TX Spell .NET for Windows Forms

Deploying .NET Framework Applications

Topic

A Windows Forms application for the .NET Framework is deployed by copying files: the application's executable, the assemblies of TX Spell .NET and the language data, all in one folder on the user's machine. No NuGet package does this for you, and one thing is easy to miss: the language data, which the application finds on your development machine without being copied, has to be shipped.

What Goes Next to the Executable

Copy these files and folders into the folder of the application's executable. They come from the Assembly folder of the TX Spell .NET installation:

MyApp.exe
TXSpell.dll
TXSpell.Windows.Forms.dll
de\
Dictionaries\
HyphenationLists\
LanguageRecognition\
SynonymLists\
  • TXSpell.dll is the spell checking engine, and TXSpell.Windows.Forms.dll the spell checker component with its dialogs. Both have the version 11.0.1000.500.
  • de holds the German resources of the dialogs. Ship it when the dialogs should appear in German.
  • The four language data folders hold the dictionaries, the hyphenation lists, the thesaurus files and the data for language detection. Every file in them is used automatically.

Assemblies and Language Data Folders lists every file, and Installing Dictionaries and Language Data explains the folders.

Why the Build Output Isn't Enough

Warning

Works on Your Machine Only. On your development machine, the spell checker finds the language data below the Assembly folder of the installation, even when the output folder of your project has none. The machines of your users have no installation: there, the spell checker looks only in the folder of the application. The folder properties, such as DictionariesDirectoryPath, are "(Auto)" by default, which means exactly these two places.

Test the deployed application on a machine without TX Spell .NET, or copy the folders into your output folder during the build, so that you see what your users see. To keep the language data somewhere else, such as a shared network folder, set the folder properties to it, as Where the Spell Checker Looks shows.

ASP.NET Applications

An ASP.NET application for the .NET Framework that checks text with the TXSpell class, such as the Web Forms sample on GitHub Examples, has no folder of an executable. There, TXSpell.dll and the four language data folders go into the Bin folder of the application instead.

Framework Versions

TX Spell .NET for Windows Forms requires the .NET Framework 4.0 or higher on the user's machine. .NET and .NET Framework lists the versions.

The License Is Already Inside

In a .NET Framework project, the license is compiled into your assembly from licenses.licx when you build, with the entry that Development Licenses shows. There is no license file to ship and nothing to install on the user's machine. Build the application with the full version of TX Spell .NET; Application Licensing has the checklist before a release.

After a Service Pack

A service pack keeps the assembly version, 11.0.1000.500. Install it on the development machine, rebuild the application, and ship the new assemblies from the Assembly folder with the next release.

High DPI Monitors

Since version 8.0, the spell check dialog and the options dialog adapt their scaling to the monitor they are shown on. In applications for the .NET Framework 4.7 and later, this has to be switched on in the app.config of the application, as High DPI and Display Scaling shows.

With TX Text Control

An application that uses TX Text Control as well ships its files too: the assemblies and native libraries of TX Text Control, which its Deployment Guide lists in Deploying .NET Framework Applications. The licenses of both products are compiled from the same licenses.licx.

Next Steps