Generate serialization assembly issue

[craigt1313]

• What version of the product are you using?

  • What version are you using? Nuget
    57.0 (also verified with 63 using CefSharp.WinForms.Example available at https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp AND https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp.minimalexample)

• What architecture x86 or x64?
  Tried with both, independently

• On what operating system?
  Win10

• using WinForms

• What steps will reproduce the problem?

  • using https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp.MinimalExample:
    -- set CefSharp.MinimalExample.Winforms as startup project
    -- on project properties Application tab, set startup project to CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms.Program
    -- change solution configuration to Release (x86 or x64)
    -- on project properties Build tab, set Generate serialization assembly to On
    -- build project

  -*Error on build: Could not load file or assembly 'CefSharp.Core.dll or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.

• Please provide any additional information below.
  - Does the cef log provide any relevant information? debug.log does not exist in bin x64 folder after test

[amaitland]

@craigt1313 Thanks for actually taking the time to fill out the bug report in detail.

We've seen reports of this before, I'm not sure this is actually a problem with CefSharp directly, more a side affect of sgen being unable to resolve the unmanged resources, basing this assumption on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35554317/using-c-cli-dll-when-generate-serialization-assembly-is-enabled#comment58800966_35555385

I'll leave this open for now, just incase someone else has a comment, it's likely to be closed as wonfix unless someone comes up with something meaningful.

[vwmberry95]

I ran into this issue today when converting an older WinForms project to CefSharp.

It would be helpful to include this issue in the FAQs: https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp/wiki/Frequently-asked-questions#Runtime_dependencies

[amaitland]

@vwmberry95 The Wiki is editable by anyone with a GitHub account, you can add this if you like.

[amaitland]

It's possible to call sgen from msbuild, someone experiencing this problem might want to give it a try see
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/526956/All-about-XmlSerializer-Performance-and-Sgen

[ahomburger]

I experienced this today. I found by going to the Properties / Build page and changing the Generate serialization assembly from On to Auto took care of the problem.

[gqphd]

Same here

[geekcyclist]

I had a similar problem in a legacy VB.Net WinForm project I took over. After swapping out the old WebControl for CefSharp, we could build and run in Debug mode just fine, but a Release build would fail.

I noticed that the File listed on the build error was SGEN - the XmlSerializationGenerator.

As far as I could tell there were no objects that required XmlSerializtion, so I went to the Project Properties > Compile > Advanced Compile Options and changed "Generate serialization assemblies:" from Auto to No.

The solution builds and runs just fine in Release mode now.

[amaitland]

The project structure has changed with out of necessity to support .Net Core/Net 5.0, (see #3319 for details). Starting with 87.1.130-pre

You no longer directly reference the CLI/C++ DLL, limited testing suggests that's enough to resolve this (I've only tested with a single project with Generate Serialization Assembly turned On).

Closing now as hopefully this is resolved.