Signing an F# Assembly (Strong name component)

code-translation, com, f#, shell-extensions, strongname

Solution

One way to sign an F# assembly is via the `AssemblyFileKeyAttribute` attribute.

Create a new module and in it put:

module AssemblyProperties

open System
open System.Reflection;
open System.Runtime.InteropServices;

[<assembly:AssemblyKeyFileAttribute("MyKey.snk")>]

do()

Where `"MyKey.snk"` is the path to your key relative to the project directory.

Another way, as found in this bug report on Microsoft Connect, is to add `--keyfile:MyKey.snk` to the `Other Flags` field in the `Properties --> Build` tab.

Using either approach; running `sn -v myfsharpassembly.dll` will assert that the assembly is valid after compilation.

Problem

I found this article on CodeProject: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/512956/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Context-Menus and thought it would be nice to give it a try, but in F#. So I came up with the following code: ``` open System open System.IO open System.Text open System.Runtime.InteropServices open System.Windows.Forms open SharpShell open SharpShell.Attributes open SharpShell.SharpContextMenu [<ComVisible(true)>] [<COMServerAssociation(AssociationType.ClassOfExtension, ".txt")>] type CountLinesExtension() = inherit SharpContextMenu.SharpContextMenu() let countLines = let builder = new StringBuilder() do base.SelectedItemPaths |> Seq.iter (fun x -> builder.AppendLine(sprintf "%s - %d Lines" (Path.GetFileName(x)) (File.ReadAllLines(x).Length)) |> ignore ) MessageBox.Show(builder.ToString()) |> ignore let createMenu = let menu = new ContextMenuStrip() let itemCountLines = new ToolStripMenuItem(Text = "Count Lines") do itemCountLines.Click.Add (fun _ -> countLines) menu.Items.Add(itemCountLines) |> ignore menu override this.CanShowMenu() = true override this.CreateMenu() = createMenu ``` However, I noticed that there is no support for signing an F# assembly in VS2012 (step 4. in the article). I learnt that if I want to do so, I need to create a key manually (typing "sn -k keyName.snk" into the command prompt) and then add a flag in "Project Properties -> Build -> Other Flags" (--keyfile:keyName.snk). I still didn't manage to successfully run this. Moreover, using the author's application (in "Debugging the Shell Extension" section) I get an error that my assembly doesn't contain a COM server. I believe I'm doing something wrong with the signing the component. Could you help me in running this ?

Original source