ArcGIS 10 Pre-Release: Visual Studio Express 2008 Integration Issues

[SeanFadum]

Hi,

I want to try building some new 'add-in' files for ArcGIS 10.

I have installed Visual Basic 2008 Express.  I have also installed the .NET SDK file.  When installing the SDK, I ensured that the Express Integration option was checked.

It appears that the install went well.  When I start a new project I am able to create an ArcMap Add-In.  I am also able to add any of the initial 'Add-In' types.  This is where things go a bit strange....

I am able to add additional components to my project from the ArcGIS Add-Ins Wizard (this includes, buttons, tools, combo boxes, multi-items, extensions, Editor Extensions and Dockable Windows).  When I try to add something from the Add-in Command Bars section in the wizard the only thing I am able to add is a toolbar.  If I try to add a tool pallete, menu or context menu I get an error message saying: "The following selected add-in type(s) cannot be generated due to invalid inputs and or unknown errors".

I am fairly new to developing in .NET so I may be doing somethig wrong here which is causing the error.  Has anyone else come across this issue?  Is this an installation / integration issue?  Is there a way to fix this?  Is there a specific order things need to be installed (ie. VSE 2008 before the SDK or vice versa)?

My other problem is that there is no ArcGIS Snippets available in my projects.  When I right click to insert a snippet of code, I do not get the "ArcGIS Snippet" option in the context menu.  Again is this an installation thing.

I was thinking that maybe it could be a Visual Studio Express thing.... do I need the full version of Visual Studio to get these options running properly?

Sorry for the long winded post.... It's been a long road to figure out how write usable code in VB Express that can be used in ArcGIS.... but the process is even more frustrating when not all the pieces are working properly.

Thanks for your time in advance,

Sean

[PetterSchou]

Can you provide more detail information on how to reproduce the crash? Can you reproduce this consistently with a new add-in project? It will also help if you have screenshots of the error report and the config.esriaddinx file in the project.

With VS2010 -->

From ESRI document:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/conceptualhelp/index.html#/Walkthrough_Building_cu...

In section:
Creating a custom toolbar
A custom toolbar can contain tools, buttons, tool palettes, combo boxes, and menus. These toolbar items can be built-in or custom created through other add-ins or Component Object Model (COM) components.
To create a custom toolbar that can be docked along with the built-in toolbars, perform the following steps:
In Visual Studio, in the Project Explorer, right-click your project, select New Item, and click Add. The Add New Item dialog box opens.
Expand the Visual Basic or Visual C# project node, expand the ArcGIS node, and select Desktop Add-ins.
Select Add-in component from the Templates pane and click Add. The ArcGIS Add-Ins Wizard opens.
Click Add-in Command Bars, and select Toolbar.
Type DharmaToolbar in the Caption field.
Click Add Item to add items to the toolbar. A toolbar can contain one or more buttons, tools, combo boxes, menus, and tool palettes. A drop-down box appears listing the custom add-in components in the project. See the following screen shot:

When you select "Click Add-in Command Bars", you got an error.

Is there a fix for this?

[FredericWalter]

Maybe, you can find a workaround to your Visual Studio crash by consulting the following thread: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/30189-ArcGIS-10-SDK-.NET-error-when-choosing-toolbar-in-Add-Ins-men...

[AndyFairbairn]

Just in case it is useful to anyone else, I've *finally* found the new location of snippets on disk after upgrading to Arc10.1 and consequently being forced to upgrade VSE from 2008 to 2010 (unfortunately my machine seems to have a few other issues, so searching on *.snippet brought no joy).  Anyway, I found them here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\VCSExpress\Snippets\ArcObjects

which may help others to link to in VSE as described above or ESRIs snippet finder (not very helpful until you yourself find the snippets!).

Andy.