In this article, I would like to explain how to load an assembly dynamically and display its forms with the help of Reflection. Consider a situation where you want to display all forms of an unknown assembly at runtime.
Reflection_Assembly is a simple c# library which is having 3 windows forms.
Step 1: Loading an assembly form the specified path.
string path = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()
+ @"\Reflection_Assembly.dll";
try
{
asm = Assembly.LoadFrom(path);
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
Step 2: Getting all forms of an assembly dynamically & adding them to the list type.
List<Type> FormsToCall =
new List<Type>();
Type[] types = asm.GetExportedTypes();
foreach (Type t in types)
{
if (t.BaseType.Name == "Form")
FormsToCall.Add(t);
}
Step 3:
int FormCnt = 0;
Type ToCall;
while (FormCnt < FormsToCall.Count)
{
ToCall =
FormsToCall[FormCnt];
//Creates an instance of the specified type using
the constructor that best matches the specified parameters.
object ibaseObject = Activator.CreateInstance(ToCall);
Form ToRun = ibaseObject as Form;
try
{
dr =
ToRun.ShowDialog();
if (dr == DialogResult.Cancel)
{
cancelPressed = true;
break;
}
else if (dr == DialogResult.Retry)
{
FormCnt--;
continue;
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
FormCnt++;
}