# Publishing GUI for stadalone use

**URL:** <https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888>\
**Category:** Technical\
**Created:** [October 10, 2022, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888 "2022-10-10T11:05:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![craig.petku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@craig.petku](https://forum.opentap.io/u/craig.petku)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888/1 "2022-10-10T11:05:32Z")

</div>

I’ve noticed this problem for awhile and have always simply compiled my GUI and copied the exe file into a directory where OpenTAP is installed and functional. However, I would like to use the publishing wizard in VS2022. Currently this builds an installation package and the GUI runs, but the opentap engine doesn’t seem functional. Hunting down the directory where clickonce installs this I see all the appropriate DLL’s, but no tap.exe. Copying tap in doesn’t solve the issue and testing with .\tap package list produces an error telling me to re-install OpenTAP. Is there a guide on setting up a VS project with OpenTAP and using the publishing wizard?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rolf\_madsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@rolf\_madsen](https://forum.opentap.io/u/rolf_madsen)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 12:15pm UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888/2 "2022-10-10T12:15:50Z")

</div>

If you use the OpenTAP nuget package, you should get everything built into the same folder, so if you use that I think the publish functionality should work.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![craig.petku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@craig.petku](https://forum.opentap.io/u/craig.petku)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 2:41pm UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888/3 "2022-10-10T14:41:23Z")

</div>

The problem appears to be the publishing wizard doesn’t include a “settings” directory and some necessary “package”

FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly ‘System.Reflection.Metadata, Version=1.4.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![craig.petku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@craig.petku](https://forum.opentap.io/u/craig.petku)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 4:21pm UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888/4 "2022-10-10T16:21:43Z")

</div>

Deploying a “settings” directory is basically covered by

> <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34387761/how-do-you-include-many-additional-files-with-clickonce-deployment>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![craig.petku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@craig.petku](https://forum.opentap.io/u/craig.petku)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888/5 "2022-10-10T18:26:16Z")

</div>

The “Package” issue is resolved the same way. For some reason my VS2022 project required copying my custom DLL in its package directory as well as the tupple dependency directory. Both dll’s were already in the root folder of the installed application.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andy1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@andy1](https://forum.opentap.io/u/andy1)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://forum.opentap.io/t/publishing-gui-for-stadalone-use/888/6 "2022-10-11T12:26:01Z")

</div>

Hi Craig  
I stick this in the Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs

[assembly: OpenTap.PluginAssembly(true)]

it seems to help opentap find custom plugins easier …

regards Andy