New Post: Error deploying 3rd party controls - Unable to load one or more of the requested types

Hello,

I'm having a hard time integrating a series of 3rd. party .NET usercontrols into a Composite C1 (3.2 patch 1) web site.

Following advise in https://compositec1.codeplex.com/discussions/501218 I deployed my dlls into the site's bin folder but that somehow broke the site. I get the following error:

Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.

This is raised on the layout of a master page in the following line:

<div class="ctbox"><rendering:Placeholder ID="contentLeftColumn" Title="Content Left Column" Default="true" runat="server" /></div>

Stack trace:

[ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.]
   System.Reflection.RuntimeModule.GetTypes(RuntimeModule module) +0
   System.Reflection.RuntimeModule.GetTypes() +4
   System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes() +78
   CompositeC1Contrib.Web.UI.F.Markup.<.cctor>b__0(Assembly a) +30
   System.Linq.<SelectManyIterator>d__14`2.MoveNext() +238
   System.Linq.WhereSelectEnumerableIterator`2.MoveNext() +177
   System.Collections.Generic.List`1..ctor(IEnumerable`1 collection) +327
   System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList(IEnumerable`1 source) +58
   CompositeC1Contrib.Web.UI.F.Markup..cctor() +315

[TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'CompositeC1Contrib.Web.UI.F.Markup' threw an exception.]
   CompositeC1Contrib.Web.UI.F.Markup..ctor() +0
   CompositeC1Contrib.Web.UI.Rendering.Placeholder..ctor() +5
   ASP.app_data_pagetemplates_homelanding_master.__BuildControlcontentLeftColumn() in c:\site\App_Data\PageTemplates\HomeLanding.master:96
   ASP.app_data_pagetemplates_homelanding_master.__BuildControlcContent(Control __ctrl) in c:\site\App_Data\PageTemplates\HomeLanding.master:93
   System.Web.UI.CompiledTemplateBuilder.InstantiateIn(Control container) +12
   System.Web.UI.MasterPage.InstantiateInContentPlaceHolder(Control contentPlaceHolder, ITemplate template) +87
   ASP.app_data_pagetemplates_base_master.__BuildControlphContent() in c:\site\App_Data\PageTemplates\Base.master:99
   ASP.app_data_pagetemplates_base_master.__BuildControlTree(app_data_pagetemplates_base_master __ctrl) in c:\site\App_Data\PageTemplates\Base.master:1
   ASP.app_data_pagetemplates_base_master.FrameworkInitialize() in c:\site\App_Data\PageTemplates\Base.master.cs:912308
   System.Web.UI.UserControl.InitializeAsUserControlInternal() +35
   System.Web.UI.MasterPage.CreateMaster(TemplateControl owner, HttpContext context, VirtualPath masterPageFile, IDictionary contentTemplateCollection) +9037810
   System.Web.UI.MasterPage.get_Master() +42
   System.Web.UI.MasterPage.ApplyMasterRecursive(MasterPage master, IList appliedMasterFilePaths) +18
   System.Web.UI.Page.ApplyMasterPage() +9082889
   System.Web.UI.Page.PerformPreInit() +45
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +328

So, it seems that deploying my dlls into the bin breaks the site. One important thing though is that these usercontrols make use of EntLib 5 dlls for logging, exception handling, validating, etc.

I realized the built-in installation of Composite comes with some of these Dlls too but in version 3:

• Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.dll
• Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.dll
• Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.dll
  

I thought the version mismatch could be the problem so I tried to set an assembly binding on web.config with no luck. My last attempt is putting all the 3rd. paty dlls on /bin except for the 3 of the EntLib 3 that comes with the original installation (I left all the original dlls on /bin), then I created a new folder /bin/new and put the 3 version 5 dlls in there. Finally I set up the following on web.config:

<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <codeBase version="5.0.414.0" href="bin\new\Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.dll" />
    </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <codeBase version="5.0.414.0" href="bin\new\Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.dll" />
    </dependentAssembly>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <codeBase version="5.0.414.0" href="bin\new\Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.dll" />
    </dependentAssembly>
  </assemblyBinding>
</runtime>

Doing this I don't get the typical assembly binding error but the one I described above. Perhaps the binding is working but some internal reflection is failing?

Replacing the original dlls with EntLib 5 version is not an option since existing code is expecting version 3. Keeping version 3 dlls is not an option since 3rd. party dlls expect version 5. A regular assemblyBinding (directing code using version 3 to use version 5) is not possible since EntLib 5 dlls have different public key token.

The only thing I'm sure is that the new dlls are braking the site (if I remove the dlls the site comes back online).

From this scenario I can extract two questions:

• How should I do what I'm doing? What would be the correct approach when deploying 3rd. party dlls that also use EntLib assemblies? I'm sure I'm not the first person trying to do this.
• Is there any way I can troubleshoot this? Is there any log that could provide better information on what's going on?
  

Thanks, any help would be much appreciated.