BinaryFormatter.Deserialize “unable to find assembly” after ILMerge

Question

I have a C# solution with a referenced dll (also C# with the same .Net version). When I build the solution and run the resulting exe, without merging the exe and the refere

Answer 1

SerializationBinder was also my solution. But I have the class in a DLL which is referenced. So i have to search in all load assemblies. I have modified the answers bevor with the parameter if the binder should search in dlls.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;

namespace ibKastl.Helper
{
   public static class BinaryFormatterHelper
   {
      public static T Read(string filename, Assembly currentAssembly)
      {
         T retunValue;
         FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open);

         try
         {
            BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
            binaryFormatter.Binder = new SearchAssembliesBinder(currentAssembly,true);            
            retunValue = (T)binaryFormatter.Deserialize(fileStream);
         }
         finally
         {
            fileStream.Close();
         }

         return retunValue;
      }

      public static void Write(T obj, string filename)
      {
         FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Create);
         BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
         try
         {
            formatter.Serialize(fileStream, obj);
         }
         finally
         {
            fileStream.Close();
         }
      }
   }

   sealed class SearchAssembliesBinder : SerializationBinder
   {
      private readonly bool _searchInDlls;
      private readonly Assembly _currentAssembly;

      public SearchAssembliesBinder(Assembly currentAssembly, bool searchInDlls)
      {
         _currentAssembly = currentAssembly;
         _searchInDlls = searchInDlls;
      }

      public override Type BindToType(string assemblyName, string typeName)
      {
         List assemblyNames = new List();
         assemblyNames.Add(_currentAssembly.GetName()); // EXE

         if (_searchInDlls)
         {
            assemblyNames.AddRange(_currentAssembly.GetReferencedAssemblies()); // DLLs
         }

         foreach (AssemblyName an in assemblyNames)
         {
            var typeToDeserialize = GetTypeToDeserialize(typeName, an);
            if (typeToDeserialize != null)
            {
               return typeToDeserialize; // found
            }
         }

         return null; // not found
      }

      private static Type GetTypeToDeserialize(string typeName, AssemblyName an)
      {
         string fullTypeName = string.Format("{0}, {1}", typeName, an.FullName);
         var typeToDeserialize = Type.GetType(fullTypeName);
         return typeToDeserialize;
      }
   }

}

Usage:

const string FILENAME = @"MyObject.dat";

// Serialize
BinaryFormatterHelper.Write(myObject1,FILENAME);

// Deserialize
MyObject myObject2 = BinaryFormatterHelper.Read(FILENAME, Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); // Current Assembly where the dll is referenced