I have an assembly that contains a method that returns a class that is
also defined in that assembly.
The assembly is in the GAC.
However, for my application, I want to use Assembly.LoadFrom() to load
the assembly from a file path also.
The assembly is already referenced by your application. Then, why
exactly do you want to load it by file path as well?
Do you actually need two different _versions_ of the assembly in
memory? If yes, switching to Assembly.Load (or any other loading
mechanism) won't help at all, since the types will still not be
compatible.
If no, Assembly.LoadFile might help, as Prakash suggested, since it
doesn't load the assembly into the LoadFrom context. However, LoadFile
has other problems (e.g. that it doesn't resolve dependencies).
So my application code calls Assembly.LoadFrom() on the assembly,
executes the method and the returned class is used in the calling code.
However, I believe the calling code loads the assembly from the GAC in
the Load context (via a static reference) in order to define a variable
of the class returned from the method, and Assembly.LoadFrom() will load
the assembly into the LoadFrom context.
The class returned from the
method is not compatible with the class variable defined in the calling
code as they are in different contexts and I get the Invalid Cast
exception.
Your analysis is right, but I don't really understand why you are
running into the problem in the first place :-)
I would like to be able to load the assembly using it's file path, but I
want it to be in the Load context so the calling code will work.
I realise, this may sound like a strange request, the issue is that the
assembly is a 3rd party assembly/add in and we have no control over
whether it will be in the GAC or not. : )
LoadFile will probably help you. But understand that the problem is
not that the assembly is in the GAC (or not), it is that the assembly
is loaded _twice_ when you only require it _once_ :-)
Fabian
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