Storing and accessing .dll file in resources

Question

Hey all I want to add a C++ dll as an embedded resource in my project(so that i could use this applicaion and dll anywhere without being worried about the dll file location) and subsequently i want to access it in my C# code. This dll contains a method(say abc()) which accepts certain parameters and gives an integer as the output. How can i access this method to give the required parametes from C#.net application? Could anyone please suggest anything? Thanks and regards

Sam Hobbs · Answer

So tell me this Pete. If someone is on a bridge and they want to know how to get through the fence so they can jump off the bridge would you tell them how to do that? Are you going around blasting everyone when someone does not get an answer? Note that there is absolutely nothing preventing someone from providing help doing what the person asked for. If you want to blast people for not answering then you will be consumed by the task of criticizing millions of other threads that don't have answers. Is that what you are doing? If you want to provide an answer then go ahead. No one is telling you not to. When you have provided thousands of answers for others then you can understand how much of your own time is spent trying to do other people's work. You have the right to decide who you help and who you don't help. After seeing many thousands of requests for assistance I have seen many in which the person thinks they have a solution and asks for help with the solution instead of asking for help with the fundamental problem. I have seen many beginners asking for help doing something in a manner they thought would be the easy way but then they are having difficulty doing things that would be easy if they had chosen the appropriate solution. It was my choice to not spend my time helping with a solution that most developers avoid when there are solutions available that are supported extensively in the available tools.

Pete Dashwood · Answer

I can't believe how unhelpful it is when someone tells you you shouldn't be doing what you have asked for help with. Mukesh's request is simple and straightforward. If you don't know how to help then don't post. I found this thread because I wanted to do exactly what Mukesh wanted to do. By now I'm sure you have solved it Mukesh but in case you haven't (or worse yet actually took the advice you were given and went off to build a separate deployment) you CAN embed a .DLL as a resouce in your project and you CAN load it at runtime by writing it to a temorary file and then loading it from there. I believe it is also possible to load it from memory without using the temporary file but this is trickier. If you need details mail me. Pete.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

You can create a setup for your application. Visual Studio makes it easy to create a setup for simple applications. Then your application can get installed with your DLL and everything else it requires.

Mukesh Karanwal · Answer

yeah thats okie. but this is my own private C++ dll that executes a simple function. presently i am using it from a particular HDD location but this way it restricts the portability of the software so i want this to be embedded in my project so that i could use this freely and on any pc. or could you pls suggest me any better idea?

Sam Hobbs · Answer

That is not a good solution. ^One reason is that you are potentially exposing computers to attack by malicious software. If the DLL has code from Microsoft in it that someone in the future discovers can be used by malicious software then Microsoft will fix the DLL using Windows Update except it cannot do that if the DLL is a resource in your progam.