Learning to write plug ins

[Phillip Powell 1062160]

Hi,

 

What do I need in order to be able to create a plug in?

 

phill

 

Please disregard, I've found what I was looking for.

[Blake Nahin]

can you tell us where you found the answer? This would help some of us that are looking for answers

[Neil Farrington]

can you tell us where you found the answer? This would help some of us that are looking for answers

 

I haven't really looked into making plug-ins for ES yet, it's halfway down my todo list. I would take a guess, however, that you need to know C++ and read the docomeentation on plug-in development included with ES (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Hope this helps.

[Phill Powell 849479]

Michael,

 

Humble apologies for the late post. I should have come back sooner.

 

Neil is absolutely correct, C++ and as he says, there is plug in development docomeentation installed.

 

In my case the path is C:\Program Files\CsernakGergely\Euroscope\Plugin Environment

 

Phill

[Nils Hillmann 1069421]

And as an addition, it is C++ together with the MFC (Microsoft Foundation Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es) used. So it is very easy to develop with Microsofts Visual Studio (but not the Express Edition, you need the full I think) but it should be also possible with any different IDE. You should take a look at the sources of the delivered plugins for the main parts, and you have to link the EuroScopePlugInDll.lib against your plugin and include the EuroScopePlugIn.h into your project. In this header (.h) file are the cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es and methods described which EuroScope delivers to your plugin. (And which you can use in your coding to access EuroScope Data)

[Nils Hillmann 1069421]

And if you need help or have questions to that, you can also contact me via skype (because I can't add it here in the profile data, drop me a pm to get my skype nick)

[Juha Holopainen]

While MFC is used in ES and the example plugins, it is not required for plugin development. So the Express Edition can be used as well.

[Jake Saw]

MFC can be quite handy though

 

I started with no experience in C++ (limited past experience with PHP and basic) at all and ended up writing TAAATSMod, so definitely have a go and see what you can come up with.

[Michael Zazula]

Hello,

 

I've tried to develop my first simple ES Plug In. I had no previous C++ knowledge, but I took it as a good oportunity to learn.

The plug in is written in Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express (I've installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package).

I've compiled it without any errors.

The problem is that the Plug In won't load ("Failed to load....")

 

I've used the Dependency Walker to check that no DLLs are missing, but I've got another error:

 

Error: The Side-by-Side configuration for "{path to my plug in directory}EUROSCOPEPLUGINDLL.DLL" contains errors.

Warning: At least one module has an unrfesolved import due to a missing export function in a delay-loaded dependent module.

 

Any idea, what could be wrong?

 

Thanks in advance,

MJZ

Edited November 5, 2010 at 09:46 AM by Guest

[David Saunders 818672]

Michael

 

I cant remember if your a Beta tester for ES, but if you are there has been some changes in the Naming convention so this may be a reason why it wont work

[Michael Zazula]

No, I'm not in the beta team, I use "regular" ES 3.1d.

 

MJZ

[Gergely Csernak]

Michael,

 

ES itself is built with VisualStudio2005. And all the DLLs needed to run it is packed with the EXE. If you are using the same version you can just load the DLL wherever they are. But using VisualStudio2010 requires a different set of DLLs. You should put them to your path or to the same folder where you would like to load the DLL from.

[Nils Hillmann 1069421]

Michael,

 

ES itself is built with VisualStudio2005. And all the DLLs needed to run it is packed with the EXE. If you are using the same version you can just load the DLL wherever they are. But using VisualStudio2010 requires a different set of DLLs. You should put them to your path or to the same folder where you would like to load the DLL from.

 

The following dll files are needed for the usage with a dll compiled by VisualStudio2010:

# mfc100.dll

# mfc100u.dll

# mfcm100.dll

# mfcm100u.dll

# msimg32.dll

# msvcp100.dll

# msvcr100.dll

 

You can find them in the redist directory of your VisualStudio. Only on the computer where VisualStudio2010 is installed you don't need to copy them to your plugin dll directory (or better is the euroscope main directory)

[Brendan Chen 943434]

Michael,

 

ES itself is built with VisualStudio2005. And all the DLLs needed to run it is packed with the EXE. If you are using the same version you can just load the DLL wherever they are. But using VisualStudio2010 requires a different set of DLLs. You should put them to your path or to the same folder where you would like to load the DLL from.

 

The following dll files are needed for the usage with a dll compiled by VisualStudio2010:

# mfc100.dll

# mfc100u.dll

# mfcm100.dll

# mfcm100u.dll

# msimg32.dll

# msvcp100.dll

# msvcr100.dll

 

You can find them in the redist directory of your VisualStudio. Only on the computer where VisualStudio2010 is installed you don't need to copy them to your plugin dll directory (or better is the euroscope main directory)

 

Or is it possible to just download the redist.exe from microsoft for vs2010 and include that into the package? I know it'll be bigger than just including those files, but it would be more complete wouldn't it? Or does it not make any difference?

[Todor Atanasov 878664]

I think it is just the same, you can choose what you want.

[Michael Zazula]

Hello,

 

Sorry, it's not so easy

 

I've developed a plug-in using MS Visual C++ 2010 Express edition.

 

PROBLEM

It works fine - but only on the computer which I've used to write it (so with MS Visual C++ Express installed)

On my second computer it crashes when I try to load it.

 

Dependency Walker gives:

"Error: The Side-bySide configuration information for {my plug-in} contains errors"

 

What I HAVE TRIED:

- I've installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package - no success

- I've manualy placed files listed by Nils in previous post into the Euroscope main folder - also no success

 

The only thing I've noticed is that the error message has changed a little bit - earlier when I attempted to load DLL I got an error that DLL can not be loaded, but I was able to continue using ES without that plug-in, and now (most probably after installing the redistributable package) the message is "Euroscope has encoutered a problem and needs to close" and it crashes to Windows (I have to reopen ES).

 

Now I'm completly lost..

 

Thanks in advance for any help,

MJZ

[Todor Atanasov 878664]

First to confirm that you are running the release version of your .dll file on the other PC, the debug will give you that error.

 

Also with a simple google search you can find this:

=> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/254076/error-the-side-by-side-configuration-information-in-blah-exe-contains-errors

[Michael Zazula]

Hello,

 

Thanks Todor.

 

Yes, I had found that post before I've posted here. I'm using a release version of the plug-in.

 

The sole thing I've not tried from that post is:

After copying the respective policies and manifests into their respective "C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\" folders , I got it working.

 

Sorry, I'm not a professional developer, I have no idea what are policies and manifest, so I don't understand what, from where and to where should I copy.

 

MJZ

[Todor Atanasov 878664]

No worries, I'm not either and we all learn new things.