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Add-in; Failure to get code to execute when toolbar button pressed

DaleBridgford

Hi,

I had written several VBA routines up through 9.3 and have since upgraded to 10. Since VBA will be a thing of the past in the next version, I downloaded and installed VB Express 2008 and successfully (I think) migrated the VBA to VB.Net 2008. I saved out each of the routines to their respective *.vb files and ran the Add-In wizard for a new project, adding each routine as a button added to a toolbar.

Everything compiles and I get my toolbar to show up in ArcMap, but when I press any of the buttons, they grey out and nothing executes. Similarly, the breakpoints I have inserted go hollow with a yellow triangle and when I hover over the breakpoint, it states that "The breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document."

I think that somehow I am missing the magic of how to tie the XML stuff to the VB.Net code. Is there any VB code that links the code back to the XML so it functions?

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dale Bridgford

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ScottDismukes

I think the problem is when you have ArcMap open (add-in installed) and you recompile your code. This seems to through off the registry and or arc map cache. I would compile my code and the add-in wouldn't even run the latest code, no matter what I did (searched for hours on a solution). I finally deleted add-in from arcmap, deleted it from assemblyCache, deleted bin and object directories from my project folder then rebooted my machine. I then started arcmap, did not see my add-in (expected). Closed arcmap and opened VS 2008 express and compiled my code. Then installed the add-in from the debug (or output) directory and hit play to debug. FINALLY it worked. Hopefully this helps you as well.

KeithAdlam

I have a similar problem with a different twist. My addin works fine on all the PC's I have installed it on except one. The main difference on the face of it is that the problem PC is running Windows 7 64 bit while the rest are running XP. I have not determined what the issue is here. Has anyone else had problems with addins on specific PC's ? The symptoms are the same as reported on this thread, when the buttons on the addin toolbar are clicked they turn grey and do not execute. The names in the XML match the classes that are being executed.

Keith AM Adlam
British Geological Survey

DaleBridgford

Jeff,

I didn't change anything in the XML file (Config.esriaddinx) and I think that I may have inadvertently shot myself in the foot by manually bracketing my code with Namespace/End Namespace very early on in the process.

Still, when I go to debug the code, the filled in red breakpoint goes hollow with the yellow triangle as ArcMap launches, but when I click the associated button, it stops at the breakpoint and allows me to step through the code. I suspect an error somewhere, but it does not seem to be significant (famous last words).

Thanks,

Dale

Dale,

Just so I am clear about what resolved your problem: All you had to do was remove the enclosing namespace that was created by the New Add-In Project wizard in the button class file?

What about the following entry in your original Config.esriaddinx file:
<AddIn language="CLR" library="ERMDTools.dll" namespace="ERMDTools">
Did you need to edit that as well to an empty namespace?

-Jeff

JeffreyHamblin

Dale,

Just so I am clear about what resolved your problem: All you had to do was remove the enclosing namespace that was created by the New Add-In Project wizard in the button class file?

What about the following entry in your original Config.esriaddinx file:

<AddIn language="CLR" library="ERMDTools.dll" namespace="ERMDTools">

Did you need to edit that as well to an empty namespace?

-Jeff

DaleBridgford

Well, I would like to thank everyone for their input. I have solved my dilemma, more or less. I have found that the structure of the vb for the Add-In needed to be as follows:

Imports ....


Public Class btnAddHyperlink
    Inherits ESRI.ArcGIS.Desktop.AddIns.Button


    Public Sub New()

    End Sub


    Protected Overrides Sub OnClick()

        Dim pFeature As IFeature, pLayer As ILayer

        Dim pSRE As SpatialReferenceEnvironment
        Dim pQF As IQueryFilter

and with that structure, the button would hit the code. Again, many thanks for everyone's assistance.

Dale

JeffreyHamblin

Ok, my problem is resolved (although I believe the original poster's problem still exists).

After combing over the various config files in Visual Studio, I noticed in Config.esriaddinx that for each button the class name was not the same as my actual button class names. How they got out of sync I am not sure... and I certainly should have found that sooner. But it explains the behavior.

Sorry for confusing this issue further.

(edit: 12/15)

I now know what happened, and it was completely my fault, not the Add-In wizard or Visual Studio. I located my notes from a few weeks back: I had used refactoring to change the name of the classes without fully testing the Add-In before stopping work on it to start another project. Unfortunately, the refactoring utility does not know about or change the related values in Config.esriaddinx, so that has to be done manually.

