Razor MVC application failed to load FreeTextBox but it doesn't have a FreeTextBox

Question

I uploaded my MVC3 Razor application to the webhost provider (works fine on my development server under Visual Studio 2010).

On the deployed site I get a

"Could not load file or assembly 'FreeTextBox, Version=3.3.1.12354, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5962a4e684a48b87' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified."

But I am totally puzzled, my application does NOT have ANY FreeTextBox in it! I am not even referencing that DLL. Unfortunately the "Detaile" IIS error doesn't even mention who or what is trying to load that DLL so I have no idea where it is coming from.

To triple check I did a search on FreeTextBox on my self-built app with search mask . on the ENTIRE solution and Visual Studio can't find anything.

Here the Actual Solution It was indeed inheriting an assembly of the parent application. Ketan as per your suggestion I solved it by doing this:

  <system.web>
     <assemblies>
        <clear/>
        ... here standard MVC3 assemblies of template project ...
     </assemblies>**
   </system.web>

Answer 1

Is your app folder on shared host configured as an "Application"? If not then it probably is using the machine.config or web.config at a higher level where there is a reference of that control. The FreeTextBox is a ASP.NET WYSWYG Text editor something that webhosts normally include in their hosting packages as free. I would contact their tech support to fix this.

Answer 2

you are referencing a assembly with a dependency on "FreeTextBox".

deploy the .dll containing the "FreeTextBox" assembly to your /bin dir or find the offending assembly with a tool like

• .NET Reflector
• NDepend
• dotPeek