How to: Configure an Application Domain

You can provide the common language runtime with configuration information for a new application domain using the AppDomainSetup class. When creating your own application domains, the most important property is ApplicationBase. The other AppDomainSetup properties are used mainly by runtime hosts to configure a particular application domain.

The ApplicationBase property defines the root directory of the application. When the runtime needs to satisfy a type request, it probes for the assembly containing the type in the directory specified by the ApplicationBase property.

The following example creates an instance of the AppDomainSetup class, uses this class to create a new application domain, writes the information to console, and then unloads the application domain.

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Reflection;

ref class AppDomain4
{
public:
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create application domain setup information.
        AppDomainSetup^ domaininfo = gcnew AppDomainSetup();
        domaininfo->ApplicationBase = "f:\\work\\development\\latest";

        // Create the application domain.
        AppDomain^ domain = AppDomain::CreateDomain("MyDomain", nullptr, domaininfo);

        // Write application domain information to the console.
        Console::WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain::CurrentDomain->FriendlyName);
        Console::WriteLine("child domain: " + domain->FriendlyName);
        Console::WriteLine("Application base is: " + domain->SetupInformation->ApplicationBase);

        // Unload the application domain.
        AppDomain::Unload(domain);
    }
};

int main()
{
    AppDomain4::Main();
}

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class AppDomain4
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // Create application domain setup information.
        AppDomainSetup domaininfo = new AppDomainSetup();
        domaininfo.ApplicationBase = "f:\\work\\development\\latest";

        // Create the application domain.
        AppDomain domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", null, domaininfo);

        // Write application domain information to the console.
        Console.WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName);
        Console.WriteLine("child domain: " + domain.FriendlyName);
        Console.WriteLine("Application base is: " + domain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase);

        // Unload the application domain.
        AppDomain.Unload(domain);
    }
}

Imports System.Reflection

Class AppDomain4
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' Create application domain setup information.
        Dim domaininfo As new AppDomainSetup()
        domaininfo.ApplicationBase = "f:\work\development\latest"

        ' Create the application domain.
        Dim domain As AppDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyDomain", Nothing, domaininfo)

        ' Write application domain information to the console.
        Console.WriteLine("Host domain: " + AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName)
        Console.WriteLine("child domain: " + domain.FriendlyName)
        Console.WriteLine("Application base is: " + domain.SetupInformation.ApplicationBase)

        ' Unload the application domain.
        AppDomain.Unload(domain)
    End Sub
End Class

• Programming with Application Domains
• Using Application Domains