C# Visual Studio 2012 - Creating reference

Andrew Mc Glone

Hi,

I am going through some examples in a book called Pro C# 5.0 and the .NET 4.5 Framework and I can't get an example to work. In Chapter 15 there is one example, I think it needs a .dll as a reference in order to run but I am not sure.

It says create a new C# Console Application named VehicleDescriptionAttributeReader. Then set a reference to the AttributedCarLibrary assembly (an earlier example in the book). Finally enter some code and run it. From what I can gather it wants me to create a reference to a .dll file that AttributedCarLibrary would have generated when I built it. When I look in bin\Debug or release\ there is no .dll file there.

I tried creating a reference but the only reference I can link it to is AttributedCarLibrary.exe. There is no .dll file. When I run it I still get an error

Error 1 The type or namespace name 'AttributedCarLibrary' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Any ideas ? Maybe I need to generate a .dll file somewhere. I cannot figure it out.

7 Replies

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Javeed M Shaikh13y ago
ok great!
Andrew Mc Glone13y ago
Thanks for the help. Yes its a class Library and I will re do it and see if I can get it to work. At least I got the .dll file
Javeed M Shaikh13y ago
the fact that you are getting a message "A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly" means that it is a class library, dont try to run it, just compile the project and look into the bin/Debug or bin/Release folder.
Andrew Mc Glone13y ago
There is a .dll file in bin\debug from the book version and there is an .exe in the bin\debug of my version.

I can't figure out why I didn't get a .dll when I executed the program.
Andrew Mc Glone13y ago
wait I think I got a .dll from the sample code. It didn't generate one before
Andrew Mc Glone13y ago
No its not. I checked in bin/debug of the sample AttributedCarLibrary example and there is no file there. I thought I would just have to build it to generate a .dll file but it doesn't run.

It says ....A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly.
Javeed M Shaikh13y ago
Hi Andrew,

I took a look at this chapter and it says that you need to copy the AttributedCarLibrary.dll in the bin/Debug folder, so i guess the .dll has to be present so can you check may be it is with the sample projects that might have come with the book.