The strange case of no ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase fired, not even once

Continuing today with some tests about the The OnConnection method and ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup of Visual Studio add-ins of my last post, I created a sample add-in using the code of the first sample (temporary UI) of my article HOWTO: Adding buttons, commandbars and toolbars to Visual Studio .NET from an add-in, and later I changed my mind to use the ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase using the second sample. To my surprise, the ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase was never fired, not even once, despite the fact that debugging the add-in should fire it each time because of the /resetaddin command-line flag in the Start Options of the Debug tab of the project properties window.

Opening a command prompt window to use devenv.exe /resetaddin MyAddin.Connect caused no effect too. So, I started to get paranoid about the VS 2008 SP1 that I installed some weeks ago. Could it be possible that it broke the behavior somehow? Unfortunately no, the cause was other: in order to Visual Studio calls the OnConnection method of your add-in with the ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase, your add-in registration must specify that it wants "CommandPreload", a flag in the registry (COM registration) or tag in the .AddIn file (XML registration). Otherwise Visual Studio doesn't bother to load add-ins that haven't requested the ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase. When you use the add-in wizard to create an add-in project, the page 4 of 6 has a checkbox:

"Yes, create a "Tools" menu item. By default this will cause the Add-in to load when the button is clicked unless the Add-in is set to load on startup of the host application."

that you must check for the wizard to set that "CommandPreload" flag. I totally forgot this flag and it happens that since I always delete the whole code of the Connect class generated by the add-in wizard because I don't like the code that it creates, most of the time I don't bother to check that checkbox to delete less code... so, if you change your mind about whether you want ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase or not in your add-in, it is not enough to change the code of your OnConnection method, you need to pay attention to that flag, either to get the ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase, or to optimize your add-in preventing to load it for a phase that it won't use...

Published Tue, Oct 14 2008 5:14 by carlosq
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Comments

# re: The strange case of no ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase fired, not even once

One question: Is it not same as specifying <CommandPreload>1</CommandPreload> in .AddIn file? I guess, even if you forget to check the check box, you can specify 1 here (in .AddIn file). I have not tested though.

Thanks.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 11:11 AM by Utkarsh

# re: The strange case of no ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase fired, not even once

Yes, you can add that XML tag in the .AddIn file without running the add-in wizard to create a new project, I'm sorry if I was not clear about that.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 3:55 PM by carlosq

# Visual Studio Links #78

My latest in a series of the weekly, or more often, summary of interesting links I come across related to Visual Studio. Channel 9 Stuff: Anders Hejlsberg and Guy Steele- Concurrency and Language Design The Concurrency Runtime- Fine Grained Parallelism

Thursday, October 16, 2008 7:36 AM by Visual Studio Hacks

# Registry path clarification

I've spent whole day trying to understand why CommandPreload value in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Addins\MyAddin.Connect" does not work.

There is another key defining wheither fire ext_cm_UISetup or not! And it's defined for every user on the system:

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\PreloadAddinState"

Either delete value with your plugin name, or set it to 1, and you'll get your UISetup phase!

Monday, February 16, 2009 12:37 AM by vlad2135

# re: The strange case of no ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase fired, not even once

Thank you very much for this.  I have spent the last hour or so struggling to work out what has gone wrong.  I recreated an addin and copied some existing code and could not figure out why it only half worked.  This completed the picture.  Just set the flag to 1 in the .addin and everything is now working fine.

Thanks again.

Ste

Thursday, April 29, 2010 3:17 PM by Stephen Finchett

# While Converting the Add-In developed in 2003 to .Net 2010

Hi,

I have a Add-In which is developed in .Net 2003.Now I convert this Add-In into .Net 2010,I am getting two errors

1.In OnConnection

_CommandBars commandBars = applicationObject.CommandBars;

To fix this I used

_CommandBars commandBars = (_CommandBars)applicationObject.CommandBars;

2.commandBarControl = command.AddControl(commandBar, 1);

To fix this I used

commandBarControl = (CommandBarControl)command.AddControl(commandBar, 1);

When i Compile the code its compiled successfuly but when i installed on the machine,its not shown in Add-In Manager.

OS is Windows7.

Neither have an entry in PreloadStateManaged.

Please suggest me.

email Address:ravi.mullick@igt.in

Thanks

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 11:01 PM by Ravi

# re: The strange case of no ext_ConnectMode.ext_cm_UISetup phase fired, not even once

Ravi, see:

HOWTO: Troubleshooting Visual Studio and Office add-ins

www.mztools.com/.../MZ2007009.aspx

and specially:

INFO: Default .AddIn file locations for Visual Studio add-ins

www.mztools.com/.../MZ2008001.aspx

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 12:39 AM by carlosq