I think because I was already posting to this thread, I "red herring" -ed myself.

-Jeff

AlexanderGray

I have never used visual studio express but in visual studio, under tools, there is an attach to process option. If you start ArcMap, from the start menu, in vs, you can attach to the arcmap process. As long as the dll loaded (in addins folder) is compiled in debug mode and the debug metadata is there (.pdb), you should be able to at least debug the code. It is possible your code is running, failing, not handling the exceptions and it looks like the code didn't run at all. Could also explain why some code runs and some other doesn't.

JeffreyHamblin

Thanks for the replies, Neil and Dale,

One thing I found is that I can install an older version of the same Add-In from its .esriAddIn file -- and it works fine. And it has the same AddInID.

So something is getting munged on a per Add-In basis.

The compiled Add-In does end up in three locations: debug, release, and the ESRI Add-Ins folder. So I will see if I can find any duplicate registry entries...

-Jeff

NeilClemmons_GISinc

I haven't had need to create an add-in yet but just a quick question. When you compile your add-in, is Visual Studio creating the project output in one location (i.e. the Debug directory under your project directory) and then the output is copied to a location where ArcGIS expects to find it (i.e. the Add-ins directory)? If so, have you tried modifying your Visual Studio project properties to create the project output directly in the ArcGIS Add-ins directory? One thing that could be happening is Visual Studio is creating registry entries for your classes each time the project is compiled and then ArcGIS is doing the same thing when it finds your add-in assemblies. This causes confusion because the system has entries in the registry for the same classes in two separate locations. If this is indeed what is happening, then the only way I know to rectify the situation is to delete all of the class entries in the registry, which can be tricky to say the least.

DaleBridgford

Jeff,

Oddly, I just finally got my code to crash. Based on one of the examples I had seen in the past, I put a Namespace - End Namespace around my code. I built a "Hello World" button and it successfully ran. I noted that it did not put Namespace in any of the wizard generated code, so I took the reference out. Upon recompiling, as Arc launched, the Breakpoint went hollow, but when I pressed the button on the toolbar, it fired the code and went to the refilled in breakpoint. It immediately crashed on the second line of my code, but its the first sign of progress I have had in over a month of dinking around with this stuff.

Does your code have use Namespace, or is that not an issue in C#? Hope you can figure it out.

Dale

JeffreyHamblin

Well, if it makes you all feel any better, I just started having the same problem with one of my projects! Buttons gray out when clicked and nothing happens... It had been working fine for over a month. I didn't make any changes to it. 😞

I'm using Visual Studio C# 2008 Express.

Doesn't matter whether I'm debugging or running ArcMap outside a debug session.

But, a different project still works, both debugging and not. So it's not a global problem.

I tried deleting the Add-In manually from:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\ArcGIS\AddIns\Desktop10.0

And deleting the assembly cache from:
\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\ESRI\Desktop10.0\AssemblyCache\
(note: you have to set folder options to display hidden protected operating system files)

I even tried code-signing the Add-In.

Didn't fix it... grrrr. I have a deadline tomorrow and this is not good.

-Jeff

AnnaForrest

I haven't used add-ins hardly at all, but I did have trouble getting ESRI stuff to run my commands right when they were in a namespace. Can you try and remove the namespacing at least to test?

In my case I managed to retain the namespacing by decorating my classes with <ProgId("ProjectName.CommandName")>

JeffreyHamblin

Dale,

One other quick thing to check. If you build your test project that displays a message box, then close Visual Studio and launch ArcMap 10 alone, does your button display the message box?

I'm just wondering if some debugger settings in VS are getting in the way.

-Jeff

DaleBridgford

Thanks Jeff. I will have a look at your tutorial and see if that sparks any ideas. This morning, I installed SP1 for ArcMap and the ArcObjects SDK. Same problems, new versions. BTW, I am using the Express versions of both VB and C# (2008).

I can follow VB and have looked at C# and get the basic gist of the syntax, but I don't know if I want to expend the time to try and translate the VB to C#. Is the help documentation and intellisense better for C#?

