Debugging Type Loading

Extensibility in configuration allows you to call out to types that you define for things such as behaviors, bindings, and channels. These type references are to fully qualified assemblies using information such as the assembly name, file path, code version, and so on. However, in a configuration file these references are ultimately represented as text and that text must be turned into object references at runtime. Because this process requires the machine to be appropriately configured, the process of binding and loading an assembly can sometimes fail.

In the Windows SDK there is a tool called the Fusion Log Viewer (fuslogvw.exe) that can help you diagnose errors binding and loading an assembly. By default logging is disabled, but you can specify logging either for failures or for all events in the case that an assembly is being loaded but it's not the copy of the assembly that you expected. You'll need administrative permission to change the logging settings but there are no permissions or changes to your application needed to take advantage of this feature.

Next time: Customizing Proxy Configuration

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 14, 2008
  When debugging a WCF project in Visual Studio the WCF Service Host starts up to host my service. How