Class AssemblyLocatorBase

Use a class derived from this class to get the fully qualified name of the file from which the assembly in which the derived class is defined was loaded. See Remarks.

Inheritance

System.Object

AssemblyLocatorBase

PropertyDefaults

Namespace: WizardWrx.Core

Assembly: WizardWrx.Core.dll

Syntax

public abstract class AssemblyLocatorBase : object

Remarks

Given the location from which an assembly was loaded, you can learn almost anything else you need to know about that file, such as its size, age, version, and directory. Given the directory, you can locate satellite files, such as configuration files that contain settings that it uses.

Constructors

AssemblyLocatorBase()

Initialize the one and only property of this class, which holds the fully qualified path from which the containing assembly was loaded.

Use this constructor to link the configuration file to the assembly that defines this class.

Declaration

public AssemblyLocatorBase()

Remarks

IMPORTANT: If the assembly loads from the Global Assembly Cache, its configuration file must be stored in the application directory. Be aware that if an assembly exists in the Global Assembly Cache, it loads from there, even if there is a copy in the application directory.

AssemblyLocatorBase(Assembly)

Initialize the one and only property of this class, which holds the fully qualified path from which the containing assembly was loaded.

Use this constructor to link the configuration file to the assembly that defines this class.

Declaration

public AssemblyLocatorBase(Assembly pasmLinkedAssembly)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
Assembly	pasmLinkedAssembly	Pass in a reference to the assembly to which the configuration file is linked. For example, you can use the executing assembly of the object at the top of the inheritance tree.

Remarks

IMPORTANT: If the assembly loads from the Global Assembly Cache, its configuration file must be stored in the application directory. Be aware that if an assembly exists in the Global Assembly Cache, it loads from there, even if there is a copy in the application directory.

Fields

_strAssemblyLocation

Once the energy required to gather the location has been expended, save it for future use.

Declaration

protected string _strAssemblyLocation

Field Value

Type	Description
System.String

ASSEMBLYDATAPATH_TOKEN

Use this token in file names stored in DLL configuration files to explicitly state that the file is expected to inhabit the directory from which the assembly is loaded, unless the assembly was loaded from the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). In that case, substitute the application directory.

Declaration

public const string ASSEMBLYDATAPATH_TOKEN = null

Field Value

Type	Description
System.String

Properties

AssemblyDataPath

Gets a string containing the fully qualified path of the directory from which the assembly was loaded, unless it was loaded from the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). In that case, the return value is the fully qualified name of the directory from which the first assembly was loaded into the current process. See Remarks.

Declaration

public string AssemblyDataPath { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

Remarks

So far as I know, assemblies must load from one of two locations. Unsigned assemblies MUST load from the application directory. If the assembly is signed with a strong name, it MAY be loaded from either the application directory or the Global Assembly Cache. If a signed assembly is in the local GAC, it loads from there, even if there is a copy in the application directory.

AssemblyLocation

Gets a string containing the fully qualified file name from which the assembly in which the derived class is defined was loaded.

Declaration

public string AssemblyLocation { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.String

DLLConfiguration

Gets a reference to the entire Configuration object tied to the assembly in which the derived class is defined.

Declaration

protected Configuration DLLConfiguration { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
Configuration

DLLSettings

Gets the DLL Settings section as a KeyValueConfigurationCollection.

Declaration

protected KeyValueConfigurationCollection DLLSettings { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
KeyValueConfigurationCollection

DLLSettingsSection

Gets a reference to the entire AppSettingsSection object tied to the assembly in which the derived class is defined.

Declaration

protected AppSettingsSection DLLSettingsSection { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
AppSettingsSection

Remarks

Since this property starts from the ConfigurationManager object returned by its DLLConfiguration sibling, it requires only a single statement, with a little help from an explicit cast.

MissingConfigSettings

This read-only property returns a generic List of string, each of which is a message that names a property that was omitted from the configuration file, along with its default value.

Declaration

public UnconfiguredDLLSettings MissingConfigSettings { get; protected set; }

Property Value

Type	Description
UnconfiguredDLLSettings

RecoveredConfigurationExceptions

This read only property returns a generic List of Exceptions that arose during the initialization phase of an instance, and were silently recovered, so that they can be reported for investigation.

Declaration

public System.Collections.Generic.List<RecoveredException> RecoveredConfigurationExceptions { get; }

Property Value

Type	Description
System.Collections.Generic.List<RecoveredException>

Remarks

This property supersedes ConfigMessage, which returned the list of exceptions as one long string, discarding their all-important stack traces.

Methods

GetAssemblyBuildDate(DateTimeKind)

Return the LastWriteTime of the file that contains the executing assembly. For all practical purposes, that is the date on which the assembly was built.

Declaration

protected DateTime GetAssemblyBuildDate(DateTimeKind pdtmKind)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
DateTimeKind	pdtmKind	This DateTimeKind enumeration member specifies whether to report the LastWriteTime or the LastWriteTimeUtc.

Returns

Type	Description
DateTime	The return value is a fully initialized DateTime structure, which contains the requested LastWriteTime (Local or UTC) of the file that contains the code of the executing assembly.

GetAssemblyVersion()

Return the Version structure, to expedite parsing its parts.

Declaration

protected Version GetAssemblyVersion()

Returns

Type	Description
Version	The return value is the version component of the fully qualified assembly name.

GetAssemblyVersionString()

Return the complete version of the executing assembly.

Declaration

protected string GetAssemblyVersionString()

Returns

Type	Description
System.String	The return value is a string representation of all version number "octets" - Major, Minor, Build, and Revision.

GetDLLSetting(String)

Return the specified setting value, as a string.

Declaration

public string GetDLLSetting(string pstrSettingsKey)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
System.String	pstrSettingsKey	This string is the name (key) of the desired setting.

Returns

Type	Description
System.String	The return value is a string representation of the value stored in the named key.

SetPropertiesFromDLLConfiguration(Type)

Set the like named properties from the linked configuration file.

Declaration

protected AssemblyLocatorBase.PropertySourceCounts SetPropertiesFromDLLConfiguration(Type pderivedType)

Parameters

Type	Name	Description
Type	pderivedType	When the derived class constructor calls this method, it must pass in a reference to its own Type property.

Returns

Type	Description
AssemblyLocatorBase.PropertySourceCounts	The return value is the count of properties that were set.

Remarks

This can almost certainly be simplified by enumerating the settings, but either way risks a NOT FOUND exception.

This method uses some fairly tricky Reflection gymnastics to map the key names in a configuration file to property names on an object.

See Also

PropertyDefaults