How to add a Windows control dll in to a form using vb.net

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Hi Everybody,

I need some help for the following issue.

I have created a windows control in VB.net and saved as dll file.

I need to show this control in a windows form by loading this file.

How can I acheive this.

Thanks
P A S Saravanan.

Posted 16-May-11 1:54am

saransamb

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#realJSOP · Answer 1 · 2011-05-16T01:56:00

Solution 1

You simply add a reference to the DLL in your project.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wkze6zky(v=vs.80).aspx[^]

Posted 16-May-11 1:56am

#realJSOP

Comments

Sandeep Mewara 16-May-11 10:25am

Comment from OP:
Thanks for your info.

But I need to do this step without adding any reference.

Meaning I need to add this control dynamically at the run time.

Thanks
P A S Saravanan

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 16-May-11 21:00pm

Understood. Please see my answer -- it contains all you need to know to accomplish exactly that.
--SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 2 · 2011-05-16T14:59:00

I provided very detailed skeleton of the design required to consume assemblies during run-time.

Please see my past answers:
Create WPF Application that uses Reloadable Plugins...[^],
AppDomain refuses to load an assembly[^].

It may look overly complex, but don't worry: you probably don't need to solve most complex problems related to unloadable plug-ins and hence Application Domain. Ignore all this.

You only need to develop plug-in interface, the system to recognize its implementation class in the loaded library and invocation of the constructor via Reflection.

—SA

RaviRanjanKr · Answer 3 · 2011-05-16T15:38:00

Solution 5

Try
How to programmatically add controls to Windows Forms at run time by using Visual Basic 2005 or Visual Basic .NET[^]

Posted 16-May-11 15:38pm

RaviRanjanKr

Wayne Gaylard · Answer 4 · 2011-05-16T03:25:00

Solution 3

You can use Reflection to access a DLL during runtime, something like this:

C#

Assembly asm = Assembly.Load("myclasslibrary.dll");

from there you can access the Classes and Methods in that DLL, using methods like asm.GetTypes() or asm.GetType("yourclass"). Here is the MSDN article on Reflection[^].

Good Luck

Posted 16-May-11 3:25am

Wayne Gaylard

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 16-May-11 20:55pm

Wayne, Don't mislead OP. Did you do it yourself? I think you did not -- it won't work! Assembly.Load does not do what you think.
Must be Assembly.LoadFrom. GetType("yourclass") is a really bad method of doing plug-in, as it relies on hard-coded name. The robust way is based on using interface; then no assumptions are done beyond compiled declaration.
--SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 16-May-11 20:59pm

Please see my answer -- it's comprehensive.
--SA