gmane.comp.gnome.mono.addins

Whitelisting assemblies to scan for addin roots

Weeble — 2011-11-30T16:26:23

I would like to prevent scanning for addins and addin roots of DLLs in
my application directory except for those that I explicitly whitelist.
Right now I have to add <exclude> entries for every *other* DLL in
that directory. I see that AddinFileSystemExtension can be used to
provide a virtualized view of the file-system to the scanner, so it
seems theoretically possible that I could just provide it with a view
that hides all DLLs except for the ones in my whitelist. However, I
can't see a way to use this correctly. I can register this with an
AddinRegistry with RegisterExtension, but AddinEngine.Initialize
creates a new AddinRegistry and then immediately starts scanning with
it, before I have an opportunity to register any extension with it. So
even though I can eventually register the extension, it's too late,
because the registry has already scanned all the DLLs in the
application directory.

1. Aside from this issue, is AddinFileSystemExtension suitable for
this purpose?
2. Is there a way around this problem without a change in Mono.Addins?
3. If not, I could probably change Mono.Addins to achieve what I want,
but how can I maximize the chance that my patch would be accepted back
into the project?

Regards,
    Weeble.

0.6.2

F.Gsell — 2011-11-14T09:23:44

Hi,

it would be great if you could provide a version with a modified
assembly and file version, which reflects 0.6.2. Currently it is still
set to 0.6.0.

Thanks,
vl950t

GIT commit message is null

2011-11-05T01:26:39

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10, with MonoDevelop 2.6 and Git support 2.6.0.

I created a new solution, with a C# console project, and with Git
Support enabled.

From the top menu, I did  Version Control ==> Commit Solution.

I got the "Commit Files" dialog, which listed the changed files.
Below the grid listing the modified files, there was a label "Commit
message:", with nothing following it.

I clicked "Commit", and received an error:

System.ArgumentException: Commit message must not be null or empty!
Parameter name: message
  at MonoDevelop.VersionControl.Git.GitRepository.Commit
(MonoDevelop.VersionControl.ChangeSet changeSet, IProgressMonitor
monitor) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MonoDevelop.VersionControl.CommitCommand+CommitWorker.Run ()
[0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

I looked in Preferences ==> Version Control ==> Commit Message Style,
and I see text in the Preview.

Any ideas?

upgrading to mono.addins 0.6 and 0.6.2

Matteo Tesser — 2011-10-20T18:06:05

Hello mono-addins team!,
I tried to update the Addins system of the software I'm developing.  After
updating to mono.Addins 0.6 and 0.6.2  I noticed that, in Windows, the
addins engine fails to scan assemblies under Windows and generates errors
like the following:

Scanning file: ...\...\mydll.dll
Using assembly reflector: Mono.Addins.CecilReflector.Reflector
Error:There was an error while scanning assembly: ...\...\mydll.dll
ExceptionSystem.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for
'Mono.Cecil.Metadata.TableHeap' threw an exception. --->
System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range.
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.InitializeArray(Array
array, RuntimeFieldHandle fldHandle)
   at Mono.Cecil.Metadata.TableHeap..cctor()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Mono.Cecil.Metadata.TableHeap..ctor(Section section, UInt32 start,
UInt32 size)
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadMetadataStream(Section section)
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadMetadata()
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadImage()
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadImageFrom(Stream stream)
   at Mono.Cecil.ModuleDefinition.ReadModule(Stream stream, ReaderParameters
parameters)
   at Mono.Cecil.ModuleDefinition.ReadModule(String fileName,
ReaderParameters parameters)
   at Mono.Addins.CecilReflector.Reflector.LoadAssembly(String file, Boolean
cache)
   at Mono.Addins.CecilReflector.Reflector.LoadAssembly(String file)
   at Mono.Addins.Database.AddinScanner.GetReflector(IProgressStatus
monitor, AddinScanResult scanResult, String filePath)
   at Mono.Addins.Database.AddinScanner.ScanAssembly(IProgressStatus
monitor, String filePath, AddinScanResult scanResult, AddinDescription&
config)
Stack   at Mono.Cecil.Metadata.TableHeap..ctor(Section section, UInt32
start, UInt32 size)
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadMetadataStream(Section section)
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadMetadata()
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadImage()
   at Mono.Cecil.PE.ImageReader.ReadImageFrom(Stream stream)
   at Mono.Cecil.ModuleDefinition.ReadModule(Stream stream, ReaderParameters
parameters)
   at Mono.Cecil.ModuleDefinition.ReadModule(String fileName,
ReaderParameters parameters)
   at Mono.Addins.CecilReflector.Reflector.LoadAssembly(String file, Boolean
cache)
   at Mono.Addins.CecilReflector.Reflector.LoadAssembly(String file)
   at Mono.Addins.Database.AddinScanner.GetReflector(IProgressStatus
monitor, AddinScanResult scanResult, String filePath)
   at Mono.Addins.Database.AddinScanner.ScanAssembly(IProgressStatus
monitor, String filePath, AddinScanResult scanResult, AddinDescription&
config)


