VS 2019 - ClickOnce Publish - Could not load file or assembly "CefSharp.Core.Runtime.dll" or one of its dependencies.

[seltix5]

• What version of the product are you using?
  NuGet:
  cef.redist.x64 - 98.1.21,
  cef.redist.x86 - 98.1.21,
  CefSharp.Common - 98.1.210,
  CefSharp.WinForms - 98.1.210

• What architecture x86 or x64?
  x64

• What version of .Net?
  .Net 4.7.2

• On what operating system?
  Win10

• Are you using WinForms, WPF or OffScreen?
  WinForms

• What steps will reproduce the problem?
  Publish the project and execute it, it will give the error.
  When running it directly from VS or from the bin folder it works as expected. When executing from the project publish it will give that error despite the fact the referred file was deployed.

See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'CefSharp.Core.Runtime.dll' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.
File name: 'CefSharp.Core.Runtime.dll'
   at CefSharp.Cef.get_IsInitialized()
   at CefSharp.WinForms.ChromiumWebBrowser.InitializeFieldsAndCefIfRequired()
   at CefSharp.WinForms.ChromiumWebBrowser.OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmCreate(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

[amaitland]

Converting to discussion as this is unlikely a bug.

Publishing within Visual Studio requires additional steps.

#3319 (comment)

The minimum example provides a working example.

https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp.MinimalExample/blob/master/CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms/CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms.csproj#L31

[seltix5]

hi. thanks.
I already try that but did not work.
I changed the platform target from "any cpu" to "x64" and updated the csproj as described.

[seltix5]

ok that was it. found the solution.
to my .csproj I added :

<Import Project="..\packages\CefSharp.Common.98.1.210\build\CefSharp.Common.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\CefSharp.Common.98.1.210\build\CefSharp.Common.props')" />
 <Import Project="..\packages\cef.redist.x86.98.1.21\build\cef.redist.x86.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\cef.redist.x86.98.1.21\build\cef.redist.x86.props')" />
 <Import Project="..\packages\cef.redist.x64.98.1.21\build\cef.redist.x64.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\cef.redist.x64.98.1.21\build\cef.redist.x64.props')" />

like you have on your example https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp.MinimalExample/blob/master/CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms/CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms.csproj
Not sure if that was supposed to be added manually or not but it did solve the problem.
Thanks for the help!

[amaitland]

like you have on your example https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp.MinimalExample/blob/master/CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms/CefSharp.MinimalExample.WinForms.csproj

When you converted to PackageReference these should have been removed. This will likely break next time you upgrade.

Not sure if that was supposed to be added manually or not but it did solve the problem.

Only valid for the older packages.config. If you successfully upgraded to PackageReference then the packages folder should have been removed.

If you plan on using PackageReference then I'd suggest upgrading the MinimalExample and then comparing it.

[seltix5]

I did convert the main project to PackageReference, but not all projects, the solution has around 50, and thus the packages folder still exists.
Now that you talk about it, I converted the main project to PackageReference but not the project where the CefSharp user controls are... Maybe that was my problme... I will test to remove the lines from my main .csproj and convert the project where the user controls are to see if that would also solve the problem and report back

[amaitland]

I did convert the main project to PackageReference, but not all projects, the solution has around 50, and thus the packages folder still exists.

This is really important information. Converting your main project by itself wouldn't do anything.

[seltix5]

Hi. This is so annoying... I cant reproduce the problem anymore -.- I removed those lines from the main .csproj and rebuild and it was working anyway. I then deleted the bin folder, uninstalled/installed the CefSharp nuget (again, on the main project + subproject where it is used as, as before) (at this moment I could confirm the Import lines was added automatically to the subproject) but its working anyway....

Structure (both with nuget CefSharp.WinForms 98.1.210):
main.csproj - PackageReference
subproject.csproj - packages.config ( with the 3 Import lines to the other 3 nuget dependencies, CefSharp.Common, cef.redist.x86 & cef.redist.x64 )

I'm sorry for all the trouble :s I hope at least this discussion may help others in the future.

[amaitland]

For anyone else that ends up here I've created a more detailed guide for publishing using ClickOnce see #4056