The Media Center Sandbox

I developed a media center application that works perfectly. However, I needed to change the assembly name and namespace. Rather than doing a find/replace I just decided to create a brand new project and recreate it all from scratch. What's weird is that the new app will not build as I am getting a "Unable to find type" error. The old project builds and runs flawlessly. Can't seem to figure it out. Been researching and playing with it for weeks now. I have a feeling that it has to do with the GAC utility or something along those lines. I really need help with this as I am running short on time. Here is some snippits of code and the errors:

The Error:

Error    3    Unable to find type 'DeviceItem'.    C:\Users\Matt\My Projects\Homeboy Software\Apps\Homeboy WMC\Markup\AddDevice.mcml    95    1    HomeboyWMC


The MCML:

<Mcml xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2008/mcml"
      xmlns:cor="assembly://MsCorLib/System"
      xmlns:a="assembly://HomeboyWMC/HomeboyWMC"
      xmlns:c="resx://HomeboyWMC/HomeboyWMC.Resources/Controls"
      xmlns:host="assembly://Microsoft.MediaCenter/Microsoft.MediaCenter.Hosting"
      xmlns:me="Me">

  <UI Name="AddDevice">

    <Properties>
      <a:Application Name="Application" Application="$Required"/>
      <host:PageSession Name="Session" PageSession="$Required"/>
    </Properties>

    <Locals>
      <a:AddDeviceScreen Name="AddDeviceScreen"/>
    </Locals>

    <Content>
      <Panel Layout="Form">

        <Children>

          <c:HeaderText Text="Add Device">
            <LayoutInput>
              <FormLayoutInput Right="Parent,1,-100"
                               Top="Parent,0, 50"/>
            </LayoutInput>
          </c:HeaderText>

          <!--
          <me:ActionsMenu Application="[Application]">
            <LayoutInput>
              <FormLayoutInput Left="Parent,.10"
                               Top="Parent, .25"/>
            </LayoutInput>
          </me:ActionsMenu>
          -->

          <me:ScreenForm Application="[Application]" AddDeviceScreen="[AddDeviceScreen]">
            <LayoutInput>
              <FormLayoutInput Left="Parent,.40"
                               Top="Parent, .25"/>
            </LayoutInput>
          </me:ScreenForm>

          <me:Navigation Application="[Application]" Session="[Session]" AddDeviceScreen="[AddDeviceScreen]">
            <LayoutInput>
              <FormLayoutInput Right="Parent,.90"
                               Bottom="Parent, .90"/>
            </LayoutInput>
          </me:Navigation>

        </Children>
      </Panel>
    </Content>

  </UI>

  <UI Name="ActionsMenu">

    <Properties>
      <a:Application Name="Application" Application="$Required"/>
    </Properties>

    <Locals>
      <Command Name="SaveCommand" />
      <Command Name="CancelCommand" />
    </Locals>

    <Rules>
      <Changed Source="[SaveCommand.Invoked]">
        <Actions>
          <Invoke Target="[Application.SaveModem]"/>
        </Actions>
      </Changed>
    </Rules>

    <Content>
      <Panel Layout="VerticalFlow">
        <Children>
          <Text Name="Title" Color="Aqua" Content="ACTIONS" Margins="0,0,0,5" Font="Calibri, 24"></Text>
          <c:SimpleButton Name="SaveButton"  Size="250,51" Command="[SaveCommand]" Text="Save"/>
          <c:SimpleButton Name="CancelButton"  Size="250,51" Command="[CancelCommand]" Text="Cancel"/>
        </Children>
      </Panel>
    </Content>
  </UI>

  <UI Name="ScreenForm">

    <Properties>
      <a:Application Name="Application" Application="$Required"/>
      <a:AddDeviceScreen Name="AddDeviceScreen" AddDeviceScreen="$Required"/>
      <a:DeviceItem Name="DeviceItem"/>
    </Properties>

    <Locals>
      <EditableText Name="DeviceName" Value=""/>
      <EditableText Name="DeviceAddress" Value=""/>
    </Locals>

    <Rules>
      <Binding Source="[NameEditbox.EditableText.Value]" Target="[AddDeviceScreen.Name]" />
      <Binding Source="[AddressEditbox.EditableText.Value]" Target="[AddDeviceScreen.Address]" />
      <Binding Source="[DeviceTypeSpinner.Selected]" Target="[AddDeviceScreen.Type]" />
    </Rules>

    <Content>
      <Panel Layout="VerticalFlow">
        <Layout>
          <FlowLayout Orientation="Vertical"
                      Spacing="10,0"/>
        </Layout>
        <Children>
          <Text Name="NameLabel" Color="White" Content="Provide a unique name for this device (e.g. Living Room Light):" Font="Calibri, 18" MaximumSize="500,100" WordWrap="true"></Text>
          <c:SimpleEditbox Name="NameEditbox" EditableText="[DeviceName]" Size="350,45" FocusOrder="1" />
          <ColorFill Content="AliceBlue" MinimumSize="600,2" MaximumSize="600,2" Alpha=".5" />
          <Text Name="AddressLabel" Color="White" Content="An Insteon address for your device is provided by the manufacturer (e.g. A1A1A1). Enter the address below:" Font="Calibri, 18" MaximumSize="500,100" WordWrap="true"></Text>
          <c:SimpleEditbox Name="AddressEditbox" EditableText="[DeviceAddress]" Size="130,45"/>
          <ColorFill Content="AliceBlue" MinimumSize="600,2" MaximumSize="600,2" Alpha=".5" />
          <Text Name="TypeLabel" Color="White" Content="Select the type of device:" Font="Calibri, 18"></Text>
          <c:SimpleSpinner Name="DeviceTypeSpinner" Model="[DeviceItem.DeviceTypes]"/>
        </Children>
      </Panel>
    </Content>
  </UI>