I saw that the cecil library have been updated  into Mono.Addins on the
February 23, 2011 and this cecil error manifested to others using cecil
0.9.4: see

http://groups.google.com/group/mono-cecil/browse_thread/thread/952387ac994e47cf?pli=1


I noticed that the problem does not manifest  if I recompile mono addins
using the latest stable cecil library 0.9.5.

My intention is only to share this information, hoping it's usefulness.

Best,
Matteo

Passing collections using mono.addins

Skinner36 — 2011-09-08T12:17:17

Is it possible to create an addin that passes a collection of objects back to
the host to application? I want to create an addin that reads a list of
customers from a database and passes them back to the host as a collection
of customers.

If it is possible you someone give me an idea how to do it?

Many thanks,

John


--
View this message in context: http://mono.1490590.n4.nabble.com/Passing-collections-using-mono-addins-tp3798632p3798632.html
Sent from the Mono - Addins mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Duplicate Addin Namespace and ID

F.Gsell — 2011-08-29T05:47:49

Hi,

I am wondering what happens if there are two add-ins with the same
namespace and id. Which one wins? There is currently no log output
stating that there was a namespace and id collision?

Thanks,
F. Gsell

Mono.Addins 0.6.2 Released

Lluis Sanchez Gual — 2011-08-17T08:56:39

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce the release of Mono.Addins 0.6.2.

Mono.Addins is a generic framework for creating extensible applications,
and for creating libraries which extend applications.

Changes in the 0.6.2 release: 

• Added option to support non-interactive installations when using mautil
• Fixed bugs:
• Avoid entering in an infinite loop when finding corrupted file
• Fixed crash when checking for add-in info in dynamic assemblies
• Fix bug in Repair command


If you are interested in knowing more about Mono.Addins, take a look at
http://monoaddins.codeplex.com/documentation.

You can download the source code from:
http://monoaddins.codeplex.com/releases/view/61370

and from GitHub:
https://github.com/mono/mono-addins/tree/mono-addins-0.6

Enjoy!
Lluis.

The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly.

Michael Shimmins — 2011-07-25T10:33:48

I'm getting this error when trying to Initialize the AddinManager:

AddinManager.Initialize(catalogPath, pluginPath);

The exception:

*The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly.**Description: *An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 

*Exception Details: *System.NotSupportedException: The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly.

Is thrown, with this stack trace:

[NotSupportedException: The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly.]
   System.Reflection.Emit.InternalAssemblyBuilder.get_CodeBase() +56
   Mono.Addins.AddinEngine.CheckHostAssembly(Assembly asm) +85
   Mono.Addins.AddinEngine.ActivateRoots() +44
   Mono.Addins.AddinEngine.Initialize(Assembly startupAsm, String configDir, String addinsDir, String databaseDir) +320
   Mono.Addins.AddinManager.Initialize(String configDir, String addinsDir) +49

I was using Mono.Addings 0.6 from NuGet, but upgraded manually to the 0.6.1 release on CodePlex (which by the way has version 0.6.0 in the assembly info - not sure if it is actually 0.6.1 or not), but the error remains.

Any thoughts?

Unique Addin Id (Addin <-> RuntimeAddin)

F.Gsell — 2011-05-31T13:33:48

Hi,

I am a little bit confused about the Addin.Id.

I am looking for a way to get the the same ID for a RuntimeAddin which
is returned for the Addin itself. I need this information to get a
unique identifier for an addin - this is used for an internal license
mechanism.

Is there a way to get the Addin based on a RuntimeAddin?

Thanks,
F.Gsell

Localizable Extension Nodes

F.Gsell — 2011-05-26T13:14:11

I try to create localizable extension nodes. Now I have something like
this:

    public class ExecutableNode : ExtensionNode
    {
        [NodeAttribute(Localizable = true)]
        public string Test { get; set; }
    }

In the corresponding AddIn manifest I have something like this:

  <Localizer type="StringTable">
    <Locale id="de-de">
      <Msg id="Name" str="Localized" />
    </Locale>
  </Localizer>


  <Extension path="/Sample/Executable">
    <Executable Name="Test"/>
  </Extension>

So how can I make the association between my string table message id
and the corresponding extension node attribute? Did I miss something?

