Revit Addin Manifest Tips and Tricks (debug AND normal load)

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While updating my employer's Revit 2010 utilities to 2011, I've stumbled upon some interesting behavior with the new add-in manifest files. I've discovered that if I do not include a file path in the tag of the manifest file that I can accomplish both debugging from Visual Studio 2008 as well as natural loading all with a few simple bits of code...

Prior to discovering this, I was using a separate 'DEBUG' manifest file pointing to my debug directory for the Visual Studio 2008 project and a separate 'PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION' manifest file that pathed to the normal 'addin' directory for my tools to load into Revit 2011.

In order for this example to work, the add-in manifest file still needs to be located in the normal 'Addin' directory in order to load into Revit, but if I start my application from Visual Studio 2008 in debug mode, I have full access to my [target.DLL] even though my [target.DLL] is not loaded in the same directory as the default add-in directory. This may sound confusing, but actually works quite well in that it suites dual purpose:

When I fire up Revit, the DLL saved in the add-in directory is loaded into Revit. When I start Revit from Visual Studio to debug an application, the DLL in my Visual Studio debug directory is loaded into the Revit session.

Here's how I do it for a sample application that loads external DLL command files (the command files must be present in the same directory as the main application DLL being debugged for this example to work):

Imports Autodesk.Revit.UI 
Imports Autodesk.Revit.Attributes 
Imports System.Windows.Media.Imaging Imports System.Reflection 


''' <summary> 
''' Main Ribbon Creation 
''' </summary> 
<Transaction(TransactionMode.Automatic)> _ 
<Regeneration(RegenerationOption.Manual)> _
Public Class AppExample 

    Implements IExternalApplication 

    Public Sub AddRibbonPanel(ByVal a As UIControlledApplication) 
        ' This 'myPath' variable is the trick to getting the dual debug/execution behavior!!!!!!! 
        Dim myPath As String = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.Location.Substring( _ 
            0, (Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.Location.LastIndexOf("\") + 1)) 
        Dim rvtPanel As RibbonPanel = a.CreateRibbonPanel("RevitNet Customizations") 
        ' DatabaseLink ; example dll - notice the variable path to the DLL????????????? 'myPath' 
        Dim pbdDatabaseLink As New PushButtonData("Database Link", _ 
            "Database" & vbCr & "Link", _ 
            myPath & "RevitNet.DatabaseLink.dll", _ 
            "RevitNet.DatabaseLink.cmdDatabaseLink") 
        pbdDatabaseLink.Image = New BitmapImage(New Uri(myPath & "RevitNet.DatabaseLink_16.jpg")) 
        pbdDatabaseLink.LargeImage = New BitmapImage(New Uri(myPath & "RevitNet.DatabaseLink_32.jpg")) 
        pbdDatabaseLink.ToolTip = "Bidirectional Link to a Database" & vbCr & "From Revit 2011" 
        ' Add the pushbutton to the ribbon panel 
        Dim myButtonDBL As PushButton = rvtPanel.AddItem(pbdDatabaseLink) 
    End Sub 

    Public Function OnStartup(ByVal a As UIControlledApplication) _ 
    As Result Implements IExternalApplication.OnStartup 
        Try 
            AddRibbonPanel(a) 
            Return Result.Succeeded 
        Catch ex As Exception 
            Return Result.Failed 
        End Try 
    End Function 

    Public Function OnShutdown(ByVal a As UIControlledApplication) _ 
        As Result Implements IExternalApplication.OnShutdown 
        Return Result.Succeeded 
    End Function 

End Class

'*************************** ; end of VB.NET

The sample manifest file would look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?> 
<RevitAddIns> 
   <AddIn Type="Application"> 
      <Name>RevitNet Utilities</Name> 
      <Assembly>RevitNet.AppExample.dll</Assembly> 
      <AddInId>2c372fa8-86c5-49f6-ae7b-fcc18481c841</AddInId> 
      <FullClassName>RevitNet.AppExample</FullClassName> 
   </AddIn> 
</RevitAddIns>

'*************************** ; end of XML Manifest File

Notice there is no file path in the 'Assembly' tag?!?!?!?!