How to inspect assemblies before including them in your application with reflection

gistfile1.cs

public class PackageBinaryInspector : MarshalByRefObject
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Entry point to call from your code
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="dllPath"></param>
    /// <param name="errorReport"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Will perform the assembly scan in a separate app domain
    /// </remarks>
    public static IEnumerable<string> ScanAssembliesForTypeReference<T>(string dllPath, out string[] errorReport)
    {
        var appDomain = GetTempAppDomain();
        var type = typeof(PackageBinaryInspector);
        try
        {
            var value = (PackageBinaryInspector)appDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap(
                    type.Assembly.FullName,
                    type.FullName);
            var result = value.PerformScan<T>(dllPath, out errorReport);
            return result;
        }
        finally
        {
            AppDomain.Unload(appDomain);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Performs the assembly scanning
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>        
    /// <param name="dllPath"></param>
    /// <param name="errorReport"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    /// <remarks>
    /// This method is executed in a separate app domain
    /// </remarks>
    internal IEnumerable<string> PerformScan<T>(string dllPath, out string[] errorReport)
    {
        if (Directory.Exists(dllPath) == false)
        {
            throw new DirectoryNotFoundException("Could not find directory " + dllPath);
        }

        var files = Directory.GetFiles(dllPath, "*.dll");
        var dllsWithReference = new List<string>();
        var errors = new List<string>();
        var assembliesWithErrors = new List<string>();

        //we need this handler to resolve assembly dependencies below
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve += (s, e) =>
            {
                var a = Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(GetAssemblyPath(Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoad(e.Name)));                    
                if (a == null) throw new TypeLoadException("Could not load assembly " + e.Name);
                return a;
            };

        //First load each dll file into the context            
        foreach (var f in files) Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(f);

        //Then load each referenced assembly into the context
        foreach (var f in files)
        {
            var reflectedAssembly = Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(f);
            foreach (var assemblyName in reflectedAssembly.GetReferencedAssemblies())
            {
                try
                {
                    Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(GetAssemblyPath(Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoad(assemblyName.FullName)));
                }
                catch (FileNotFoundException)
                {
                    //if an exception occurs it means that a referenced assembly could not be found                        
                    errors.Add(
                        string.Concat("This package references the assembly '",
                            assemblyName.Name,
                            "' which was not found, this package may have problems running"));
                    assembliesWithErrors.Add(f);
                }
            }
        }

        var contractType = GetLoadFromContractType<T>();

        //now that we have all referenced types into the context we can look up stuff
        foreach (var f in files.Except(assembliesWithErrors))
        {
            //now we need to see if they contain any type 'T'
            var reflectedAssembly = Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(f);

            var found = reflectedAssembly.GetExportedTypes()
                .Where(contractType.IsAssignableFrom);

            if (found.Any())
            {
                dllsWithReference.Add(reflectedAssembly.FullName);
            }
        }

        errorReport = errors.ToArray();
        return dllsWithReference;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// In order to compare types, the types must be in the same context, this method will return the type that
    /// we are checking against but from the LoadFrom context.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private static Type GetLoadFromContractType<T>()
    {
        var contractAssemblyLoadFrom = Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(
            GetAssemblyPath(Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoad(typeof (T).Assembly.FullName)));

        var contractType = contractAssemblyLoadFrom.GetExportedTypes()
            .FirstOrDefault(x => x.FullName == typeof(T).FullName && x.Assembly.FullName == typeof(T).Assembly.FullName);
            
        if (contractType == null)
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not find type " + typeof(T) + " in the LoadFrom assemblies");
        }
        return contractType;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Create an app domain
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private static AppDomain GetTempAppDomain()
    {
        //copy the current app domain setup but don't shadow copy files
        var appName = "TempDomain" + Guid.NewGuid();
        var domainSetup = new AppDomainSetup
            {
                ApplicationName = appName,
                ShadowCopyFiles = "false",
                ApplicationBase = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase,
                ConfigurationFile = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile,
                DynamicBase = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.DynamicBase,
                LicenseFile = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.LicenseFile,
                LoaderOptimization = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.LoaderOptimization,
                PrivateBinPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.PrivateBinPath,
                PrivateBinPathProbe = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.PrivateBinPathProbe
            };

        //create new domain with full trust
        return AppDomain.CreateDomain(
            appName,
            AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Evidence,
            domainSetup,
            new PermissionSet(PermissionState.Unrestricted));
    }

    private static string GetAssemblyPath(Assembly a)
    {
        var codeBase = a.CodeBase;
        var uri = new Uri(codeBase);
        return uri.LocalPath;
    }

}

Hi, Shannon
Looking to rework your code to use reflection in a temp domain. I need to obtain the assemblies to perform reflection on. Any Ideas on how I could re-purpose your code here?