Dynamic .dll loading - .NET

[Deeko]

I'm trying to find out how, in .NET/C#, to dynamically load a library. Basically, I want to be able to include or remove a .dll file from my product without recompiling. What's the simplest way to do this?

 

[InfiniteLurker]

Try this - MSDN

May or may not be what you're looking for, depending on what you're trying to do...

 

[Apathetic]

I think what you're looking for is in the "reflection" library of .NET.

Here's a cheesy console app I threw together. It makes in instance of a class and calls methods from it given only the name and path of the DLL.



Dave

 

[Deeko]

I think that's what I need, but I can't get it to work right.

When I try to call GetTypes(), I get an exception, it says not all types can be loaded. What could be causing this? The assmebly is loading, I can get its name and version number and all that...

thanks

 

[itachi]

assemblies of that sort are an attribute of the .net framework.. as is the GetTypes method. if you want to access the native binary from managed code.. you have to export the symbol when you're compiling the dll and import the symbol in your c# application (along with marshalling and unmarshalling the types).

// in exp.c
extern "C" void __declspec(dllexport) get_message(char *);

// in imp.cs
[DllImport(__DLL_NAME__[, CharSet=__CHARSET__[, EntryPoint=__SYMBOLNAME__[, CallingConvention=__CALLCONV__]]])]
extern void get_message([In, Out] String);