The Media Center Sandbox

Is there a way to reference another directory location for addin dlls to be referenced? For example if I stored my files in “c:\program files\My Company\App Dir\” is there a way to setup the xml reg file to register my addin dll from there instead of copying it to the ehome directory?

 

Thanks,

R. Sparrow

AFAIK, dll of an AddIn must be in GAC. It's not in the ehome directory.

You want to install these into the GAC. Aaron and I have been working on install / uninstall scripts for use during development which can be run from the command line (with admin privileges) to (a) install the assembly into the GAC and (b) register the app with Windows Media Center. These assume you are in the same root Visual Studio solution folder and you have the GACUTIL tool installed (available from a variety of places, not the least of which is the .NET Framework SDK).

Install.bat

-----------------------

REM Usage: Install.bat [Debug|Release] [NameOfDllWithoutExtension]

@ECHO OFF

if %1 == "" goto exit
if %2 == "" goto exit

if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%"=="x86" if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432%"=="" goto x86

:x64
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /i bin\%1\%2.dll
goto register

:x86
"%programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /i bin\%1\%2.dll
goto register

:register
%windir%\ehome\RegisterMCEApp.exe Register.xml /allusers

:exit

Uninstall.bat

-----------------------

REM Usage: uninstall.bat [NameOfDllWithoutExtension]

@ECHO OFF

if %1 == "" goto exit

%windir%\ehome\RegisterMCEApp.exe Register.xml /u /allusers

if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%" == "x86" if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432%" == "" goto x86

:x64
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /u %1
goto exit

:x86
"%programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /u %1
goto exit

:exit

-----------------------

Technically speaking, you can copy into the %windir%\ehome folder and run from there without installing to the GAC. We don't recommend this approach for several reasons, some of which are...

• This folder is a Microsoft folder and there is no telling what we (might) do to files contained therein -- you might get squashed at some point inadvertently -- I'm not sure of the System File Protection policies on this folder, but you don't want to risk it with your app.
• It's common practice to place your experience in a unique location distinguishable from all others using %programfiles%\[Company]\[Application]\.

Note you can't redist GACUTIL -- Windows Installer technologies can take care of registering your components in the GAC, so you don't need to redist. Aaron (a swami guru when it comes to setup) is working on some things for the SDK to help you get an installer working properly.

---

Charlie Owen (Microsoft)

I'll post the source via the blog for a super simple dialog box example this evening illustrating this approach too.

---

Charlie Owen (Microsoft)

Posted source including the above scripts to http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/PermaLink,guid,ebdb55b3-12ff-4b75-aa23-005492c73763.aspx.

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Charlie Owen (Microsoft)

To make life even easier, you can attach the uninstall script to the pre-build event, and the install script to the post build event.  This way you don't even have to do anything other than compile the app and then run it within Media Center.

Cheers,
Andy

Nice. :-)

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Charlie Owen (Microsoft)

Thank you very much. We'll try it out.

R. Sparrow

We are using Vista 5472 right now and we are installing about 6 dll to the GAC within the install process then use a two different app.xml file to register two different MCE addins. (One is a Background Addin and the other is an MCML addin.) The two addins reference the 4 other dlls in the GAC. Of course everything is signed and strong named. The install of the dlls to the GAC and the registration of the addins all come back as successful. However, when we go to try and run the application with the from MCE the dlls for those addins cannot be found.

 

I turned on fusion logging and it’s was not checking the GAC for the dll. Just the ehome directory. I added the addin dlls (the two ones referenced in the app.xmls) to the ehome directory and everything worked. Am I missing something here or is there a bug in 5472 with loading addins from the GAC?

 

R. Sparrow

There is not a general bug that I know of regarding loading add-ins from the GAC in build 5472.5.  For example, the Media Center SDK installs McmlSampler.dll to the GAC and it runs fine from there within Windows Media Center.

What I have seen in the past when I got this type of error was that the assembly identity I specified in the RegisterMceApp XML file was not correct or did not contain all of the attributes needed to fully identify the assembly in the GAC.

Can you check and make sure that your AddIn tag in your RegisterMceApp XML file looks something like the following (this is what we have for McmlSampler):

"Microsoft.MediaCenter.Samples.McmlSampler, McmlSampler,Culture=Neutral,Version=6.0.6000.0,PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"

Specifically, you need to make sure that the assembly identity you provide includes assembly name, culture, version and public key token and that all 4 are correct.

Hopefully this helps.

Thanks!  Aaron

 

Got ya. I was missing those settings (Culture, Version, and PublicKey) it wasn't in the example I had. Thanks I think that will do it.

R. Sparrow

I am also missing the same settings (Culture, Version, and PublicKey) Culture, and version are not a problem as I can edit my project for them to work, however, how do I generate a PublicKey?

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blog.manghera.com

I found out how to get the public key tokens, cultures, version, etc... for my addin. My addin references two other dll's in addition, for these other two I simply went to the .NET 2.0 Assembly Cache and manually added these two DLL's

When I run the install.bat utility it returns with "Success"

So I then move on and run media center, sure enough my application is there in more programs. I open my application the screen changes, at this point I believe it is loading, no error messages are being displayed, but nothing happens. I am stuck looking at Vista's MCE background I do not see my application at all. What have I missed?

**EDIT**

For testing purposes i used the install.bat script with the default MCML project (Bouncing smiley face and text), and it registers fine and I am able to view it in Media Center with no problems.

I'm beginning to think there is a problem with the DLL references of my Application. When I test using MCMLPad it works, when I try registering my addin with the install.bat its a no-go.

**EDIT 2 **

I was able to resolve the issue, im not sure what exactly was wrong but I first cleaned out the GAC and the Registry and began this process one-by-one and it now works as expected.

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blog.manghera.com

I still can't get MCE to load my app from the GAC. It just looks in \Windows\Ehome. All my DLLs are registered in the GAC and are signed. I turned Fusion on, and see MCE trying to load my Add-In DLl from \Windows\eHome.

Do you really need a bat file to register in the GAC. Can't you just add:

"$(DevEnvDir)..\..\v2.0\Bin\gacutil" /f /i  "$(TargetPath)"

to the Post-build events? It is regitering fine, but can't run the Add-In.

zakspeed

zakspeed,

You ever get a resolution for this?  I'm seeing the same thing on 5600.  I know my DLL is registered in the GAC, but when I use MCMLPad (via F5 in VS2005) it can only find the DLL if I copy it into the same folder as the starting DLL.   If I run from within MCE, it fails with a Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.HostLoadException.

Cheers,
Andrew