What developer tools are available to me for debugging add-in code?
Environment:
Add-ins
Oracle B2C Service
Resolution:
In addition to the add-in logging available once the developer access profile bit is enabled, i.e. Developer Mode profile configuration option. When enabled, this mode allows a developer to place an add-in assembly and related files in a pre-determined directory, where the Oracle B2C Service desktop will load the files. This allows developers to test add-ins without having to upload the add-ins to the server.
To enable Developer Mode:
- Login to Oracle B2C Service as an administrator.
- Click Configuration >Staff Management > Profiles.
- Click the profile you want to enable developer mode for.
- Click the ‘Add-Ins’ tab and select the Developer Access checkbox
When a user logs in to an account and their profile has ‘Developer Access’ enabled, the desktop client will attempt to load add-in DLLs from the following directory (substituting the %USERNAME% variable):
- %USERPROFILE%\RightNowDev\AddIns
It is important to note that add-ins will only be loaded if the DLL is contained in a directory with the same name as the DLL. For example, ‘BasicSamples.dll’ must be contained at C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\RightNowDev\AddIns\BasicSamples\BasicSamples.dll
A useful trick for a developer is to add the following to the Visual Studio Post Build Events for an add-in project. This will cause your DLL to automatically be copied to the developer mode directory.
- mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\RightNowDev"
- mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\RightNowDev\AddIns"
- mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\RightNowDev\AddIns\$(ProjectName)"
- copy /Y "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).*" "%USERPROFILE%\RightNowDev\AddIns\$(ProjectName)\"
While you are running an add-in in developer mode, you can do additional debugging by, in Visual Studio, selecting Debug->Attach to Process in the application menu, and then attaching to the RightNow.CX.exe process. This will allow you to follow along with your add-in execution and set breakpoints as needed.
