Unable to Load Extensions

[Ian]

Hi Everyone,
I'm just staring out with building custom extensions (and AppScan in
general, for that matter), and I had a couple quick questions I wanted
to run by the group.

First, is there a way to get more detailed error information when an
extension fails to load? I've started playing around with some of the
example extensions as well as some that have already been published,
but I haven't been able to successfully load them with the Extension
Manager. All I'm getting currently is the "Failed Installing
Extension: <File>" error.

Second, has anyone had any issues using different Visual studio
versions? i.e. VS2005 vs. VS2008, Express editions, etc. I've been
using Visual C# 2005 express edition to compile some of the example
code, and while projects will build just fine I still can't install
the extensions.

Thanks in advance for any help- I've been pleased with AppScan so far,
and I'm looking forward to working with the extension framework.

--Ian Graham

[guy...@gmail.com]

Hi Ian,

Regarding your first question - there is no standard way to get such
additional information, but often times you can find the relevant
information either in the System Log (under "Help->AppScan Log") or in
the GuiLog.log file, which captures (among others) all the print outs
from the extension, and resides under the Logs directory (usually "C:
\Program Files\IBM\Rational AppScan\Logs").
In some cases, you'll see such an error message if the zip file is
doesn't hold the expected content. For example, if you're trying to
install the source of an extension and not the compiled one, or if you
have a zip file within a zip file. Another common reason for such a
message is if the extension relies on some install component that
can't be loaded.
Which extension were you trying to download and install?

For your second question - extensions should be compiled into a .NET
2.0 component, and should work with any IDE that supports that. This
primarily means VS.NET 2005, including the express editions. I'm not
sure if the 2008 version can compile 2.0 libraries, but if it does - I
would expect it to work.
If it doesn't work, it's worth double checking that the zip file
you're trying to install has all the necessary content - meaning
primarily an info.xml file describing the extension and the extension
DLL. Could that be the reason in this case as well? Which extension
did you try to download, compile and install?

It's good to hear you like AppScan so far - hopefully the extensions
will make you like it even better ;)
Cheers,
Guypo

[Ian]

Thanks for the reply Guypo!

Unfortunately, neither the system log nor the GUI log have been any
help here- They don't contain any information that pertains to the
extension I'm trying to load. As for which extension, I've been
working with the FiletoEXD extension.

Let me go through the steps I've been using to build the FiletoEXD
extension from source (When I download the binary distribution, it
works fine):

1. Download the FiletoEXD source, open the solution in Visual C#
express 2008
2. Modify the project properties to target the 2.0 version of .NET
3. Update project references (point to the AppScanSDK DLL, and remove
the reference to the GuiLayerSDK DLL, which doesn't appear to exist
anymore)
4. Build the project (Builds successfully, no errors or warnings)
5. Take FiletoEXD.dll, info.xml, and FiletoEXD.png and place them in a
folder called 'FiletoEXD'
6. Zip the FiletoEXD folder into FiletoEXD.zip
7. Try to load that zip file using the Extension Manager

When I try to load the extension I get the 'Failed Installing
Extension' message.

Can you see anything obvious that I'm missing here?

--Ian