We're developing a C# application that references a few COM libraries (AutoIT for example).
I am including all referenced components under source control, in a 3rd party "Libs" folder.
The problem is that COM dll's don't have a HintPath property in the .csproj file, and i assume these must be manually registered using regsvr32 (or using a script of some sort).
I am currently looking into creating an MSBuild script that will run before every build, however i couldn't figure out if i should be manually calling regsvr32.exe or use some predefined MSBuild task?
Currently, this is what i've attmpted as a test:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<MyAssemblies Include="D:\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<RegisterAssembly
Assemblies="@(MyAssemblies)" >
</RegisterAssembly>
</Target>
</Project>
This generates errors that the DLLs i've placed in the given folder are not valid DLLs.
What is a good solution for this problem?
EDIT:
Projects that reference COM dlls have something similar to this in the .csproj file:
<COMReference Include="AutoItX3Lib">
<Guid>{F8937E53-D444-4E71-9275-35B64210CC3B}</Guid>
<VersionMajor>1</VersionMajor>
<VersionMinor>0</VersionMinor>
<Lcid>0</Lcid>
<WrapperTool>tlbimp</WrapperTool>
<Isolated>False</Isolated>
</COMReference>
This does not include any hint path as other managed assemblies, so on a build server, the referenced COM dll is not found.
When registering the COM dll on the build server using REGSVR32, the build succeeds.
For my original answer to a similar question see: TFS Build server and COM references - does this work?
A better option for build servers may be to use the COMFileReference
item in your project file instead of COMReference
. An example would look like this:
<ItemGroup>
<COMFileReference Include="MyComLibrary.dll">
<EmbedInteropTypes>True</EmbedInteropTypes>
</COMFileReference>
</ItemGroup>
The COM dll doesn't need to be registered on the machine for this to work.
Each COMFileReference item can also have a WrapperTool attribute but the default seems to work fine. The EmbedInteropTypes attribute is not documented as being applicable to COMFileReference, but it seems to work as intended.
See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-ca/visualstudio/msbuild/common-msbuild-project-items#comfilereference for a little more detail. This MSBuild item has been available since .NET 3.5.