Thursday, 09 January 2014 08:21

EA Installation Inspector V4

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EA Installation Inspector (Version 4)  is a small utility that provides information about the current version of EA and its AddIns.

Minor update that may be useful to some.

 Version 4 (June 2017):

  • Added a form to display a list of classes and methods provided by the AddIn DLL

Version 3 (September 2016):

  • Additional registry locations checked for add-in keys

Version 2 (November 2015):

  • Searches HKLM as well as HKCU for Sparx keys
  • Provide a pop-up form to make it easier to view detail of an entry

The need

1. During the development and testing of EA AddIns it is all too easy to get an issue with an AddIn not loading correctly - typically, but not always, it means a value in the Windows registry is not correct or a DLL is not in the referenced location. Finding these issues by checking through the registry can be a time consuming task.

2. A customer installs your AddIn and it is not working as expected.  So you want to get some concrete information on their installation.  For most customers, asking them to check registry settings is really not a good idea.

The solution

A small windows program that reads the information from the registry, performing the relevant searches and presenting the information clearly.

EA Installation Inspector performs this task.  Below is an example screen shot illustrating the AddIns status for the system.  The colouring of the results provides important information on their status.

A user can double click an entry to present a summary for the seleted AddIn:

 Then they can inspect the list of classes and methods provided:

 

Note: The output from this utility is based on my assumptions of what EA would do in looking for, and loading, AddIns.  I do not have information of that process so I cannot guarantee that the utility will report on all relevant issues.

Installation

The attached zip file (EAInstallationInspectorV4.zip) contains the windows executable. Unzip the contents eaInstallationInspectorV4.exe and run. 
It may be that you are unable to run the program due to Windows security policies that are set on your system.  In that case you will need to get suitable permissions from your computer administrator.

Documentation

Included in the attached zip is a document eaInstallationInspectionInformationV4.pdf which provides information about the utility functions and presentation of its results.  This information is also included in the application, available through the help button.

Source

For those interested the source is available on Github at https://github.com/EXploringEA/EAInstallationInspector

Feedback

The functions provided in this utility are those that have helped me.  They may not cover your needs - so do let me know if there are any other functions that you would find useful when developing and testing AddIns and I'll look at adding them into future versions of EA Installation Inspector.



Read 14248 times Last modified on Wednesday, 19 July 2017 04:29
Adrian Lincoln

For over 40 years I’ve been involved in technology based roles from developing software and hardware products, product innovation through to product / project management roles in the telecoms, aerospace, oil & gas, and financial industries My change of roles has often followed my interest in a new technology, whether it was writing assembler for the first microprocessors in the late 70′s, micro-coding bit slice machines in the early 80′s, to the arrival of C++ and the promise of OO in the late 80′s or developing applications on small devices such as mobile handsets. I have been using EA since 2002 and it is one of the key tools I use to help organise my worlds.  I am now retired but still spend time helping others benefit from EA as well as mentoring small businesses.

www.EXploringEA.com

4 comments

  • Comment Link Helmut Ortmann Thursday, 23 November 2017 08:18 posted by Helmut Ortmann

    Maybe it's possible to check the dll version against registration version information. In my experiences, this is also a widespread pitfall.

    Thanks a lot for the great tool!

    Helmut

  • Comment Link Helmut Ortmann Friday, 22 September 2017 07:07 posted by Helmut Ortmann

    Great tool, it saves me a lot of time and helps me understanding installation.

    Sometimes you think there is no way to get your Add-In running. Then it's time for EA Installation Inspector.

    Thanks a lot,

    Helmut

  • Comment Link Mithilesh Supkar Wednesday, 20 January 2016 14:30 posted by Mithilesh Supkar

    It is really useful. Is there any place where I can find the error and the possible solution to them? I created an msi and while installing it is saying Class "NOT SET" and Source "Notfound"

  • Comment Link Guillaume Friday, 09 January 2015 17:01 posted by Guillaume

    Simple and useful, thanks Adrian!

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