Thanks,

Dale

elisapuccioni

Hi again,
I've tried all Jeff's suggestions but still have the some hollow red circle as Dale. In other Visual Studio forums I've found that the error we get seems to be generated by the lack of a .pdb file in the Debug folder, but actually I have this file in my folder. Probably the only thing to do is trying to reinstall the SDK again.
Dale, if you find a solution, please share it!
Thanks everybody,
Elisa

JeffreyHamblin

I haven't run into any of the problems you describe, although I am using Visual Studio C# 2008 Express. It has worked seemlessly for me and is easy as billed. I understand your frustration.

My best guess is that either the SDK installer did not properly configure the SDK for use with your VS installation, or you are doing something unusual when creating the project.

I am working on a tutorial for VBA to Add-in conversions. It is for C# instead of VB.NET, but you might want to look at Parts 3 and 4 to see if you're doing anything differently.

http://gis.qtools.com/blog/tutorials/vba-to-c-add-in/part-3-setting-up-visual-studio/

Unless someone else posts a better solution, I think the next step would be to uninstall the ArcObjects SDK, then reinstall. If that doesn't work, uninstall/reinstall both the SDK and Visual Studio.

-Jeff

DaleBridgford

If that doesn't fix it, try starting a new test Add-In that only has a single button and toolbar, and just the message box in the button click. So let the wizard create all the code except the one line for the message box.

-Jeff

Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up deleting everything as suggested and recompiled to try again. It continued to give me a hollow red circle with a yellow triangle at breakpoints I inserted into the code and when I hover over the breakpoint, it states that "The breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document." This has been consistent throughout this project.

I then created a new project consisting of one button and no tool bar.

The entire code in Button1:

Public Class Button1
  Inherits ESRI.ArcGIS.Desktop.AddIns.Button

  Public Sub New()

  End Sub

  Protected Overrides Sub OnClick()
    '
    '  TODO: Sample code showing how to access button host
    '
    My.ArcMap.Application.CurrentTool = Nothing
  End Sub

  Protected Overrides Sub OnUpdate()
    Enabled = My.ArcMap.Application IsNot Nothing
  End Sub
End Class

Where the TODO is in the commented area is where I placed the messagebox code (after I uncommented it). Compiling and running again gave me the hollow red circle with the yellow exclamation mark.

This is frustrating since the way the add-in has been presented makes it an appealing way to distribute functionality.

Thanks,

Dale

JeffreyHamblin

I don't see anything obviously wrong in your Config.esriaddinx code.

There have been other posts here indicating some problems relating to project builds in Visual Studio not updating the Add-in. I have not experienced that problem, but it might be worth a shot for you to clear the Add-in.

Delete the folder with the GUID name that is the same as the AddInID in
XP:
c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\ArcGIS\AddIns\Desktop10.0
Win7/Vista:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\ArcGIS\AddIns\Desktop10.0

Do a Rebuild solution and the start debugging to test the Add-In.

If that doesn't fix it, try starting a new test Add-In that only has a single button and toolbar, and just the message box in the button click. So let the wizard create all the code except the one line for the message box.

-Jeff

DaleBridgford

Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff. I will attempt to see if that works now.

Well, I still seem to be unable to have the button invoke my code. From my original code post above, I commented all of the code in the Protected Overrides Sub and just threw in a messagebox statement.

Below is the XML for the Add-In, if that might give any insight.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Dale

