I am a newb: bundling dll's into an app
Howdy people
Firstly, let me apologise in advance for my complete lack of anything resembling knowledge. I'm a Coldfusion/Java/Oracle developer who's been thrown into VB, so whilst I have a good working knowledge of databases and objects, I'm rubbish at anything basic (no pun intended) and VB-specific.
I've searched the forums and read a load of posts, but haven't been able to find a answer specific to what I'm trying to do.
I'm creating a Website Creation program for the hosting company I work for - simple Windows Form with fields for website name, combos for host headers etc. I've got it creating SQLExpress and MySQL databases automatically, IIS config, it's all good.
My Devserver runs the MySQL .NET connector 6.1.3. Ideally I'd like to just be able to copy the .exe from the /bin/release directory onto each server and just run it - I'd rather not have to worry about creating installers and the suchlike. However - this works on any other machine also running MySQL .NET 6.1.3 - any other version and it'll crash. Now please bear in mind I know literally *naff all* about deploying Apps. I've bought the training stuff for the MCTS course, but as ever in my job it's do the work first, learn what you're doing later ;)
Is there any way I can "bundle" the mysql_connector.dll into my .exe? That'd be ideal, but if not I'm happy to have the dll in the same directory as the exe, where I already have to have a config file for a web service reference.
Having to copy the dll around with the .exe isn't the end of the world, I just don't want to have to get into the painful world of installers. I just need to know how to get my app to look at the local .dll rather than whichever version is already installed on the server. The servers will (for other reasons) have the MySQL connector installed already, but not necessarily the right version.
I'm not entirely sure I've made any sense here, so feel free to abuse me in any way you see fit, I won't mind. Any help would be much appreciated.
O.
