GAC and Signing assembly with strong name

Question

I am following someone's tutorial like the following

http://ranaictiu-technicalblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/sharepoint-create-custom-web-service.html

Here are the steps i need to follow

Create a Visual Studio Project for the web service

1.Create Project: Create a new web service project from visual studio. A default web service will automatically be added in the project. Remove that one and add a new web service. [ DONE ]

1. Use SPContext if Required: Add required methods in the web service. To use SharePoint classes add references to SharePoint Assembly. You can access the current SharePoint Context by accessing Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContext. [ DONE ]

this is what i cant do as i dont know how to do it. please help.

1. Place DLL in GAC: Once you are done with coding and the project is compiling ok then you need to place the dll of the project to GAC. Sign your assembly with strong name before deploying in GAC.

I would appreciate if someone could tell me what to do some instructions. i am using visual studio

Answer 1

You need to sign your assembly with a key to allow it to be deployed in the GAC.

With the project node selected in Solution Explorer, from the Project menu, click Properties (or right-click the project node in Solution Explorer, and click Properties). In the Project Designer, click the Signing tab. Select the Sign the assembly check box. Specify a new key file. In the Choose a strong name key file drop-down list, select . Note that new key files are always created in the .pfx format. The Create Strong Name Key Dialog Box appears. In the Create Strong Name Key dialog box, enter a name and password for the new key file, and then click OK.

Once it's done, rebuild your project and place the assembly in the GAC.

Open the Visual Studio command prompt, as follows: Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, point to Visual Studio Tools, and then click Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010). Type the following command:

gacutil.exe /if "<path to the assembly .dll file>"

This installs the assembly to the GAC, overwriting any existing assembly that has the same assembly name.

But I suggest you to create an empty SharePoint Project in visual studio 2010. This will create a project with a .SNK for signing, and will allow you to create a SharePoint package (.wsp) which is the standard for SharePoint deployment (you don't want to manually put stuff in the gac on production box don't you ?). You can add the extension CKS:DEV for Visual Studio 2010 to really help you in automate all this (and easily deploy to the gac by right clicking on the project and using the context menu)