VSTA, bugs and documentation

RobotStudio
1

I have noticed that if I add a CommandBarPopup to the main menu bar, it will not remove itself from that menu bar after unloading the addin. And yes, it is in the AddinShutdown() method to be removed and everything is spelled correctly.

The only time it will clear away from the menu bar is upon directly opening a station, I load the specific addin, then unload it. If I leave the current station open, then try to load the addin again, everything appears fine. If I then try to unload the addin again, the menu bar does not go away, but any of the commands within the menu bar become Grayed out. They were atleast removed properly.

Any additional attempts to unload and load the same addin will insert the same commandBarPopup without removing the original one.

The only way to remove any of these unusable ones seems to be to shut down RS completely and start back up again.

One other small request is that I am trying to create some input forms off the main application window in order to create some custom features, hopefully similar in look and feel to what we get when opening any of the typical RS user input forms/windows that snap into the elements or objects browser panels. Is it possible to get a small snipet of what this would look like?

Also, can I get more documentation now on the API that is supposed to be available later. The one a little more complete I guess.

Any help in this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

2

Hi
Here is an example how to bring up the window like the one commonly used in RS and it don’t have to be the browser or the element window.
I just did a example how to use it so there are no comment’s, error handling or that kind of stuff but I’m sure you will find out how it works.

2007-05-10_083831_TestToolControl.zip

3

Hi,

Here is the current API documentation: 2007-05-10_143919_APIDocumentation.zip
It’s still not complete but it has been greatly improved sice 5.08. Note that some classes/members may be new to 5.09 and thus not available to you.

As you have noticed, VSTA has its limitations. Some but not all of these will be fixed in 5.09. If you feel it’s too buggy and you don’t need VSTA-specific features (like macros), you could try to write a “proper” addin using Visual Studio. Here are instructions, and you can download a free version of Visual Studio here.

regards,
Johannes

4

Thanks Johannes.

I’ve already started to use just VS instead of VSTA. Thanks for all your help and input.