Bob
Fri Mar 21 13:09:33 CDT 2008
>>> It turns out that VS 2005 supports "Solution Add-Ins", which are add-ins
>>> that are only loaded for a specific solution.
>> Just one little itsy bitsy minor problem... The help topic is misleading,
>> incomplete, and just plain wrong.
> FYI, I burned an MSDN tech support issue and started a support case.
That was one of the most productive and fulfilling support contacts I've ever
had. It turns out that, yes, the documentation is bogus. Here is how to wire
up a "solution add-in":
To begin, create a new Add-in project. Make sure you tell the wizard not to
automatically load your add-in.
Now, in order to work, this add-in must be registered with COM. This is because
this add-in is going to call the AddIns.Add method, which requires the target of
the method to be an add-in registered with COM. The "easy" way to register your
assembly with COM is to check the "Register for COM interop" check box on the
Compile tab of the project properties. However, this requires that you run with
admin privileges, because VS will try to fiddle with the registry every time you
build or clean your project. We're going to set things up so that we can
manually register the assembly (with admin privileges) but otherwise we can
build and test without admin privileges.
In order to register your assembly with COM (via regasm) you need to strong-name
sign it. The process to do this is well documented.
You also need to hard-code the assembly version so that the version number
registered with COM agrees with the version number you're actually deploying and
running.
In AssemblyInfo.vb (sorry C# folks, you need to translate this yourselves ;-)
' Hard-code the assembly version because
' we are going to strong-name sign the assembly
<Assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")>
' Specify a TypeLib GUID to expose this assembly to COM
<Assembly: GuidAttribute("your TypeLib GUID here")>
In Connect.vb, add the following lines before the class declaration:
<ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)> _
<Guid("your class GUID here")> _
<ComVisible(True)> _
This magic provides the metadata that regasm uses to expose your class to COM.
(Note that the two GUID values above must be different!) After you've built
your assembly, you need to run regasm as administrator. Right-click on the
shortcut to the VS 2005 command prompt and select "Run As..." and run the
command prompt as administrator. Then type in:
regasm /codebase <path to your dll>
Now, in the OnConnection routine, we're going to add code that recognizes when
the user selects our add-in in the add-in manager. When that happens then we're
going to persist the selection in the current solution (.sln file). Thereafter,
whenever the user opens this solution, our add-in will automatically load and
run.
Public Sub OnConnection(...) _
Implements IDTExtensibility2.OnConnection
_applicationObject = CType(application, DTE2)
_addInInstance = CType(addInInst, AddIn)
' If the user enables this add-in via the Add-In Manager then
' add this add-in to the solution's set of "registered" add-ins
If connectMode = ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_AfterStartup Then
With _addInInstance
_applicationObject.Solution.AddIns.Add(
.ProgID, .Description, .Name, .Connected)
End With
End If
End Sub
(Note that you probably need to add error handling code. For example, the user
may select the add-in without first loading a solution.)
Finally, despite what the documentation says, you need to retain the ".AddIn"
files so that your add-in shows up in the Add-In Manager.
Good luck...
Robert Altman