[GIS] ESRI ArcMap Add-in Config.esriaddinx

add-inarcmapcconfigurationxml

I'm in the process of converting an older ArcMap extension to an Add-In in C# and I am trying to best take advantage of the XML based configuration.

Config.esriaddinx works great for the basic set up (toolbar, buttons, extension info, etc), but is there a way to add other configuration parameters, such as field names, layer names, database connections, etc?

Would I need to create an App.config file? If so, would the App.config file still be packaged/deployed the same as the rest of the add-in? What would be the best method to read the parameters? I am a newbie to add-ins and any suggestions or samples would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Best Answer

First off, I have not tried using Config.esriaddinx for this purpose, but I wouldn't recommend it. It is meant for the configuration of the add-in itself, not necessarily user data, and you probably don't want to mix the two.

It has been a while since I've dealt with this myself so I may be a little fuzzy on the details, but there are multiple issues with using configuration files in ArcGIS add-ins: ArcMap Add-in with app.settings not recognizing app.config changes?

In particular, the directory the add-in is extracted to is overwritten each time the application is started, so you can't really persist changes to settings there. If your settings never change or only change with each new version of your add-in then this is probably not a concern.

If, however, you want to make your add-in configurable by the end user then you need to store the user-configurable information elsewhere so they aren't overwritten. I would suggest using the user's Application Data folder, whose path you can determine programmatically like so:

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)

I would also suggest putting it in a subfolder named after your add-in. But essentially you would be loading from and saving to a file in that location instead of reading settings from your add-in's Settings class or the configuration file in the add-in's directory. If you want to use .NET configuration for this then I suggest reading up on Application Settings and ConfigurationManager.

The other problem I have had is with using custom configuration sections when using .NET configuration. Using Assembly.LoadFrom and handling the AssemblyResolve event was the solution to that particular problem, although in that case I ended up not using .NET configuration for that and other reasons.

Depending on the complexity of your configuration scenario, you could, like I did, eschew using the .NET configuration system entirely and instead use some other method of reading and writing configuration information. I ended up using SerializableAttribute-marked classes or classes which implemented IXmlSerializable for this purpose in one of the more complex add-ins I created which included user-configurable settings such as lists of layers, connection settings, etc. I would recommend reading Object Serialization in .NET, Introducing XML Serialization and How to Implement IXmlSerializable Correctly if you are interested in that approach.

It sounds like yours is along the same lines so it is up to you, but I found the XML serialization approach to be preferable to .NET configuration for all but the simplest of configuration scenarios (simple data types, no hierarchies/collections).

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I have solved my dilemma, more or less. I have found that the structure of the vb for the Add-In needed to be as follows:

[CODE]Imports ....

Public Class btnAddHyperlink Inherits ESRI.ArcGIS.Desktop.AddIns.Button

Public Sub New()

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Protected Overrides Sub OnClick()

    Dim pFeature As IFeature, pLayer As ILayer

    Dim pSRE As SpatialReferenceEnvironment
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and with that structure, the button would hit the code. Again, many thanks for everyone's assistance.

Dale

ArcGIS 10.0 – Attach GP Script Tools, Standard Tools, and Python Script to Toolbar

@ChadCooper, perhaps I'm overlooking something, but with regard to your 3rd case:

A Python script that launches a PyQT/wxPython/Tk GUI..

Is there a reason why you couldn't use the .Net Process API (see System.Diagnostics) to execute your custom Python script over Standard In/Out? Of course, this sort of architecture will assume a proper version of Python is installed and equipped with any additional libs you require. I think you'd just want to extend an ICommand object and use the Process API in its Click() event. This example (which was an experiment only) called a .py script that used dbfpy to read the columns in a DBF file and return them as a list to a .Net application.

private static List<string> _readDbfOutput;

public static List<string> ReadDbfTable(string dbfPath, int limit)
{
    // start a fresh output object..
    _readDbfOutput = new List<string>();
    _readDbfOutput.Clear();

    // ready..
    string executable = "C:\Python27\python.exe";
    string fullUtilPath = "C:\some_app\utils\read_dbf_table.py";

    // The path to the python file and it's arguments become a single input
    // submitted to the python runtime. In this case, I've got somethign like:
    // C:\>C:/Python27/python.exe C:\some_app\utils\read_dbf_table.py -f C:/data/some_shapefiles.dbf -l 100

    // dbfPath and limit were method arguments..
    string exeArguments = fullUtilPath + " -f " + dbfPath + " -l " + limit.ToString();

    ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(executable, exeArguments);
    startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
    startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
    startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;  // necessary if you need to listen..
    startInfo.RedirectStandardInput = false;  // necessary if you send more inputs..
    startInfo.StandardOutputEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII;

    Process proc = new Process();

    // ReadingDbfTable is my redirected standard input..
    proc.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(ReadingDbfTable);
    proc.StartInfo = startInfo;
    proc.Start();
    proc.BeginOutputReadLine();

    // WaitForExit() may need to be wrapped in a Try or Using block.
    // Will it run indefinitely if the script fails?
    proc.WaitForExit();
    proc.Close();

    return _readDbfOutput;
}

/// Handle redirected STDOUT.
private static void ReadingDbfTable(object sendingProc, DataReceivedEventArgs stdOutput)
{
    if ( ! String.IsNullOrEmpty(stdOutput.Data) )
    {
        _readDbfOutput.Add(stdOutput.Data);
    }
}

Best Answer

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