The type is defined in an assembly that is not ref

Question

I know the error message is common and there are plenty of questions on SO about this error, but no solutions have helped me so far, so I decided to ask the question. Difference to most of similar questions is me using App_Code directory.

Error message:

CS0012: The type 'Project.Rights.OperationsProvider' is defined in an
assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly
'Project.Rights, version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

Source File:

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Test\Website\App_Code\Company\Project\BusinessLogic\Manager.cs

Following suggestions here and here, I have deleted all instances of Project.Rights.dll inside C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET/*.* According to this, I checked if .cs files in question have build action set to "Compile". They do. I have also double checked that the .cs file containing the "Project.Rights.OperationsProvider" type is deployed to App_Code directory.

For some reason, application is not looking for the type in the App_Code directory. Since I've deleted all instances of Project.Rights.dll (that I know of), I don't know which assembly the error message is mentioning.

Answer 1

In my case this was because I used

Implicit Operator

between BLL and DAL classes.when I want to use BLL Layer In Application Layer I got this error. I changed

implicit operator

to

explicit operator

it be OK. Thanks

Answer 2

I have a similar problem, and I remove the RuntimeFrameworkVersion, and the problem was fixed.

Try to remove 1.1.1 or

Answer 3

In my case, I was referencing a library that was being built to the wrong Platform/Configuration (I had just created the referenced library).

Furthermore, I was unable to fix the problem in Visual Studio Configuration Manager -- unable to switch and create new Platforms and Configurations for this library. I fixed it by correcting the entries in the ProjectConfigurationPlatforms section of the .sln file for that project. All its permutations were set to Debug|Any CPU (I'm not sure how I did that). I overwrote the entries for the broken project with the ones for a working project and changed the GUID for each entry.

Entries for functioning project

{9E93345C-7A51-4E9A-ACB0-DAAB8F1A1267}.Release|x64.ActiveCfg = Release|x64 {9E93345C-7A51-4E9A-ACB0-DAAB8F1A1267}.Release|x64.Build.0 = Release|x64

Entries for corrupted project

{94562215-903C-47F3-BF64-8B90EF43FD27}.Release|x64.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU {94562215-903C-47F3-BF64-8B90EF43FD27}.Release|x64.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU

Corrupted entries now fixed

{94562215-903C-47F3-BF64-8B90EF43FD27}.Release|x64.ActiveCfg = Release|x64 {94562215-903C-47F3-BF64-8B90EF43FD27}.Release|x64.Build.0 = Release|x64

I hope this helps someone.

Answer 4

When you get this error, it means that code you are using makes a reference to an type that is in an assembly, but the assembly is not part of your project so it can't use it.

Deleting Project.Rights.dll is the opposite of what you want. You need to make sure your project can reference the assembly. So it must either be placed in the Global Assembly Cache or your web application's ~/Bin directory.

Edit-If you don't want to use the assembly, then deleting it is not the proper solution either. Instead, you must remove all references to it in your code. Since the assembly isn't directly needed by code you've written, but instead by something else you're referencing, you'll have to replace that referenced assembly with something that doesn't have Project.Rights.dll as a dependency.

Answer 5

In my case the version of the dll referenced was actually newer than the one that I had before.

I just needed to roll back to the previous release and that fixed it.