Is there a way to edit .dll file

Question

User2108892867 posted

Hello everyone, here is my situation. A few years back, I set up a project for a client. Everything is working fine. When you published a project in visual studio, a .dll file is compiled. Every year, I need to update a class to add a new record for new year. For instance, I need to add year 2021 to a class. It's like 4 lines of code. After that, I publish and replace the .dll without touching any of the files. However,  I accidentally lost the original source code of the project, is there a tool I could edit the existing .dll file?

Thanks. 

Answer 1

User753101303 posted

Hi,

You could try a decompiler tool such as https://www.jetbrains.com/decompiler/

Not sure how you handle your source code but you have source control management tools either local or in the cloud such as Azure DevOps or GitHub.

Unless this is to keep them in touch each rear, it could be also some kind of configuration settings that you could change wihthout upading the class.

Answer 2

User2108892867 posted

Thank you. Yes I tried the decompiler. I can see the code but I cannot make any changes. 

Yes I know. Stupid mistake of me.

Answer 3

User753101303 posted

The idea is not to update the DLL file but to be able to recreate the code you get so that you can again create the DLL file from its source code.