Thanks,
F.Gsell

Load Addin in AppDomain

F.Gsell — 2011-05-26T07:36:05

Hi,

is it possible to load an AddIn in a separate AppDomain. As far as I
understand the mechanism, I have to run the AddInManager initiailze in
the separate appdomain and load the AddIns. But how can I run the
AddInManager initialize in a separate AppDomain?

When I try to create the AddInManager in the new AppDomain via
CreateInstanceAndUnwrap I get an exception becauce the AddInManager is
not marked as serializable?

Any help would be great.

Thanks
F.Gsell

Manifest or Standalone

F.Gsell — 2011-05-25T12:03:01

Hi,

the documentation states that for "Description of Add-ins and Add-in
Roots" manifests can be used. Furthermore the documentation states
that:

"Manifests can be deployed as standalone files, or they can be
embedded as a resource in assemblies. "

When I define the manifests as embedded resources everything is fine.
When I copy the files to the corresponding folder (not as embedded
resources) the plugins won't get found.

Any idea?

Thanks,
F.Gsell

Disable Application Folder??

F.Gsell — 2011-05-25T06:53:26

Hi,

we have an application with about 100 dll's in the application folder.
Now mono tries to parse all dll's as the application folder seems to
be a default folder to look for add ins. There are also many native
dll's in the application folder.

Now I don't want to add every dll in the *.addins file as exclude. Is
there a way to exclude the application folder?

Thanks,
F.Gsell

Native DLLs without manifests

Weeble — 2011-05-10T10:56:41

Is it possible to explicitly list the assemblies that should be
scanned for extension points? My application has a number of native
DLLs in its application directory. When I try to initialize
Mono.Addins, it attempts to load these as assemblies and prints out
errors like this:

ERROR: There was an error while scanning assembly: W:\gitrepos\ohwidget
\build\ozw.dll (The module was expected to contain an assembly
manifest. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131018))

It seems that this doesn't stop anything from working, but I would
prefer to avoid scanning these DLLs and generating these errors in the
first place. Is there a way to stop Mono.Addins from inspecting them?

Linq on Mono

typhoon — 2011-03-26T17:53:51

Hey Everyone
I want to use  Linq library on my Linux based Pardus o.s but don't cal
linq library is  Plugin Repository has a Linq library or ı must
upgraeded my Mono versiyon and I use Mono 2.4.2
Best Regards.

Automatic update your app

Milton Pividori — 2011-03-09T01:58:40

Hi guys,

I am developing a Mono.Addins based application, and I wonder what's the 
best approach to offer automatic update functionality. MonoDevelop is 
able to automatically update addins, but what if I want to update the 
entire application (not only the addins, but the core components too)? 
Do you know how to design it using only Mono.Addins?

I thought in moving the core components to addins, but I am not sure if 
that would work, and I don't have the time to do a major refactoring 
only for testing. Do some of you guys have experience developing this 
kind of functionality?

What I have in mind right now is to download a simple text file from a 
http server, check the current version with the one published there, and 
download and install the new application version if necessary. But I 
would like to know if Mono.Addins lets me achieve this in a more easy 
and quick way.

Thank you, and sorry for my English.

Mono.Addins 0.6 released

Lluis Sanchez — 2011-02-25T17:05:06

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce the release of Mono.Addins 0.6.

Mono.Addins is a generic framework for creating extensible applications,
and for creating libraries which extend applications.

The 0.6 release of Mono.Addins includes many improvements, bug fixes and
new features:

