Dll not copying to bin folder

Question

I'm having an issue with Devart DLLs not getting copied to the bin folder of my web app. I have my web app project that references projectA. ProjectA references projectB. The Devart Dlls are used in projectB and are not being copied into the web app projects bin folder during a build. ProjectB also references EL Unity dlls and they are being copied correctly. All of the Dlls in question are physically located in a folder in projectB and that is where the reference point. (I don't have the references pointing to the GAC)

The dlls that copy correctly are Microsoft.Practices.Unity, Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Configuration and Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.

The dlls that are not being copied correctly are Devart.Data, Devart.Data.Oracle and Devart.Data.Oracle.Design.

Here's the references for each dll...

<Reference Include="Devart.Data, Version=5.0.124.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=09af7300eec23701, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <HintPath>..\Dtn.PetroDex.Dal\ThirdPartyDlls\Devart.Data.dll</HintPath>
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <Private>True</Private>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Devart.Data.Oracle, Version=5.70.170.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=09af7300eec23701, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\Dtn.PetroDex.Dal\ThirdPartyDlls\Devart.Data.Oracle.dll</HintPath>
  <Private>True</Private>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Devart.Data.Oracle.Design, Version=5.70.170.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=09af7300eec23701, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\Dtn.PetroDex.Dal\ThirdPartyDlls\Devart.Data.Oracle.Design.dll</HintPath>
  <Private>True</Private>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <HintPath>..\Dtn.PetroDex.Dal\ThirdPartyDlls\Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.dll</HintPath>
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <Private>True</Private>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Microsoft.Practices.Unity, Version=2.0.414.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <HintPath>..\Dtn.PetroDex.Dal\ThirdPartyDlls\Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll</HintPath>
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <Private>True</Private>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Configuration, Version=2.0.414.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <HintPath>..\Dtn.PetroDex.Dal\ThirdPartyDlls\Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Configuration.dll</HintPath>
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <Private>True</Private>
</Reference>

Anyone else having this issue? Am I doing this wrong? Thanks

EDIT I opened a file monitor and watched where visual studio was loading the reference and for Unity it was getting the dlls from the location I specified. But, for the Devart dlls it's looking in the GAC! Could the Devart dlls be causing this somehow?

Answer 1

1. right click on the referenced dlls and check if copy local is true.
2. you can also try readding your references once, this had resolved a similar problem for me when i had converted a VS2005 project to VS2008 project.

Answer 2

If these DLLs are in a sub-directory for project B, make sure the "Copy Local" property for each reference is set to true.

Also, if the DLL files are included as files in your project, check the visual studio properties for the files themselves. The "Build Action" should be set to "None" and the "Copy to Output Directory" should be set to "Do not copy". EDIT: Simply having them as references with copy local = true will take care of the copying.

If these settings are different for the different DLLS, that could explain why some are being copied into the bin folder and others are not.