Accessing a 3rd party DLL

  • Thread starter Thread starter prodata
  • Start date Start date
P

prodata

Got a problem trying to access a 3rd party DLL from a VB2008 project
(first time I've tried this, so not too clued up on what might be
wrong):

I've got a simple demo VB project from the maker which accesses the
DLL and which works OK, so I know that in principle it should work.

But if I create my own empty VB2008 project and 'Add Existing Item'
for the basic demo form then on testing I can't get past a 'DLL not
found' error.

If I try to add a reference to the DLL I get an error that the file
'may not be accessible or it is not a valid assembly or COM
component', which I guess must be a big clue but one that I can't make
sense of because:

(i) The demo works fine in the same configuration (AFAICT)

(ii) The DLL has been copied into the project's /bin/debug folder
(and so I don't think that it would be inaccessible)

I know this isn't much to go on, but can anyone suggest the type of
reason for the error. Is there, for example, some other way that I
should be introducing the DLL into the project environment other than
'Add Reference'?
 
OK - figured it out - the maker's DLL seems to have an undocumented
dependency on a completely different helper DLL that isn't directly
relevant to the project. Once I add in this second DLL then all works
fine. Looks like the exception for the unavailability of the second
DLL gets passed up the chain to generate an error that only reports
unavailability of the main DLL and so ends up being fairly misleading.
 
prodata,
You probably need to add a reference to it in your new project.
To do that go to the "Project" menu in Visual Studio and select the bottom
opption that will say <Your Project Name> Properties.
When there go to the "References" tab dwn the left side of the screen.
In the top part of the screen you will see all the things taht area
referenced by your project.
Click the "Add" button.
In the dialog that comes up go to the "browse" tab and then use that to
navigate to where the DLL is you want to use.

When you have it selected click "OK" and it should then be accessible from
within your project.

All the best,
Siv
 
Back
Top