Can I create a single EXE in Microsoft Visual # 2010 Express when my applications is depending on Google Data API SDK?

Question

Hi everyone,

I have an application depending on the Google Data API SDK (which are .dll's).

When I publish the application (Debug > Build Solution), my EXE-file only works on another computer when I copy the references in the same directory which I have included in my Visual Studio project.

The application is querying my Google Calendar for the current event, so I want to be able to run it from a memory stick.

Is there a solution so I can include those DLL's in one single EXE (make it kind of portable?).

Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Most of the libraries Google provides are open-source and hosted on Google Code. This means you can download the source code and include it in the same project as the .exe project. That eliminates the need to have references to other dlls.

Here is the link to the .Net Google Code project. You'll need svn to check out the latest source code. The svn command is here:

svn checkout http://google-gdata.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ google-gdata-read-only

Answer 2

You could potentially use ilmerge to do this. However, I don't know what the ramifications of this are in terms of licensing, particularly if you're going to distribute the app.

I would personally vote for keeping them separate, and just deploying them next to each other (whether in an installer or on a memory stick).