How to deploy a dependency's dll.config file with ClickOnce

Question

How to deploy a dependency's dll.config file with ClickOnce

Christian Obkircher 6

My projectA published via ClickOnce depends on projectB. I need the projectB.dll.config file for projectA to work. While MSBuild copies over projectB.dll.config to projectA/bin/ConfigXY correctly, it is not published. VisualStudio (2017) doesn't even show the file in Application->Publish->Application Files.

As a workaround, I added this to A.csproj:

<Content Include="..\projectB\App.config"> 
  <Link>projectB.dll.config</Link> 
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory> 
</Content>

I think this is quite hacky, as it wouldn't work if projectB would use transformations, like projectA does. And it is not possible to do this directly in VisualStudio.

Why does MSBuild copy over the file correctly for build, but then doesn't publish it?
And what would be the best workaround?

PengGe-MSFT 3,381 Reputation points

2021-07-14T09:00:52.77+00:00

Hi, @Christian Obkircher
could you share me detailed steps to reproduce your issue on my side?
Christian Obkircher 6 Reputation points

2021-07-14T19:38:03.057+00:00

Thank you for your response, @PengGe-MSFT
I created a demo application here: https://github.com/chrbkr/PublishIssueDemo

If you execute it from VisualStudio, or if you build it and execute ProjectA.exe, it works fine: It shows "Hello", and if you click on "ShowEndpoint", it shows "https://localhost/servicemanager/1" instead of "Hello".

However, if you publish the project and execute ProjectA.application, initially it looks the same. But once you click the button, it crashes - the reason being that ProjectB.dll.config is not deployed. It is, however, copied to ProjectA\bin\Release correctly.

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PengGe-MSFT 3,381 Reputation points

2021-07-14T09:00:52.77+00:00

Hi, @Christian Obkircher
could you share me detailed steps to reproduce your issue on my side?
Christian Obkircher 6 Reputation points

2021-07-14T19:38:03.057+00:00

Thank you for your response, @PengGe-MSFT
I created a demo application here: https://github.com/chrbkr/PublishIssueDemo

If you execute it from VisualStudio, or if you build it and execute ProjectA.exe, it works fine: It shows "Hello", and if you click on "ShowEndpoint", it shows "https://localhost/servicemanager/1" instead of "Hello".

However, if you publish the project and execute ProjectA.application, initially it looks the same. But once you click the button, it crashes - the reason being that ProjectB.dll.config is not deployed. It is, however, copied to ProjectA\bin\Release correctly.

Answer 1

PengGe-MSFT 3,381

Hi @Christian Obkircher

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Your application want to get url from the config file of project B and replace "hello", right？

I got some information after researching this issue.

You should not add a config file to class library project (Project B).
You need to declare the assemblies' configuration sections in the app.config of your application (Project A) and define a value for a particular number of settings defined in the proper assembly settings.

Create an app.config within the class library project, it contains some configurations and settings, but these configurations and settings will not be used by the executable application calling the library.

You can try to copy these settings from the library config file into the app.config of the caller.
You can also try to create a XML file to copy configurations and settings, make your class library read this file using System.XML instead of System.Configuration.

Sincerely,
Peng
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Christian Obkircher 6 Reputation points

2021-07-15T15:21:46.753+00:00

In my real-world project, the config file is created automatically, since ProjectB consumes a WSDL contract. The corresponding SOAP service is updated every 6 months by a 3rd party. I want to keep the responsibility to deal with this inside ProjectB, since this library is used by multiple projects.

If the class library config file shouldn't be used by other projects, why is it copied over by default? See this closed issue in msbuild.

What's also interesting is that if I add a user section and access a setting in it via
Settings.Default.MySetting
, the ProjectB.dll.config file is still missing, but I can somehow still read that setting from ProjectA? Are the settings somehow imported during build, and the reason my application doesn't work is that I try to access them via
ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(GetType().Assembly.Location);
?
PengGe-MSFT 3,381 Reputation points

2021-07-16T05:56:38.547+00:00

Hi @Christian Obkircher
I have searched and read many similar threads, and all the answers I can find cannot solve your issue.
About ConfigurationManager, you can refer to this document.
I suggest you can start a new thread and report this issue to VS Product Team in our Developer Community with some reproduced or detailed information. if you do report this issue, please share the link here, other forum members, include me, who are interested or meet the same or similar issue can go to vote for this thread.

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How to deploy a dependency's dll.config file with ClickOnce

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