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Project \ Assembly dependencies viewer

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4.57/5 (16 votes)
11 Jan 20041 min read 169.5K   2.1K   32   25
This simple application gets any VS.NET project or assembly and displays all the assembly / project dependencies. All dependencies are shown in a tree view with images that indicate the assembly location (Bin, GAC or registered as COM+ component).

Sample Image - viewer.jpg

Introduction

This application is a part of the installation system that I use. My installation process uses an input XML file that is created by the application, to deploy and register the assemblies in the same locations as in the deploying machine. Using this method I reduce many errors. You can use this application to test your applications in a production environment. You can test and see if all of your application references match the files on your production server and to find out any existing problems.

The code is pretty straight forward. The only complicated part was to find out if a given assembly is registered as a COM+ component. To check it out, you need to get the COM+ component CLSID from COM+ using comadmin.dll, find in registry the CLSID InprocServer32 Key, and check if InprocServer32 Assembly string value matches the given assembly full name.

To navigate through the COM+, I use a wrapper assembly of comadmin.dll which I created using tlbimp.exe. The deploying code is a reference to the wrapper assembly of COM+ 1.5 comadmin.dll. If you are working with COM+ 1.0, you need to recreate the wrapper assembly using tlbimp.exe.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Web Developer
Israel Israel
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Natty Gur is the founder and CTO of “The enterprise architects group” an international enterprise architecture consulting group based in Vestal, NY. Natty has 13 years of experience in the IT field, 7 of them focused on running enterprise architecture in companies and governmental bodies. Natty has written many articles and is a well known speaker on EA topics. You can reach natty at: natty@theeagroup.net


Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralRed color in the tree Pin
uljo25-Feb-07 20:24
uljo25-Feb-07 20:24 
GeneralRe: Red color in the tree Pin
nhenny200025-Sep-07 11:33
nhenny200025-Sep-07 11:33 
GeneralI Got the solution Pin
avinash barnwal9-Jan-07 0:58
avinash barnwal9-Jan-07 0:58 
Generalpowershell script to list out dependencies. Pin
tovirtualme5-Jan-07 5:34
tovirtualme5-Jan-07 5:34 
QuestionJob Role?? Pin
pcthelp26-Jun-06 5:18
pcthelp26-Jun-06 5:18 
QuestionHow to enlist assemblies? Pin
zux8-Nov-04 1:44
zux8-Nov-04 1:44 
AnswerRe: How to enlist assemblies? Pin
Natty Gur19-Nov-04 9:24
Natty Gur19-Nov-04 9:24 
GeneralOther dependecy walker Pin
Javier Ros19-May-04 7:59
Javier Ros19-May-04 7:59 
QuestionDoes it make probing? Pin
Ivan Fernandez21-Jan-04 5:39
Ivan Fernandez21-Jan-04 5:39 
AnswerRe: Does it make probing? Pin
Natty Gur21-Jan-04 5:46
Natty Gur21-Jan-04 5:46 
GeneralA graphical approach Pin
Drew Noakes13-Jan-04 9:12
Drew Noakes13-Jan-04 9:12 
GeneralRe: A graphical approach Pin
Natty Gur13-Jan-04 17:25
Natty Gur13-Jan-04 17:25 
GeneralRe: A graphical approach Pin
mephianna11-Feb-08 23:41
mephianna11-Feb-08 23:41 
GeneralRe: A graphical approach Pin
oliwan24-Jun-08 6:57
oliwan24-Jun-08 6:57 
NewsRe: A graphical approach Pin
Drew Noakes4-May-11 17:24
Drew Noakes4-May-11 17:24 
GeneralInterface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
Claus Brod13-Jan-04 1:35
Claus Brod13-Jan-04 1:35 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
Natty Gur13-Jan-04 2:09
Natty Gur13-Jan-04 2:09 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
Claus Brod13-Jan-04 2:16
Claus Brod13-Jan-04 2:16 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
nedcod13-Jan-04 22:41
nedcod13-Jan-04 22:41 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
Claus Brod13-Jan-04 23:30
Claus Brod13-Jan-04 23:30 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
mayoroj2-Aug-05 12:30
mayoroj2-Aug-05 12:30 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
ER GovindAgarwal12-Sep-12 3:04
ER GovindAgarwal12-Sep-12 3:04 
GeneralRe: Interface Interop.COMAdmin.ICOMAdminCatalog2 failed Pin
ER GovindAgarwal12-Sep-12 3:18
ER GovindAgarwal12-Sep-12 3:18 
Generaldemo .zip file Pin
Antonio Barros12-Jan-04 9:45
professionalAntonio Barros12-Jan-04 9:45 
GeneralRe: demo .zip file Pin
Natty Gur12-Jan-04 16:56
Natty Gur12-Jan-04 16:56 

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