<ESRI.Configuration xmlns="http://schemas.esri.com/Desktop/AddIns" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <Name>ERMDTools</Name>
  <AddInID>{eb6ba448-f56d-4ac4-9ba8-1ae452fb5519}</AddInID>
  <Description>Conversion of my VBA tools to add coordinates to tables and such.</Description>
  <Version>1.0</Version>
  <Image>Images\ERMDTools.png</Image>
  <Author>Dale R. Bridgford</Author>
  <Company>SOM</Company>
  <Date>12/13/2010</Date>
  <Targets>
    <Target name="Desktop" version="10.0" />
  </Targets>
  <AddIn language="CLR" library="ERMDTools.dll" namespace="ERMDTools">
    <ArcMap>
      <Commands>
        <Button id="SOM_ERMDTools_AddPolygonCentroid" class="btnAddPolygonCentroid" message="Adds the X and Y coordinates of each polygon's centroid (center of mass) to the attribute table" caption="Polygon Centroid XY" category="Bridgford Tools" image="Images\AddPolygonCentroid.png" tip="Adds the latitude and longitude of the polygon's centroids"></Button>
        <Button id="SOM_ERMDTools_AddPolyLineCentroid" class="btnAddPolyLineCentroid" message="Adds the X and Y coordinates of each polyline's centroid (center of mass) to the attribute table." caption="Polyline Centroid XY" category="Bridgford Tools" image="Images\AddPolyLineCentroid.png" tip="Adds the latitude and longitude of the polyline's centroid."></Button>
        <Button id="SOM_ERMDTools_AddXY" class="btnAddXY" message="Adds the XY coordinates of the point to the attribute table." caption="Point XY" category="Add-In Controls" tip="Adds XYs to the Attribute Table" image="Images\AddXY.png"></Button>
        <Button id="SOM_ERMDTools_AddXYZ" class="btnAddXYZ" message="Adds XYZ of DataFrame and XY of feature" category="ERMDTools" caption="Add XYZ and XY" tip="Populates attribute table with XYZ of dataframe and xy of feature so you get two sets of coordinates for the price of one." image="Images\AddXYZ.png"></Button>
        <Button id="SOM_ERMDTools_AddHyperlink" class="btnAddHyperlink" message="Creates Hyperlink to ERMD's WDS Webpage." caption="Add Hyperlink" category="Add-In Controls" tip="Generates a Hyperlink based upon data in attribute tables and places hyperlink in attribute table" image="Images\AddHyperlink.png"></Button>
      </Commands>
      <Toolbars>
         <Toolbar id="SOM_ERMDTools_ERMD_Tools" caption="ERMD Tools" showInitially="true">
          <Items>
            <Button refID="SOM_ERMDTools_AddHyperlink" />
            <Button refID="SOM_ERMDTools_AddXY" separator="true" />
            <Button refID="SOM_ERMDTools_AddXYZ" separator="true" />
            <Button refID="SOM_ERMDTools_AddPolyLineCentroid" separator="true" />
            <Button refID="SOM_ERMDTools_AddPolygonCentroid" separator="true" />
          </Items>
        </Toolbar>
      </Toolbars>
    </ArcMap>
  </AddIn>
</ESRI.Configuration>

DaleBridgford

Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff. I will attempt to see if that works now.

JeffreyHamblin

Rather than immediately trying to implement your VBA code conversion, have you tried just getting a simple message box "Hello World" to display from the OnClick() event? That way you check if the basic Add-In framework is working correctly before incorporating any actual ArcObjects code. The wizard should be handling all the XML and boilerplate code.

-Jeff

DaleBridgford

Elisa,

Sorry, but to this point, I have had no responses in either place I have posted this question. If there is additional information anyone needs on this, please let me know. The add-in concept seems to make for a clean way to distribute functionality without having to register .dll's or the like.

Thanks,

Dale

elisapuccioni

Hi Dale,

I'm having exactly the same problem. did you find a solution? Any help will be really appreciated!

Thanks,
Elisa

DaleBridgford

To provide a bit more detail to my question, all of the routines I had written, check for the existence of a field in the attribute table, create the field if not present, and populates the field.

In reading about add-ins, there were some limitations, but I didn't quite catch whether working on the table structure would be within those limitations.

DaleBridgford

To provide a bit more background, I am enclosing a portion of the code. This is typical of what I have cludged together from various posts. All variations that I have tried are equally inoperative.

Again, any insight as to where I have gone astray would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dale Bridgford

Imports ESRI.ArcGIS.Geometry


Namespace ERMDTools

    Public Class btnAddHyperlink
        Inherits ESRI.ArcGIS.Desktop.AddIns.Button
        Public Sub New()

        End Sub

        Protected Overrides Sub OnClick()
            Dim pFeature As IFeature, pLayer As ILayer
            Dim pMap As IMap
            Dim pSRE As SpatialReferenceEnvironment
            Dim pQF As IQueryFilter
            Dim pMSR As ISpatialReference
            Dim pGeoDataset As IGeoDataset
            Dim pMxDoc As ESRI.ArcGIS.ArcMapUI.IMxDocument
            pMxDoc = Nothing
            pMxDoc = m_App.Document
            pMap = pMxDoc.FocusMap
            pMSR = pMap.SpatialReference

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