .NET program because resolution is a very complex process that depends on a lot of parameters (and it's not getting any better with .NET Core, Framework, Standard, nugets, etc.).
To futher check it's a mismatch error, you can also use the Fuslogvw.exe (Assembly Binding Log Viewer) tool from the SDK.
Now we know it's an assembly version mismatch issue, what you can do is create a file named Project1.exe.config aside Project1.exe and add assembly binding redirects to it.
The easiest way to configure it is to redirect all possible versions to the ones present in the directory that contains your program, so in your case (and as of today, as all these can evolve...), it would be something like this, possibly for every assembly you reference directly or indirectly:
<configuration>
<runtime>
<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
...
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions" publicKeyToken="adb9793829ddae60" />
<!-- 3.1.2.0 is the version of the assembly you ship -->
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-65535.65535.65535.65535" newVersion="3.1.2.0" />
</dependentAssembly>
...
</assemblyBinding>
</runtime>
</configuration>
Unfortunately, there are many satellite assemblies, and it's a bit tedious to create all redirects with correct information, so I've created a tool that creates a .config file with the redirects configured automatically for all .NET assemblies in a given directory: https://github.com/smourier/BindingRedirectGenerator.
If you want it to work for the VB6 IDE too, you'll have to use the same procedure in a VB6.exe.config file aside VB6.exe.
A reminder to myself
Use a demo UI to access the original DLL to confirm the call works. ( if you can't get it to work skip to making the App.Config for the unit test project using BindingRedirectGenerator )
Add a unit test in the com visible project to confirm the
call works.
Copy all the dlls created by both projects to the
release folder
For each com visible dll run as Administrator
c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319\regasm /verbose /codebase /tlb:MyLibrary.tlb c:\myproject\releasedlls\MyLibrary.dll
Install BindingRedirectGenerator to c:\brg say
At the command prompt change directory to c:\brg
BindingRedirectGenerator c:\myproject\releasedlls App.config
Rename App.config to MyVB6Project.exe.config and copy it to the same folder as MyVB6Project.exe
Remember to set up the files for the vb6.exe folder if you want to run it in the vb6 ide
Put the whole process in a script for future use ( I used a .bat)
Keep an eye on what nuget has put in app.config
Pay attention to the yellow warnings at build time!
I have four assemblies (plus the .NET 3.5 system.core) that I am installing as unsafe CLR assemblies in a SQL Server 2005 database. Installing the assemblies in the correct order (based on their dependencies) works fine, and I am able to use the CLR functions I need. If possible, I would like to use ILMerge on the four assemblies so that I can install just one DLL. Only one assembly is directly referenced from the SQL side anyway; the others are dependencies. It happens that one of those four assemblies is an XmlSerializer assembly generated with sgen, which is required because the SQL Server CLR will not allow the serializer to be created at runtime.
In the following discussion, the assemblies are called:
ClrIntegration.dll (this is a CLR library in Visual Studio 2008 and is the only library actually referenced from SQL)
CalcLibrary.dll (this is just a .NET 3.5 library that ClrIntegration.dll uses)
CalcLibrary.Schema.dll (this is a .NET 3.5 library whose code is generated entirely by running xsd.exe on two .xsd files -- CalcLibrary.dll uses this library)
CalcLibrary.Schema.XmlSerializers.dll (this is generated by running sgen on CalcLibrary.Schema and is used automatically by an XmlSerializer in CalcLibrary.dll)
To my knowledge, it is not possible to reference the version of CalcLibrary.dll that is in my VS2008 solution directly from the ClrIntegration project. Instead, I have to install CalcLibrary.dll on a running SQL Server 2005 instance and add it as a database reference to the ClrIntegration project. This is a nuisance, but I've made it work so far.
The basic command line I am using as a post-build event in the ClrIntegration project is:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\ILMerge\ILMerge.exe" /targetplatform:v2 /out:ClrMergedAssembly.dll \
"$(TargetDir)ClrIntegration.dll" \
"$(SolutionDir)Source\CalcLibrary\$(OutDir)CalcLibrary.dll" \
"$(SolutionDir)Source\CalcLibrary.Schema\$(OutDir)CalcLibrary.Schema.dll" \
"$(SolutionDir)Source\CalcLibrary.Schema\$(OutDir)CalcLibrary.Schema.XmlSerializers.dll"
I'm running into a few problems here.
If I just run ILMerge as shown above, it works, and I get ClrMergedAssembly.dll. I can install ClrMergedAssembly.dll on SQL Server 2005, but when I try to use it, anything that uses XmlSerializer gives me an error like:
A .NET Framework error occurred during execution of user-defined routine or aggregate "Whatever":
System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot load dynamically generated serialization assembly. In some hosting environments assembly load functionality is restricted, consider using pre-generated serializer.
This is the same error I get when not generating the XmlSerializer at all. I found this excellent blog entry stating that sgen needs to be run again after ILMerge, but doing so creates two problems. First, I really need sgen to be run only on CalcLibrary.Schema.dll. Running it on the whole assembly will fail badly; in fact, that is why CalcLibrary.Schema is separate from CalcLibrary in the first place. Second, having the serializer be separate somewhat defeats the purpose of using ILMerge at all: I want just one DLL to deploy. Are there any solutions here?
