The type or namespace name 'DirectoryServices' does not exist in the namespace?

Question

CS0234: The type or namespace name 'DirectoryServices' does not exist in the namespace 'System' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

This page was working fine,show records from directly services with no error. but now it gives the above error.

 <asp:GridView ID="gvUsers" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false" DataSourceID="odsUsers"
                                    AllowPaging="true" AllowSorting="true" Width="100%">
<Columns>
 <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="User Name">
 <ItemTemplate>

<%#((System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry)Container.DataItem).Properties["userPrincipalName"].Value%>

   </ItemTemplate>
   </asp:TemplateField>
/Columns>
</asp:GridView>

Project builds successfully but when I open the page then it gives error

Solution 1

After you add your directory services reference, right click on the reference and go to properties. Set "CopyLocal" to true.

Solution 2

I'm pretty sure that I'm "publishing" my application from my development box to my IIS box completely incorrectly. However, I found this solution here, and it worked for me.

If you are using web application then in your web.config add the following code.

<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" >
    <assemblies>
        <add assembly="System.DirectoryServices, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A"/>
        <add assembly="System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
    </assemblies>
</compilation>

Solution 3

1 - Right-Click Mouse Button on "References"
2 - Click "Add Reference ..."
3 - Click "Browse" Button
4 - Find the following files in folder:

"C:\Program Files\Reference\Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1"

-System.DirectoryServices.dll
-System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.dll

5 - Select them
6 - Press "OK" Button

Solution 4

The easy way that worked for me was to right-click on References => Add Reference, and select System.DirectoryServices (and needed subassemblies).

Solution 5

I ran into this issue in Visual Studio 2015 with an MVC project that was targeted for .NET Framework 4.5.2. Changing the target framework to .NET 4.5 resolved the problem.

View more solutions

Comments

[Ali]

System.DirectoryServices assembly is already added,I removed this and added again but same error

[Ed_]

If you happen to not see your folder 'references' search on the top of the "solution explorer" panel for a 'show all files' option.

[Arik]

Nowadays you can just pick from the list, instead of browsing.

[rpm192]

2020 this still works, although the directory has changed to: C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\*version*