Developing a PDMWorks Enterprise add-in in Microsoft VB.NET Jonathan Freeson Senior Consultant / Partner xLM Solutions, LLC

Overview Programming with the PDMWE API Development and Debugging Techniques –Using the VB.NET Example Program in the API Help File found on the PDMWE CD (API_GB.CHM) Note: There are hidden slides and slide notes in the deck that go into more detail in some areas.

API: Very Important Change in PDMWE 2008 Visual Basic 6 is no longer supported. VB6 applications upgrade to VB.NET Relatively Easily

API: Requirements Suggest Microsoft.NET 2.0 Development Environment –Documentation has screenshots showing Visual Studio/Visual Basic 2002 which is.NET 1.0. –64 Bit Support introduced in.NET 2.0 –SQL 2005 uses.NET 2.0 –Visual Basic 2005 and 2008 can target.NET 2.0 Visual Basic Express Edition can be used in a limited fashion

Development : Getting Started – Creating The Project Start Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 or 2008 Create a new Class Library

Development: Visual Basic 2008 Notes Default target runtime is.NET 3.5.NET 2.0 is more common that 3.5 and is more likely to be installed on all clients. –Target should be changed to.NET 2.0

Development: Visual Basic 2008 Notes

Visual Basic 2008 Notes

Environment Setup – Adding References 2007 and 2008 use the EDMLIB COM Library.

Environment Setup – Adding References Adding the COM reference creates an COM Interop Assembly called Interop.EdmLib.DLL This DLL is a wrapper/bridge between.NET and COM Very important: The Interop.EdmLib.DLL that is automatically created must be deployed with the Add In DLL.

Environment Setup – Project Settings In VB 2005 and 2008, mark Assembly as COM-Visible.

Writing Code – Implementing Interface The class that is called from PDMWE must implement the EdmLib.IEdmAddIn5 interface.

Getting Started -- Interfaces GetAddInInfo –Called by PDMWE to determine what the AddIn is capable of o Specifying which version of PDMWE is supported o Events to which it is subscribed OnCmd –Called whenever a subscribed event occurs –Can abort/cancel certain operations

The API Uses a lot of Object Orientated Programming (OOP) structures. –Not easily visible to the development environment –Examples: o Multiple versions of same object exist. IEdmVault7 is compatible with IEdmVault6, IEdmVault5, etc. o An IEdmVault object can also be a IEdmVariableMgr5. Well documented in the API_GB.CHM file found on the PDMWE CD. Good starting point.

Developing And Debugging Using example from API_GB.CHM

Compiling And Deploying Test Version

Adding the Add In Common mistake – Forgetting to set COM Visible

Debugging Up to now, everything could be done with Express Editions of Visual Basic. Debugging requires a full Visual Studio PDMWE runs as part of Windows Explorer –Use Visual Studio to Debug the explorer.exe process –Usually requires explorer.exe to be killed so close important windows and save work Tips: In windows, CTRL-SHIFT-ESCAPE brings up task manager –Can be used to start explorer.exe when it is killed and there is no task bar to right click on.

Debugging – Attaching to running explorer.exe Attach to running explorer.exe

Debugging – Create new explorer.exe Recommended: Kill existing explorer.exe then use debugger to start new one

Debugging Demonstration Attaching to existing explorer.exe via the Debug -> Attach Process command Configuring Visual Studio Project to start explorer.exe for debugging –Must kill explorer.exe before starting

Production Deployment VERY Important to select ALL the.DLL files

Questions?

Contact Information Jonathan Freeson – Managing Partner, xLM Solutions Slide materials and the VB.NET project file can be found at: