Getting dll include to work in Visual Studio - c++

I am new to Visual Studio, and to using .dlls, and I am trying to get portaudio running, but have not had success.
I built the .dll file, and created a console application project in VS,
I added the portaudio .lib file to "Additional Dependencies" in the solution properties -> linker -> input options.
I then added the directory for portaudio.h to VC++ Directories --> "Include Directories"
After those steps, I was able to build example code without errors, but when I run the program I would get this error:
The program can't start because portaudio_x86.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.
I tried adding the directory to where the dll and lib files are to "Executable Directories" but still I get the same error.
I don't know what else I need to do to get the dll working in VS. Any help is much appreciated.

The easiest solution is to move the created DLL to the same directory where your executable is running. There is no need to make project setting changes.
The other solution is to move the DLL to a directory specified in your PATH statement, or will be found by Windows using the Dynamic Link Library Search Order criteria.

Related

DLL's dependency cannot be found when DLL moved to another location

I'm on Windows 10, Visual Studio 2017, x64 build . . .
I have a DLL that I'm using in an exe project. We'll call it, myLibrary.dll. It comes with a .lib companion file as well. The myLibrary.dll has some other DLL dependencies that it is using. We'll call that one theDependency.dll.
I've linked the companion myLibrary.lib file in my project through Linker --> General --> Additional Library Dependencies properties. Added myLibrary.lib to the Additional Dependencies.
When I build my project, I use post build event to copy the myLibrary.dll to the Release/Debug directory of my project.
This works fine.
My issue is when I try to use myLibrary.dll in a different exe project. I get an error that it cannot find the theDependency.dll. I've used all the same property setup as the first exe project. As a test, I moved the build directory of the first exe project to another location (on the same computer) and I get the same error. "Cannot find theDependency.dll"
How is myLibrary.dll targeting it's dependencies? Not sure why the 2nd project gets this error? Also, not sure why moving the files gets this error?
Any ideas? Thanks.
Adding the path of the dll to the PATH environment variable worked for me.

How can I tell Visual studio where my additional .dll files are?

I have recently switched my IDE to Visual Studio 2019 for C++ projects. I easily followed a tutorial into setting up a new library like SFML into visual studio, and tell it where the additional include and library directories are.
But there is something else that is required for it to work, which are the .dll files. Every page I followed, even the Documentation by the SFML website, it says that they have to be in the same directory as my project. That means I need to copy-paste the 7-8 files into my project directory. This really makes the folder look untidy. I would like to create a new folder and tell Visual Studio where those files are. I tried going doing this
Project -> Properties -> Linker -> Input -> Additional dependencies
Usually, the lines that would work are
sfml-system-d.lib
sfml-window-d.lib
...
I tried doing $(ProjectDir)valid path\ sfml-files.lib but this gives me the linker error, saying that It could not find the file.
If I simply move the .dlls into a folder without doing anything, the code would compile and link fine. But when it runs, Windows gives me a pop-up box with the same error message.
Here is how it currently looks
Looks really messy, I just want to be able to move them into dependencies like how src contains the source files.
How can I achieve this?
As it is now, it works perfectly fine. The issue only occurs when I try to create a new folder.
I hope I have covered the important information required for a good answer, If not please let me know what more I should add
Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
Currently running 64-bit platform with Debug configuration. Hence the -d suffix
You could create a path environment for your specified directory, which is like drescherjm’s suggestion. The steps:
Right-click “This PC” -> “Properties”-> “Advance System settings”
Click “Environment Variables”
In the System Variables group, edit “Path”
Add your directory, for example: ”D:\ SFML-2.5.1\bin”
Restart your visual studio and re-open your project
The easier solution might be to put them in the x64 subdirectory. This allows you to have various builds side by side (x86/x64, debug/release).
Since this x64 directory is where the EXE is located, it is the first directory searched for DLL's. It will take precedence over the Path solution suggested in the other answer. The Path directories are searched last of all.

