Correctly locate DLL's App.config section handler assemblies

Question

I am writing a DLL which is loaded by a third party application (The FitNesse framework's test runner, the DLL is a test fixture).

The DLL has its own App.config file (say MyDll.dll.config), and I can tell FitNesse to load that App.config file.

But here's the problem: The App.config file contains custom config section handler, like this:

<configuration>

  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="myGroup">
        <section name="MySection" type="MyNamespace.MyHandler.MySection, MyNamespace.MyHandler"/>
        ...
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>
  ...
</configuration>

Whenever the App.config file is read, the I get an exception saying that the MyNamespace.MyHandler assembly cannot be found, although it sits in the same folder as the MyDll.dll.config file being read:

System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'MyNamespace.MyHandler.MySection' threw an exception. ---> System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: An error occurred creating the configuration section handler for myGroup/MySection: Could not load file or assembly 'MyNamespace.MyHandler' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified

I can see that the system looks for this file in the same folder where the executable that is loading my DLL is located. However, I do not want to copy my files into this third party directory or vice versa.

Is there a way to specify where the system should look for the DLLs to interpret the App.config file? A general solution or a FitNesse-specific solution would both work for me.

Thanks a lot in advance for any help!

Answer 1

You could try using the runtime section as explained here:

http://kbalertz.com/897297/consume-assemblies-located-folder-different-application-folder-Visual-Basic.aspx