Dude, Where's My Reference?

My next Builder.com article is finally online. This one talks about how to deploy server control files, and how to make sure they show up in the “Add References” dialog box. It's one of those steps that is often overlooked, but critical to customer usability. If server controls are your thing, then this article is for you. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

By the way, the title of this post was the original title of my article. My editor never likes my titles. <shrugs> oh well. The one he came up with was much... longer.

5 Comments

  • In your article you describe how you need to use HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\AssemblyFolders

    I believe you will find that works well for Studio 2002 but not for 2003 and future versions.

    Microsoft in their infinate wisdom changed the registry location.

    For 2003:

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\AssemblyFolders

    For future versions modify the 7.1

  • I note in your article you use [TARGETDIR]\v2.0\Redistributable\For .NET 1.0. for your location.

    I found it easier to not hard code any part of the location by using directory property where the product is installed. That way when version 3 comes out you don't have to remember to update the path location in your registry entries.

  • Unfortunately, you have to keep directory information in situations where multiple versions of an assembly need to reside on the computer. Often times you should not overwrite old versions for compatibility reasons, especially if you're not following my suggestions on component versioning.



    I'm going to look up what I posted about RE: registry locations, and check what we're doing in our installers. I'm pretty sure we're using the original location and it works in 2002 and 2003.

  • So, if I read this document correctly, it still looks in the old location too, meaning that the article remains correct. Is that right?

  • Looks that way. First time I've seen the article. I just searched on assemblyfolders and it popped up and I thought I'd pass it on. My previous post was based on my experience which preceeds that article quite a bit. I write to both local machine locations. And to future locations. I can't recall but I do believe that we ran into install errors if we did not write to both locations. Examining my registry entries shows a number of other .NET vendors are also writing to multiple locations.



    I burned many a long weekend when .NET first came out trying to install everything properly. Got a few hours and I'll tell you the horrors of trying to install help2 into visual studio.

    Best.

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