But I am trying to find either some kind of advanced howto or some more involved source code that is given away with the API download.

Would anyone here be so kind as to point me in the right direction?

What sort of examples are you looking for?

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Originally posted by frak
But I am trying to find either some kind of advanced howto or some more involved source code that is given away with the API download.

Would anyone here be so kind as to point me in the right direction?

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quote:

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Plugin API: get the latest documentation of the Messenger Plus! API and create your own plugin today!

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I have the API docs, but my question isn't so much about the Messenger API - that I can deal with.

What I want is an example test harness, as I am not sure how to go about debugging my (test) plugin.  The DLL is built, I have moved it, registered it, added the relevant reg key and yet nothing happens.

As it is a DLL I am not sure how I would step through the code to find out what is going wrong, and the last thing I want to have to do is put in a load of MsgBox's to find out where it is failing.

If you follow the guidelines in the API doc exactly, then your DLL should run just fine... The procedures in the examples are very important and must be followed exactly. In other words, first check if your dll is loaded correctly. If that is ok, afterwards you can start checking your routines you perform.

You indeed could add some msgboxes. That's the quickest way to find out where something went wrong.

Thanks for your continued help, but I think my problem is not so much with the code I have written, but more the process of getting a VB.NET plugin running.  And I would really love to get at the files the following URL that has been mentioned a few times on the forum, but seems to be broken:

http://www.mscorlib.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=271

If anyone here has a copy of this that they can mail me, please PM me?

interesting threads to read (I know it takes time to read all of it, but it might help a lot):
http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=21003
http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=19088
http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=25027

something which attracted my attention:

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Originally posted by SilenceTi
it is importent in vb.net and c# that you have to register the dll in your register just like vb plugins, AND you will have to set "Register for COM Interop" to true in the project properties.

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Originally posted by CookieReviseddid you try to run the example plugin (unmodified) in the MPPlugins documentation from Plus!?

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Originally posted by KokiriChild
It's horrible trying to VB.NET plugins to work, and according to the baord getting that VB.NET Plugin to work is even worse again. Sorry I can't be of more help, but "don't follow the example" is what I'm trying to say.

- KokiriChild

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CookieRevised:

I have COM interop enabled - all I have done is taken the sample project and cut out the code I didn't want.  I have read through all three of the threads that you kindly gave me links to.  I guess what this is teaching me is to give up on VB.NET - I should have known after all the heartache VB 6 has given me over the years.  Is VB6 going to be an easier bet?  Or should I go for the steep curve and choose c++?

KokiriChild:

Do you know of any plugin authors who have succeeded?

Music Logger Plus has been written in C#.NET, except some errors after installing it, it does work, but... As far as I know you can only use 1 C#.NET (and probably VB.NET, those are almost the same) plugin in the same time. When installing the second .NET plugin it doesn't work. So when testing, uncheck all the other plugins in your plugin list to make sure that isn't the problem.

Patchou, I think it is a kind of bug in MsgPlus. For the record, I do use the Interop.MessengerAPI.dll.

When registering it with regasm /codebase "path/to/my/plugin" (and the plugin isn't in the plugins dir) it does work, but as I said only 1 plugin a time.

When it is in the plugins dir it does work the same, but when starting messenger for the first time you get an error, so you have to restart messenger (the error about 2 copies of mscoree.dll loaded ...). That's what also happens with Music Logger Plus!

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regasm /codebase

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That may indeed be the problem. I've tested and regasm /codebase turned out to be the best way. And as I said before, the plugin doesn't need to be in the plugins dir, because with the codebase option the full path to the plugin is registered

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Originally posted by frak
KokiriChild:

Do you know of any plugin authors who have succeeded?

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Originally posted by frak
I guess what this is teaching me is to give up on VB.NET - I should have known after all the heartache VB 6 has given me over the years.  Is VB6 going to be an easier bet?

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Originally posted by frak
Or should I go for the steep curve and choose c++?

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Originally posted by KokiriChild
Uhm, no, sorry, we're all VB6 around here

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'We' are certainly not all VB6 around here

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Originally posted by J-Thread
As far as I know you can only use 1 C#.NET (and probably VB.NET, those are almost the same) plugin in the same time.

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Yes I thougt of that too...

I did send Patchou an email about it yesterday, so we'll wait for his answer... I hope he can improve plus, or tell us what the right way is to install .NET plugins. We'll see

Unfortunately despite my best efforts I am unable to get any kind of code working using VB.NET - even using the /codebase option (are those warnings normal?)

Thanks for your help anyway guys - I think I may try C++ as I have slightly masochistic tendencies ;o)

code:

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    Public Function Initialize(ByVal nVersion As Integer, ByVal sUserEmail As String, ByVal oMessenger As Object) As Boolean
        MsgBox(sAppName + "::Initialise called!", MsgBoxStyle.OKOnly, "DEBUG")
        MyPlugin.oMessenger = oMessenger
        MsgBox(sAppName + "::Initialise - Got Messenger ref", MsgBoxStyle.OKOnly, "DEBUG")
        Initialize = True
    End Function

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code:

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    Public Shared WithEvents oMessenger As MessengerAPI.Messenger

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When you want to use the messengerapi there are some things to do.

-First, add Interop.MessengerAPI as a reference to your project.
-Build your project
-Copy your dll to a dir where you gonna install it
-Copy the Interop.MessengerAPI.dll (which will be in your build dir) to the SAME map as your plugin
-Register your plugin using the codebase option
-Add your plugin name to the msg plus registry key

The reason you only see the first msgbox is, as soon as you try to use the messenger api an error appears and your plugin is closed. When you try it as i destribed above it should work.

Sorry, but I have been doing what you have described above (minus the codebase option until I found out about it) from the very beginning...

Anyway, it turns out I had a problem with some logic just after the reference assignment, although I am not sure why that should affect the display of my msgbox just after the reference assigment.

I shall now take my Homer of the Week award bow!

code:

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Public Shared WithEvents oMessenger As MessengerAPI.MessengerClass

    Public Function Initialize(ByVal nVersion As Integer, ByVal sUserEmail As String, ByVal oMessenger As MessengerAPI.MessengerClass) As Boolean
        MsgBox(sAppName + "::Initialise called!", MsgBoxStyle.OKOnly, "DEBUG")
        MyPlugin.oMessenger = oMessenger
        MsgBox(sAppName + "::Initialise - Got Messenger ref", MsgBoxStyle.OKOnly, "DEBUG")
        Initialize = True
    End Function

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