Issue importing iText .net lib using pythonnet #1688

Well, I'm answering my own question, it may help someone else.

I found out what the issue was and was able to make it work. Here's the details.

First thing I did was testing the other iText libs:

import clr
clr.AddReference('itext.forms')
from iText.Forms import PdfAcroForm

This worked flawlessy, so the issue must've been in itext.kernel.

I tried using older builds, and I found out that build 7.0.8 worked fine.

I compared it with build 7.1.11 (the one I was having problems with) using dotPeek, and noticed it has some references, namely BouncyCastle.Crypto, Common.Logging and Common.Logging.Core.

I did put them in the project folder, but still no dice... until I noticed I was using BouncyCastle.Crypto build 1.8.6, while the itext.kernel referred build 1.8.5! Replacing with that version solved the issue.

Basically the newer builds of iText7 have 3 referenced libs, that must be present in the exact same version.

THE QUESTION

Would it be possible for pythonnet to be more verbose about this?

The "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'iText'" error wasn't helpful at all, since the clr.AddReference didn't hint at any problem and I'd expet some exception to be trown here (MissingReferenceException? ReferenceVersionException?).

I'm just asking, I don't know if it's feasible. Also, thanks a lot for pythonnet! Just found it and already find it useful.

Thank you, I met ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'iText' when itext7.7.1.17 is used. After I add BouncyCastle.Crypto.dll, Common.Logging.Core.dll and Common.Logging.dll, it works.

however, for itext7.7.2.0, even itext.commons.dll, BouncyCastle.Crypto.dll and Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions.dll are added, ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'iText' still appears. Maybe there are extra attention I have to pay.

correct: for iText7 7.2.2.0 you need Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions.dll (v5.0.0), since the Microsoft.Extensions.Logging framework was introduced as the new iText code logging module

This change adds the need for Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.dll and Microsoft.Extensions.Options.dll too, as you can see by some use of dotPeek on itext.commons.dll and the error messages.

Add those 2 and it should run just fine (at least my code does).

now it works, thank you. I forgot to check itext.commons.dll
btw, is there any tools/code which can check and report on one page about this kind of hierarchical dependency missing?

You can select "Inspect", "Reference Hierarchy" and see the whole tree of dependencies referenced.

Or you could try ILSpy (7.2 Preview 3) which shows all references of a dll, recursively, not just the top level ones, in the first tree - seems faster to me that dotPeek, may be a viable alternative.

the commandline tool asmspy can show the dependencies.

the red text means something is wrong. However, it also displays redundant missing

cd where_C#_DLLs_live
asmspy .