What are the types of assemblies and where can u store them
and how a private assembly is used only by a single
application, and is stored in that application's install
directory (or a subdirectory therein)?
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Answer Posted / preethi.k.b
Structure of an Assembly
A .NET assembly consists of assembly metadata and the
assembly manifest contains the type information, resources,
and the MSIL code to implement type metadata in an
assembly. The manifest is an important component of an
assembly. The assembly manifest contains the following:
- Identity Information: Identifies the assembly uniquely by
the combination of four properties: assembly name, assembly
version, culture, and strong name.
- File List Information: Includes types and declarations
defined in another file. Every assembly is made up of one
or more files. The manifest maintains a list of files that
make up the assembly. The manifest maps the file containing
the types and declarations to the file containing the
declaration and implementation of an application.
- Referenced Assembly Information: Includes the information
of references to other assemblies. In application
development, you can develop various components that are
spread across various assemblies.
- Exported Type References: Includes information about the
functions and types that are exported and available to
other assemblies. The components of other assemblies may
refer to the methods and properties in the current assembly.
- Type Metadata: Provides the description of each class
type. The manifest includes the name of each class type
exported from the assembly and the information about the
file containing its metadata.
- MSIL Code: Contains the compiled code in the MSIL format.
The manifest is the system information about the assembly.
The .NET platform compiles code written in a CLS-compliant
language to an Intermediate Language (IL). The MSIL
compiler compiles the source code to an IL form. When
the .Net-based code is executed, the just-in-time compiler
of the .NET runtime compiles the IL code to the executable
form. The runtime loads the compiled code segment in memory
and executes it. As a result, the system stores the
complete compiled code as part of the assembly in IL format
and recompiles and executes it. This happens only once
between the loading and unloading of the .NET runtime.
- Resources: Includes resources such as bitmaps that you
can integrate into a manifest. The assembly's resource
section contains information on the resources the
application uses.
Types of Assemblies
There are two types of assemblies, single-file and multi-
file assemblies. In the .NET platform there is no
difference between the two. Based on the structure,
constraints, and requirements of the development team, you
can choose either type of assembly.
Single-File Assembly
A single-file assembly stores the manifest, type metadata,
IL, and resources in a single file. You can use this
approach for simple applications when you need to develop
an assembly for a small-scale deployment.
Multi-File Assembly
When developing large applications, you can split the
application into smaller modules and deploy different
development teams to work on various modules in a parallel
mode. In this situation, you can use multi-file assemblies,
with the different teams developing and compiling the
modules. Using the assembly linker, you can integrate the
modules into an application, where the assembly is broken
into multiple files. Although the application environment
contains several modules that can be developed by separate
teams, the modules are closely related in functionality.
For example, you can have different modules related to the
system administration functionality, developed over a
period of time. Using the multi-file assembly feature
of .NET, you can group all administration functionality
modules into an assembly to facilitate component versioning
and maintenance.
Scope of Assemblies
Assemblies can either contain a private or a public scope,
based on the level of access required by the clients who
access it. The manifest contains information regarding the
scope of an assembly.
Private Assembly
Assemblies are private in scope if only one application can
access them. Private assemblies are only available to
clients in the same directory structure as the assembly. As
a result, the .NET assembly resides in the same directory
structure as the client executable. You can use a private
assembly when it is specific to a client application and no
other client application refers to it.
Shared Assembly
When an assembly such as a system assembly contains
features shared by various applications, standard
deployment techniques discourage the use of private
assemblies. As a result, you need to maintain a copy of the
assembly for each client application. You can also register
the assembly in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), so that
all client applications refer to one copy of the assembly.
This type of assembly is called a shared assembly. The side-
by-side execution feature of the .NET platform enables you
to register multiple versions of the same assembly in GAC.
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