Why did I get an error with my XmlSerializer?

Question

I made a couple of changes to my working application and started getting the following error at this line of code.

Dim Deserializer As New Serialization.XmlSerializer(GetType(Groups))

And here is the error.

    BindingFailure was detected
    Message: The assembly with display name 'FUSE.XmlSerializers' failed to load in the 'LoadFrom' binding context of the AppDomain with ID 1. The cause of the failure was: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'FUSE.XmlSerializers, Version=8.11.16.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'FUSE.XmlSerializers, Version=8.11.16.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'

    Message: The assembly with display name 'FUSE.XmlSerializers' failed to load in the 'LoadFrom' binding context of the AppDomain with ID 1. The cause of the failure was: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'FUSE.XmlSerializers, Version=8.11.16.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'FUSE.XmlSerializers, Version=8.11.16.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'

=== Pre-bind state information ===
LOG: User = DOUG-VM\Doug
LOG: DisplayName = FUSE.XmlSerializers, Version=8.11.16.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null, processorArchitecture=MSIL
 (Fully-specified)
LOG: Appbase = file:///E:/Laptop/Core Data/Data/Programming/Windows/DotNet/Work Projects/NOP/Official Apps/FUSE WPF/Fuse/bin/Debug/
LOG: Initial PrivatePath = NULL
Calling assembly : System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089.
===
LOG: This bind starts in default load context.
LOG: Using application configuration file: E:\Laptop\Core Data\Data\Programming\Windows\DotNet\Work Projects\NOP\Official Apps\FUSE WPF\Fuse\bin\Debug\FUSE.vshost.exe.config
LOG: Using machine configuration file from C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\config\machine.config.
LOG: Policy not being applied to reference at this time (private, custom, partial, or location-based assembly bind).
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///E:/Laptop/Core Data/Data/Programming/Windows/DotNet/Work Projects/NOP/Official Apps/FUSE WPF/Fuse/bin/Debug/FUSE.XmlSerializers.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///E:/Laptop/Core Data/Data/Programming/Windows/DotNet/Work Projects/NOP/Official Apps/FUSE WPF/Fuse/bin/Debug/FUSE.XmlSerializers/FUSE.XmlSerializers.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///E:/Laptop/Core Data/Data/Programming/Windows/DotNet/Work Projects/NOP/Official Apps/FUSE WPF/Fuse/bin/Debug/FUSE.XmlSerializers.EXE.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///E:/Laptop/Core Data/Data/Programming/Windows/DotNet/Work Projects/NOP/Official Apps/FUSE WPF/Fuse/bin/Debug/FUSE.XmlSerializers/FUSE.XmlSerializers.EXE.

What's going on?

Answer 1

The main reason this was happening was because I had a mismatch in the types I was trying to Serialize and Deserialize. I was Serializing ObservableCollection (of Group) and deserializing a business object - Groups which inherited ObservableCollection (of Group).

And this was also part of the problem... From - http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/asmxandxml/thread/9f0c169f-c45e-4898-b2c4-f72c816d4b55/

This exception is a part of the XmlSerializer's normal operation. It is expected and will be caught and handled inside of the Framework code. Just ignore it and continue. If it bothers you during debugging, set the Visual Studio debugger to only stop on unhandled exceptions instead of all exceptions.

Answer 2

According to information I found, BindingFailure exception associated with XmlSerializers sometimes does not indicate any error and should be just ignored, but you can sometimes see it i. e. in debug mode, when you have set VS options to show all thrown exceptions.

Source: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=88566&wa=wsignin1.0

Btw. this is more or less one of the things mentioned in the first answer :).

Answer 3

It appears that you cannot locate the assembly FUSE.XmlSerializers. Check the results of the Assembly Binding Log Viewer (Fuslogvw.exe) to see where it is looking (although the list presented above seems pretty full).

Try to locate where this assembly is stored on your computer and run NGen on it to see if it is failing to load for some reason. Make sure this DLL file is appearing in your Bin\Debug directory. Visual Studio doesn't seem to get the dependencies of dependencies, and so you have to make sure you have all the files you need yourself sometimes.