This happens because the managed dlls get shadow copied to a temporary location under the .NET Framework directory. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366723.aspx for details. Unfortunately, the unmanaged dlls do NOT get copied and the ASP.NET process won’t be able to find them when it needs to load them. One easy solution is to put the unmanaged dlls … Read more
Managed Code Managed code is what Visual Basic .NET and C# compilers create. It runs on the CLR (Common Language Runtime), which, among other things, offers services like garbage collection, run-time type checking, and reference checking. So, think of it as, “My code is managed by the CLR.” Visual Basic and C# can only produce … Read more
This is a good article about the subject. To summarize, Managed code is not compiled to machine code but to an intermediate language which is interpreted and executed by some service on a machine and is therefore operating within a (hopefully!) secure framework which handles dangerous things like memory and threads for you. In modern … Read more
Simple way assuming class Foo: Create a C++/CLI project, call this FooWrapper. Make FooWrapper depend on the unmanaged dll (however you normally would). Create a managed class ManagedFoo which contains a single private instance field of type Foo*. provide public wrapping functions in ManagedFoo which forward on to the underlying instance field. Optionally (though recommended): … Read more
You can embed the unmanaged DLL as a resource if you extract it yourself to a temporary directory during initialization, and load it explicitly with LoadLibrary before using P/Invoke. I have used this technique and it works well. You may prefer to just link it to the assembly as a separate file as Michael noted, … Read more
Managed resources basically means “managed memory” that is managed by the garbage collector. When you no longer have any references to a managed object (which uses managed memory), the garbage collector will (eventually) release that memory for you. Unmanaged resources are then everything that the garbage collector does not know about. For example: Open files … Read more
One easy way to call into C++ is to create a wrapper assembly in C++/CLI. In C++/CLI you can call into unmanaged code as if you were writing native code, but you can call into C++/CLI code from C# as if it were written in C#. The language was basically designed with interop into existing … Read more