OpenCV: Code Execution Cannot Proceed, DLLs Missing

I'm making a program using OpenCV and I need feature matching. I was previously using OpenCV3 but apparently getting SURF to work is a bit of a hassle so I switched to OpenCV2.4
I downloaded the pre-built libraries and I want to use them on Visual studio but I have a problem, when I run the program I get messages like this:
When I click ok I get more follow up messages complaining about other missing dlls. I tries re-installing but still get this error.
Here are my settings:
Under C/C++>General: Additional Include Directores:
C:\opencv2.4\opencv\build\include
Under Linker>General: Additional Library Directories:
C:\opencv2.4\opencv\build\x64\vc14\lib
C:\opencv2.4\opencv\build\x64\vc14\bin
Under Linker>Incput: Additional Dependencies:
opencv_calib3d2413.lib
opencv_contrib2413.lib
opencv_core2413.lib
opencv_features2d2413.lib
opencv_flann2413.lib
opencv_gpu2413.lib
opencv_highgui2413.lib
opencv_imgproc2413.lib
opencv_legacy2413.lib
opencv_ml2413.lib
opencv_nonfree2413.lib
opencv_objdetect2413.lib
opencv_ocl2413.lib
opencv_photo2413.lib
opencv_stitching2413.lib
opencv_superres2413.lib
opencv_ts2413.lib
opencv_video2413.lib
opencv_videostab2413.lib
I've also tried editing the Environment Variables under Path I've added the include\ bin\ and lib\ directories. I have absolutely no idea how to fix this problem. I know the dlls are there.
I copied and pasted the dlls from the bin\ directory into my solution directory and everything works fine now.
I'm not sure why adding the bin\ to the path didn't work but anyway here's the solution to that problem.
The execution program did not find the DLL.
Under "Linker>General: Additional Library Directories" it expect the path for .lib files, but the DLL are searched by the program during the executio, so in the current folder and in the PATH folders.
Put the Dll's into the execution folder or modify the PATH to add the DLL's folder (in this last case remember to restart Visual Studio).
Cheers

Adding my DLL into a Visual Studio project in C++

I am working on a project that involves making a dynamic link library, so I want to test it in a console app in Visual Studio.
The DLL is also made in Visual Studio, it doesn't have much, just a few functions in it. I'm not sure if I'm just supposed to include the librarys header in the include directories panel in Properties, or do something else
A lot of people say I'm supposed to add its corresponding .lib file in the Library or Reference directory, but I'm not sure that VS generates a .lib file alongside the DLL. I'm using VS 2015.
I don't have VS in front of me this very moment, but these should be the general steps to set it up:
Properties->Linker->Input: your.lib
Properties->Linker->Additional Library Directories: ../your/bin
Properties->General->Compiler->Additional Include Directories: ../your/include
To build your app, the DLL's API headers must be in the include for the compile-time, it's LIB files in the bin for the link-time. Once you have your app EXE, all you need is the DLL to be in the same folder as your EXE when it executes.
You might also want to add the dll project and the app project into a common solution in VS and add (right click) Project Dependency from the app to the dll. This ensures correct order of building, assuming you are going to build the dll at all.
You can also do what I did.
You can create a Libs directory inside of your Solution directory.
You can then place your .DLL files inside of the Libs directory or some sub-directory inside of Libs
In my case, I added the entire SFML-2.3.2 directory in there, which included the source-code, .lib files, and .dll files.
I did link up what I could in the project properties, but I used Visual Studio's macros to fill in the path name to the Solution directory. Just in case I wanted to put this in version control and work on it from multiple machines.
Then I opened up the Project's Property Page.
Within the property page, I went to Build Events -> Post-Build Event -> Command Line
Within the Command Line, you can add a copy command that will copy any needed files into the same directory as the executable that will need them.
In my case I used: copy "$(SolutionDir)Libs\SFML-2.3.2\bin\*" "$(TargetDir)"
I could have written multiple commands to copy just the individual files that I needed, but I had spent a good three hours trying to get SFML to work without actually installing it.

Visual Studio 2010: dll missing

I googled for a whole day and I'm goin' mad..
Well, that's my problem: I've written my vs project, I've specified all the "include" (by selecting project properties -> configuration properties -> VC++ directories) and all the extern libraries directories (in the same way).
Then I specified all the additional libraries by selecting project properties -> Linker -> input -> Additional Dependencies and adding all the .lib files paths.
I press F7, it compiles with no errors.
I run the project and.. System Error: libsndfile-1.dll is missing.
That's okay, so I opened the vs console, I moved to libsndfile-1.def (and libsndfile-1.lib) path and I executed: "lib.exe libsndfile.def". Here I got another error: "LINK: fatal error lnk1104 lib.exe, impossible to open libsndfile.lib"
I tried to download libsndfile.dll from web but it still don't works. I've also tried to put all the libraries in my source files in visual studio.. but again, no way.
Where am I wrong?
Thank you in advance
EDIT: I've seen that vs doesn't find the other dll also!
Please do not copy the DLL into the folder... this is annoying for other developers in your organisation; instead right-click your app and click properties, go into the Configuration Properties->Debugging and set the Environment value to:
PATH=C:\PathToInclude;%PATH%
this will add the path to your environment and merge it to your application environment.
Do that for all Configurations of your app.
I solved simply placing all the dll files in the same directory of the .exe file