Executing assemblies in the GAC

[Yoni Gibbs]

Hi,

Once an assembly has been downloaded into the GAC, is it possible to
execute it locally somehow? e.g. if I download an exe into the GAC,
can the client PC simply run this assembly directly, rather than going
back to the URL that it downloaded the assembly from?

Additionally, is there a way to execute local assemblies on startup?

Thanks in advance,

Yoni.

 

[Jan Tielens]

Are you using no touch deployment (aka href exe's) or are you actually
deploying your assemblies into the GAC. Then using no touch deployment, the
assemblies are not stored locally in the GAC, but in an Assembly Cache.

The location of these locally stored assemblies (either in the GAC or AC)
are known, but I don't thik it's a good idea to directly call them using
these locations. Although there is a way to use the local cache for the no
touch deployment assemblies. Please explain your situation a little bit
more...
--
Greetz

Jan Tielens
________________________________
Read my weblog: http://weblogs.asp.net/jan

 

[Yoni Gibbs]

Hi,

Basically we're going to be creating a control that will be used in
two ways: occassional users will access a web front end and download
the user control whenever they first access a particular page. It
will be downloaded into the GAC and used from within the IE page, just
like an ActiveX control. But there will also be heavy users of the
system who will be using the control hosted inside another executable,
locally. However, we don't people to actually have to install this
executable. We'd like the executable to be downloaded using no touch
deployment. So, once the executable has been downloaded into the GAC
using no touch deployment, how does the regular system user actually
execute this executable later on, other than through a shortcut which
points at the original URL where they downloaded it?

Also, we need some sort of executable which constantly runs in the
background (e.g. to remember the client's sessions state, so that they
don't need to log in more than once) - is there a way to get
assemblies to load on system startup? Is this possible with
assemblies in the GAC?

I hope this clarifies things.

Cheers,

Yoni.

 

[Jan Tielens]

See answer inline...

--
Greetz,
Jan
__________________________________
Read my weblog: http://weblogs.asp.net/jan

Hi,

Basically we're going to be creating a control that will be used in
two ways: occassional users will access a web front end and download
the user control whenever they first access a particular page. It
will be downloaded into the GAC and used from within the IE page, just
like an ActiveX control. But there will also be heavy users of the
system who will be using the control hosted inside another executable,
locally. However, we don't people to actually have to install this
executable. We'd like the executable to be downloaded using no touch
deployment. So, once the executable has been downloaded into the GAC
using no touch deployment, how does the regular system user actually
execute this executable later on, other than through a shortcut which
points at the original URL where they downloaded it?

I don't think it's possible to download an assembly to the GAC by using no
touch deployment... propably you mean the download assembly cache? You can
execute it by navigating to the original url and by setting the "Work
offline" setting in Internet Explorer. By doing so the exe won't be
downloaded.

Also, we need some sort of executable which constantly runs in the
background (e.g. to remember the client's sessions state, so that they
don't need to log in more than once) - is there a way to get
assemblies to load on system startup? Is this possible with
assemblies in the GAC?

You could put a shortcut in the start menu. A nicer solution would be
creating a windows service which would start up when your system boots.

 

[Yoni Gibbs]

Thanks Jan. Yup, I did mean the "download assembly cache" - sorry, my
mistake. I think you were confirming what we thought, which is that
in order to execute the downloaded assemblies, you have to direct the
user to the URL from where the assembly was originally downloaded.

For the NT service - yup, I agree this would be nice. But we'd like,
if possible, to avoid any sort of client-side installation, so that
our solution would be easier to deploy to lots of clients, so I think
we might have to stick with the shortcut in the Start menu.

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers,

Yoni.