ClickOnce deployment problem

Question

I'm having a problem deploying a click once application. I'm using VS 2008. I have a reference dll that is not being deployed.

In the project properties -> publish tab -> Appication Files

The referenced dll does not appearso I can't add it.

The dll is not used directly in my code- however it is used by another dll that I reference.

Is there a way I can manually edit something to ensure the dll is copied over?

Might be worth mentioning that the dll is a third party dll from devExpress: DevExpress.XtraPrinting.dll I think it may be loaded as a plugin by one of the other DevExpress dlls.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I know this problem rather well and there a few things to do to fix it:

1. Add a reference to the DevExpress.XtraPrinting.dll dll in you project.
2. In the references section set the DevExpress.XtraPrinting.dll to Copy Local = true (this seems to help VS remember the dll more)

3. To force VS to know that you need this dll you will need to use it. This can be done by instantiating an instance of ExportOptions or some similar object. e.g.

   var options = new ExportOptions(); options.Html.Title = "some text";

4. Now make sure to forcefully set the Publish Status to "Include" in the ApplicationFiles section of the Publish tab.

That should solve your problem.

Answer 2

Add the 3rd party dll to your project (right-click on project, add existing item...). Set build action to none, set 'copy to output directory' to 'do not copy'. Delete your reference to that dll. Re-add the reference, and browse to that dll IN your project and select it. On the reference, set 'copy local' to 'true'. NOW it should show up in application files because your code references a local copy, and it is set to deploy it.

Note that this doesn't work for all assemblies, some just MUST be installed in the GAC. But it's free to try. If it has to be in the GAC, it will tell you when you try to install it.

Answer 3

Thanks for the replies - however I found that manually editing the csproj file worked for me. For anyone else with this problem you may need to add your dll that you want deployed like this:

<PublishFile Include="DevExpress.XtraPrinting.v9.3">
  <Visible>False</Visible>
  <Group>
  </Group>
  <TargetPath>
  </TargetPath>
  <PublishState>Include</PublishState>
  <IncludeHash>True</IncludeHash>
  <FileType>Assembly</FileType>
</PublishFile>

Also ensure you have this in your references section:

<Reference Include="DevExpress.XtraPrinting.v9.3, Version=9.3.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\SomePath\DevExpress.XtraPrinting.v9.3.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

I'd also like to point out that RobinDotNet's solution also works.