How can I write a Batch file for setting paths & registering a .NET DLL?

[kennasoft]

Hi everybody, I love what u guys are doing here, keep it up people!
Errr... I'm new to .NET development though i'm a veteran developer in Java and PHP. I recently wrote a VB.NET DLL for a friend who does VBA apps with MS ACCESS, and he needs to use it on multiple systems.

Those who have created interop DLLs know the hell u have to go through to register & set it up to work (all the GAC, SN and REGASM stuff). I don't want my friend to go through all this trouble each time he wants to run his app on a new System and refernce my DLL.

So, here comes my problem. I know a batch can file can solve this problem, but I've never written a batch file before. I need help from anyone who can write a batch file to set the path of the EXECs [gacutil.exe, regasm.exe], and then run the regasm.exe tool with the '/tld:' switch to create the .tld file & also run gacutil.exe to register it in the GAC. I want him to copy the .DLL, .BAT and .SNK files to Windows\System32 folder then just click the batch file to do all the registering.

Somebody please help!

[Siddharth Rout]

This is a basic way to register a .dll with the help of batch file. Type this in a text file and save it as updatebatchfiles.bat

Regsvr32.exe c:\windows\system32\myfile1.Dll
Regsvr32.exe c:\windows\system32\myfile2.Dll
Regsvr32.exe c:\windows\system32\myfile3.Dll

If you search this forum you will find plenty of examples on batch files.

Hope this puts you in the right direction....

[kennasoft]

Hey koolsid, thanks for ur help, but that would only work for COM components written in VB6 or versions before .NET; trust me, i know i went through some DLL hell trying to use RegSvr32 to register it before.

My actual problem here is not how to register the DLL, but how to create a batch file to do that with one click.

Thanks again!

[westconn1]

why not use a script?

[Hack]

Moved to VB.NET

[Deepak Sakpal]

Try this batch file:

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regasm.exe "VB.net dll path"

If you keep the .bat file and dlls in the same directory then u need to just specify VB.net dll name instead off full path.

[kennasoft]

Hey, Deepak thanks, that helped a lot, but i wonder if there's an environment variable that .NET sets on installation that holds the full or relative path of the current .NET framework installation like the '%windir%' bit you used.

I'd like it to be a one-time script that works even if there's a different version of .NET.

Thank you so much

[Deepak Sakpal]

Unfortunately Microsoft has not provided any environment variable which holds .NET Framework path. Better you create different batch files for each version.

[mendhak]

Why aren't you creating a deployment application with a merge module?

[kennasoft]

Unfortunately Microsoft has not provided any environment variable which holds .NET Framework path. Better you create different batch files for each version.

Hey thanx again Deepak; i guess i'll have to resort to multiple batch files then.

[kennasoft]

mendhak, what is a merge module, & how do i create one?