      * Add-in engine
              * Add-in name and description can now be localized. There
                are new custom attributes for defining them, and can
                also be specified as xml elements in an add-in manifest
                instead of attributes.
              * Support for custom add-in properties. It is now possible
                to specify arbitrary properties in add-ins, which can be
                queried at install time (using the Mono.Addins.Setup
                API) or at run-time.
              * Custom extension attributes now allow specifying an
                extension path. In this way it is now possible to use a
                single custom attribute to define extensions for
                different extension points.
              * The default add-in directory and the add-in database
                directory can now be customized. In previous releases,
                those directories were always created as a subdirectory
                of the main registry directory. In this release, the
                location can be set to any directory.
              * Improved error reporting when a dependency is missing.
              * Added support for specifying the type of the content of
                string node attributes. This information is used for
                documentation purposes only.
              * The Cecil based reflector now uses the new Cecil/Light,
                which is smaller and faster
      * Add-in management
              * Added support for enabling/disabling registered
                repositories.
              * Added support for downloable support files, to be used
                for package icons, screenshots, etc.
              * New and improved add-in manager for GTK#. The user
                interface has been completely redesigned to make it more
                usable. Add-in updates are more visible and easy to
                install. The add-in gallery is integrated in the main
                window, and can show custom add-in icons and preview
                images.
              * Added new API for accessing custom add-in properties,
                even before installing them.
              * Included information about download size.
      * Bug fixes:
              * Allow overwriting files when installing.
              * Fixed add-in unloading issues.
              * Fixed crash when running in .NET 4.0
              * AddinRepository.LastModified is always 01.01.1900
                00:00:00
              * Addin registry access/creation errors when accessed via
                UNC path
              * Addin discovery/loading fails when running Visual Studio
                unit tests
              * ImportAddinAssemblyAttribute can't be used multiple
                times
              * Fix bug in GetAvailableAddin.
              * Fix add-in database issue when the last add-in of a
                folder is deleted or upgraded
              * Don't allow inheriting CustomExtension attributes. The
                attribute must be explicitly applied to classes to be
                marked as extensions.

If you are interested in knowing more about Mono.Addins, take a look at
http://monoaddins.codeplex.com/documentation.

You can download the source code from:
http://monoaddins.codeplex.com/releases/view/61370

and from GitHub:
https://github.com/mono/mono-addins/tree/mono-addins-0.6

Enjoy!
Lluis.

Add-ins registered in the global registry must have a namespace

Nils — 2011-02-18T21:54:41

Hi,
I am trying to use Mono.Addin but getting the following error:

I can not find anything in the docs.
Can someone please hint to what I am doing wrong?

Yours,
Nils

addins scanning and code security

matteo tesser — 2011-02-07T11:33:49

hello,
I'm manifesting problemes in using momo.addins when the extensible
application which uses mono.addins is a COM / Excel Add-in:

I noticed that the add-ins scanning operation fails in the creation of
the remote setup:
remoteSetupDomain = (RemoteSetupDomain)
domain.CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap(typeof(RemoteSetupDomain).Assembly.Location,
typeof(RemoteSetupDomain).FullName);
the runtime throws a code security exception

I had the same problem while trying to embedd mono.addins in a webservice.

I tried to modify mono.addins (0.5) code and  I noticed that
instancing the RemoteSetupDomain class in the current domain instead
of the remote domain, as in the snippet below, the scan operation
succeeds.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Which Mono.Addins features are lost by doing in this way?
2) I do not undertand why mono.addins must execute the addins scanning
process in a different app domain: does cecil  read assemblies
metadata without loading them? or I'm wrong in this point?


Thanks,
Matteo

----SetupDomain.cs (from line 66) -----

RemoteSetupDomain GetDomain ()
{
lock (this) {
if (useCount++ == 0) {
domain = AppDomain.CreateDomain ("SetupDomain");
                    remoteSetupDomain = new RemoteSetupDomain();//new code

//remoteSetupDomain = (RemoteSetupDomain)
domain.CreateInstanceFromAndUnwrap(typeof(RemoteSetupDomain).Assembly.Location,
typeof(RemoteSetupDomain).FullName);//old code
}
return remoteSetupDomain;
}
}

Imports from probing path

tim — 2011-01-10T20:02:25

Is it possible to use imports in an addin using their full name to
cause a search in the probing path?

I've made some changes to make it work but wanted to see what the
thoughts were of people in the know. Would it be possible for this
change to be incorporated in a future version (particularly if patches
were submitted)?

We don't necessarily want to maintain a custom version of Mono.Addins
long-term but have a need to import and not specify a path and allow
the probing path along with the assembly full name to resolve where it
is.


Thanks,

Tim Howard

Getting modules to communicate with each other

Skinner36 — 2010-11-30T07:56:04

Hi Everyone,

With the assistance of the excellent sample code from John Haigh’s blog. 
http://geekswithblogs.net/johnhaigh/archive/2009/10/05/monoaddinswindowsformsapplicationsamplepart1.aspx
I have been able to create an add-in that adds a button to a toolbar and a
user control to a WinForm. 

However, I am now stuck again. The user control is very simple and contains
only one textbox.
What I am trying to do is to populate the textbox with a simple string
(Hello World) when the button on the toolbar is pressed. It all appears to
work when I debug the code but nothing is displayed in the textbox, so I
imagine I have an instance problem.

Can anyone help me with a code sample or documentation on how to solve my
problem?

Thanks in advance,

John