C# references

Question

I have a C#.net 2008 desktop application that uses some third party software. Since the third party software venfor went out of, I can not ask them any questions about their code. Due to this fact, I have the following questions:

1. I know these third party components had to of been added as a reference. However, can you tell me if there is a way to tell how these third party components were added to the application? For example, could these components have been added as COM, .net components, and/or browse to a location?

2. If I want to remove any of these third party components from this visual studio 2008 C# desktop application, can you tell me how I wouldremove these items?

Sam Hobbs · Answer

The question of whether to remove the reference first and then do the cleanup or do the cleanup first (as Vuples suggests) is a matter of preference and circumstance. I agree that it is better to do the cleanup first and remove all uses of the library (COM componenet or whatever) first but if you know for sure that you definitely must remove the component then you can be lazy and let Visual Studio find the problems. It might make things messy to do the cleanup later and it would be somewhat lazy but potentially highly effective.

Vulpes · Answer

If you right click on the dll name in Solution Explorer and then choose 'View in Object Bowser' from the dropdown you'll see a list of all the types (classes structs etc) the dll contains by namespace and you can expand these to show the members of that type.

Sie Ste · Answer

How can you tell what classes and members it contains?

Vulpes · Answer

Before you remove the dll from the project's references I'd examine it in the object browser to see what classes and members it contains. I'd then try and remove as many occurrences of these members as you can 'manually' from the code before removing the reference to the dll and attempting to rebuild the application. The latter procedure should identify any others that you may have missed. Of course the application may no longer work at all after you've done all this but I assume it's a risk you're willing to take.

Prabhu Raja · Answer

Every Project will have a Reference folder Right Click the Reference and Select Add Reference  then Locate Your Third Party dll. Add it to the Reference Folder. You can Remove a reference easily Select Reference that you want to remove and then press a Delete key. Thank You