The ILMerge.doc file that comes with the ILMerge installation seems to suggest that adding /union and/or /closed might solve some problems. But, using either /union alone or /union along with /closed causes ILMerge to fail with the following error:
An exception occurred during merging:
Unresolved assembly reference not allowed: CalcLibrary.
A stack trace follows the error. My suspicion is that, because ClrIntegration must reference the database version of CalcLibrary rather than the VS2008 solution's version, ILMerge cannot find the type and, therefore, cannot complete the union even though CalcLibrary.dll is the same library. Is my suspicion correct? Is there any way around this issue?
You can't. The framework code always looks for the sgen generated classes in a different assembly - the one named with .XmlSerializers suffix - and it is hardcoded in the framework. Check with your decompilation tool of choice.
I am trying to set up communication between Centura and a COM .dll. (Downloaded from http://download.resip.fr for a database import)
Centura requires a .tlb file to be able to communicate to this component. Normally I would use regasm /tlb to generate the .tlb but seeing as it is a COM .dll this is not possible.
I found that I could use tlbexp for .NET dll's: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hfzzah2c(v=vs.80).aspx
I tried this out, knowing it would probably fail (as I have COM .dll). I received this error:
TlbExp : error TX0000 : Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Windows\system32\ResipBcb.dll' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.
Using Dependency Walker I noticed two .dll's missing. I found ieshims.dll online but I can't find the wer.dll. See this question.
I don't know if the tlbexp failure has anything to do with this file that is missing?
To sum up, my question is:
How do I get a .tlb from this .dll? I can't seem to find any way to extract the .tlb out of this COM .dll.
Best regards
Clint Cambier
What you are trying to do only works for .NET assemblies, not native COM servers. The type library for them is almost always embedded inside the DLL. In Visual Studio, use File + Open + File and select the DLL. Open the "TYPELIB" node, right-click the resource (usually 1), Export. Save it to, say, a project directory, use the .tlb filename extension.
TblExp and regasm are only valid on .NET assemblies, what you have is most likely a standard non .NET COM DLL. So neither of those two commands are valid on this DLL.
Standard COM objects are registered using regsvr32. Try running that against your DLL and see if it registers correctly. If it does you should see it listed in Centura's ActiveX explorer.
I always recieve the above error when I generate a proxy class for my service using SvcUtil. The service is exposing a property that is of System.Xml.Linq.XElement type. The SvcUtil generates a System.Xml.XmlElement type property unfortunately. On the other hand if I'm using Add Reference in VS to generate the proxy class, everything's ok. I tried the latest 4.0 version of SvcUtil from the NETFX 4.0 Tools folder, but still with no luck.
In case anyone is still looking, like I was, the answer is here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wcf/thread/42dbe820-3f59-4662-9664-83999e1746c0
Yaron Naveh suggests adding a /reference argument to SvcUtil.exe.
svcutil /reference:"c:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Xml.Linq.dll" http://localhost...
My Problem: I am using Matlab COM Automation Server to call and execute matlab .m files from a VB.Net plugin for a CAD program called Rhino 3D. The code works flawlessly when set up as a simple Windows Application in Visual Studio, but when I insert it (and make the requisite reference) into my .Net plugin and test it in the CAD program I get the following error:
"Could not load file or assembly 'Interop.MLApp, Version 1.0.0.0,
culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies.
the system cannot find the file specified."
What I've Tried: I am baffled as to why this occurs, but I was able to contact the CAD program's technical support staff and they suggested that it has something to do with their DotNet SDK having trouble with references that are located far outside the CAD program directory. They didn't have any solutions so I tried playing around with copylocal and this made no difference. I tried using other COM libraries and the Open Office automation server works fine, although uses url's instead of requiring a reference. I also tested Excel, which does require a reference, and it returned the error: "retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {...} failed due to the following error: 80040154." This may or may not be related to the issue with the Matlab COM reference, but I thought was worthwhile to share. Perhaps is there another way to reference Interop.MLApp?
I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts on how I might make the Matlab Interop.MLApp reference work.
Best regards,
Ben
Try moving the assembly file(s) for MLApp into the bin directory. Based on everything I've read, this seems to be a glitch of some sort during the generation of the assembly binding where all the assemblies are merged together and their locations are assumed. I've included some links where I gleaned a bit of information about it.
http://blogs.msdn.com/isha/archive/2009/04/04/issues-with-wcf-service-when-the-asp-net-website-is-deployed-using-the-web-deployment-project-and-as-non-updatable-project.aspx
ttp://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/netfxremoting/thread/30df57a8-2a57-4f9f-a120-30c24bc11681
ttp://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/netfxremoting/thread/30df57a8-2a57-4f9f-a120-30c24bc11681
ttp://www.sitefinity.com/support/forums/sitefinity-3-x/bugs-issues/cannot-load-file-or-assembly-error.aspx
ttp://forums.asp.net/t/986130.aspx?PageIndex=8
ttp://stackoverflow.com/questions/408002/could-not-load-file-or-assembly-xxxx-or-one-of-its-dependencies-the-system-can