Specifying the location of an assembly to II

Question

My ASP.NET application uses some 3rd assembly. What are my options to make the application load that assembly? Do I have to put it in the GAC? I don't want to modify the machine's PATH env variable...

Answer 1

You can put it into your application folder (best solution) or add a codebase tag in your web config like explained in this msdn entry:

<configuration>
 <runtime>
  <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
     <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="MyAssembly2"  culture="neutral" publicKeyToken="307041694a995978"/>
        <codeBase version="1.0.1524.23149" href="FILE://C:/Myassemblies/MyAssembly2.dll"/>
     </dependentAssembly>
  </assemblyBinding>
 </runtime>
</configuration>

Add it to the GAC only if you want to share that assembly.

Answer 2

Is your assembly strongly named?

You can either put it in the GAC or reference it in your web.config (using a <codeBase> element according to this MSDN article.

If not

The assembly has to live in the bin folder of your web application.