Thanks for all the tips in this thread. I think my own variation of this error was for a slightly different reason again, so I'll post here in case it's of use.
In my situation, the error occurred when invoking window.ShowDialog(). More specifically, my window is defined in a separate class library assembly (let's call it AssemblyA.dll).
I have multiple versions of AssemblyA which are used in various products, some of which are plugins and some aren't. In short, the consequence is that the process might end up loading several different strong-named versions of AssemblyA. So there are duplicate assemblies in the app domain as @VahidN pointed out, but they're strictly differently versioned assemblies which are meant to be there, and merely share the same AssemblyShortName.
WPF's auto-generated code for InitializeComponent() looks like this:
public void InitializeComponent() {
if (_contentLoaded) {
return;
}
_contentLoaded = true;
System.Uri resourceLocater = new System.Uri("/AssemblyA;component/forms/mywindow.xaml", System.UriKind.Relative);
#line 1 "..\..\..\Forms\MyWindow.xaml"
System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(this, resourceLocater);
#line default
#line hidden
}
It's only referring to the short name of AssemblyA, and not to the specific version or public key token of AssemblyA in which the InitializeComponent() method is running. The consequence is that the code just seems to find the first AssemblyA assembly loaded into the process, searches for the XAML, can't find it (because it's found an older version of the assembly first), and then throws an exception. Or perhaps it finds something but maybe it's pulled a different XAML resource than what it's meant to have, from either an older or newer version of the assembly that happens to also be loaded.
It's not perfect, but I've consulted the Pack URI specification, and worked around this by writing my own extension method that makes sure the assembly is found with the appropriate version and public key token, rather than simply the AssemblyShortName.
In case it's of use for others, here's a simplified version of what I've ended up with.
public static void AssemblySensitive_InitializeComponent(this ContentControl contentControl, string componentString)
{
// Strictly speaking this check from the generated code should also be
// implemented, but it doesn't fit directly into an extension method.
//if (_contentLoaded)
//{
// return;
//}
//_contentLoaded = true;
var asm = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var shortName = asm.GetName().Name;
var publicKeyToken = GetPublicKeyTokenFromAssembly(asm);
var version = asm.GetName().Version.ToString();
System.Uri resourceLocater = new System.Uri($"/{shortName};V{version};{publicKeyToken};{componentString}", System.UriKind.Relative);
System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(contentControl, resourceLocater);
}
/// <summary>
/// Gets a public key token from a provided assembly, and returns it as a string.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="assembly"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
/// <remarks>Adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3045033/getting-the-publickeytoken-of-net-assemblies</remarks>
private static string GetPublicKeyTokenFromAssembly(System.Reflection.Assembly assembly)
{
var bytes = assembly.GetName().GetPublicKeyToken();
if (bytes == null || bytes.Length == 0)
return "None";
var publicKeyToken = string.Empty;
for (int i = 0; i < bytes.GetLength(0); i++)
publicKeyToken += string.Format("{0:x2}", bytes[i]);
return publicKeyToken;
}
The _contentLoaded bit could probably be done with extension properties, but I need the code for this library to compile in C# 7.3 so I have a much longer workaround which I removed so as not to distract.
Then I call it from the constructor like this:
public MyWindow()
{
// Don't use the auto-generated initialize, because if multiple different versions
// are loaded into the process, it can try to load the resource from the wrong one.
//InitializeComponent();
AssemblySensitive_InitializeComponent("component/forms/mywindow.xaml");
// ... do more constructor stuff ...
}
I spent ages getting frustrated trying to figure out what was going on, so I hope this helps someone else out there.