  <UI Name="Navigation">

    <Properties>
      <a:Application Name="Application" Application="$Required"/>
      <a:AddDeviceScreen Name="AddDeviceScreen" AddDeviceScreen="$Required"/>
      <host:PageSession Name="Session" PageSession="$Required"/>
    </Properties>

    <Locals>
      <Command Name="CancelCommand"/>
      <Command Name="NextCommand"/>
    </Locals>

    <Rules>
      <Changed Source="[CancelCommand.Invoked]">
        <Actions>
          <!--<Invoke Target="[Application.DialogTest]" strClickedText="Cancel"/>-->
          <Invoke Target="[Session!host:HistoryOrientedPageSession.BackPage]"/>
        </Actions>
      </Changed>
      <Changed Source="[NextCommand.Invoked]">
        <Actions>
          <!--<Invoke Target="[Application.DialogTest]" strClickedText="Next"/>-->
          <Invoke Target="[AddDeviceScreen.Next]" app="[Application]" />
        </Actions>
      </Changed>
    </Rules>

    <Content>
      <Panel Layout="HorizontalFlow">
        <Children>
          <c:SimpleButton Name="CancelButton"  Size="110,51" Command="[CancelCommand]" Text="Cancel" />
          <c:SimpleButton Name="NextButton"  Size="86,51" Command="[NextCommand]" Text="Next" />
        </Children>
      </Panel>
    </Content>

  </UI>

</Mcml>


The DeviceItem Class:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI;
using Homeboy.Devices;
using Homeboy.Protocols;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Hosting;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.IO;

namespace HomeboyWMC
{

    [Serializable]
    public class DeviceItem : ModelItem, ISerializable
    {

        private Device.DeviceType _type;
        private string _name;
        private InsteonAddress _address;
        private Application _app;

        public DeviceItem() { }

        public DeviceItem(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext ctxt)
        {
            Type = (string)info.GetValue("Type", typeof(string));
            Name = (string)info.GetValue("Name", typeof(string));
            Address = (string)info.GetValue("Address", (typeof(string)));
        }

        public virtual void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext ctxt)
        {
            info.AddValue("Type", Type);
            info.AddValue("Name", Name);
            info.AddValue("Address", Address);
        }

        public string Type
        {
            get { return _type.ToString(); }
            set { _type = (Device.DeviceType)Enum.Parse(typeof(Device.DeviceType), value); }
        }

        public string Name
        {
            get { return _name; }
            set { _name = value; }
        }

        public string Address
        {
            get { return _address.ToString(); }
            set { _address = new InsteonAddress(value); }
        }

        public Choice DeviceTypes
        {
            get
            {
                Choice options = new Choice();
                List<string> stringItems = new List<string>();
                stringItems.Add("Light");
                stringItems.Add("Dimmable Light");
                stringItems.Add("Computer Bridge");
                options.Options = stringItems;
                return options;
            }
        }

    }
}

The only thing that springs to mind is that your error message shows a space in your project name, where your program doesn't.

If that's not the problem can you ZIP up the entire project and post it somewhere I can download and test here?

You can email it to me if that's easier.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andy,

That definitely isn't the problem. I stripped out all the excess code and kept it down to the basics so that I could reduce it down to one straight forward error. The error I'm getting is:

Error    68    Unable to find type 'DeviceItem'.    C:\Users\Matt\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\HomeboyWMC\HomeboyWMC\Markup\Controls\DeviceButton.mcml    13    1    HomeboyWMC

I zipped the project and uploaded it here: http://www.4shared.com/file/eqZFxNcX/HomeboyWMC.html

I really appreciate you taking the time to look at it. I can't find anyone else having this problem at all so it's been very frustrating.

Okay so I found the problem but don't yet know the right solution. The problem is that in my DeviceItem class I reference an external assembly. I know that in Media Center apps that external assemblies need to have strong name references. The red highlighted lines of code below from my DeviceItem class are causing the problem. I know how to do a strong name reference from MCML code but the external library is not being called from the MCML, but actually from my DeviceItem.cs class. I guess my question now is, how can I reference my external assembly properly from code?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI;
using Homeboy.Devices;
//using Homeboy.Protocols;

namespace HomeboyWMC
{
    [Serializable]
    public class DeviceItem : ModelItem, ISerializable
    {

        private Device.DeviceType _type;
        private string _name;

You should just need to reference the assembly in the same way you've referenced your add-in assembly in your MCML.

Cheers,
Andrew

Thanks a lot Andrew. I will give that a try...