Resolving required plugin assemblies problem

[McBainUK]

My plugin is split up in to a number of dlls. Unless all the files are in the Plugins\Common folder I get this error:

Code:

2011-02-04 13:19:17.588    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.NpvrSpotifyPlugin.dll
2011-02-04 13:19:17.588    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.NpvrSpotifyPlugin.pdb
2011-02-04 13:19:17.760    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (2) C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-02-04 13:19:17.760    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (3) C:\Program Files\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-02-04 13:19:17.760    [ERROR][1]    Unexpected error: System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
   at System.Reflection.Module._GetTypesInternal(StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()
   at NUtility.PluginRegistry.LoadPluginsFromRoot(String pluginDirectoryBase)

It never looks in the folder it found the plugin dll! I'm I doing something wrong? These extra dlls are not 'common' so shouldn't really be in the common folder.

[sub]

Its preference is to look for unresolved externals in the same directory as the plugin, then to fall back to looking for it in the common directories. Unfortunately it's not easy for the application to tell which plugin is having the unresolved external. It could have been any code loaded in the process. It tries to have a guess at it by looking at the current stack trace to see if it contains any classes it can definitely attribute to a certain plugin. In this case, I can see it is failing to determine which plugin is having the problem. (otherwise it'd have "Looking for missing assembly(1)" message in the log)

[McBainUK]

Is the anything I can do to help it with guessing?

[sub]

To be honest, I'm not sure. I'd probably have to put more logging in that logic to see what is happening in this case. Unfortunately I'm at a stage where I'm not able to do patches in there without breaking the rest of the app. I'm happy to work through this when the next release is out though?

[McBainUK]

OK, I'll bump after the next release. Got a simple work around for the time being (put the files in the common folder).

[McBainUK]

Bump. Log from v2.0.3 showing the same problem:

Code:

[...startup]
2011-03-29 14:03:49.367    [DEBUG][1]    Created mutex. Must be only instance.
2011-03-29 14:03:49.565    [DEBUG][1]    Version: 2.0.3
2011-03-29 14:03:49.567    [DEBUG][1]    SingleInstance()
2011-03-29 14:03:49.710    [INFO][1]    About to connect to remote recording service
2011-03-29 14:03:49.712    [DEBUG][1]    RecordingServiceProxy@exit
2011-03-29 14:03:49.747    [DEBUG][1]    Using skin: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\skin\Default\
2011-03-29 14:03:49.752    [DEBUG][1]    About to look for plugin directories in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\
2011-03-29 14:03:49.755    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.755    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Common.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.755    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Favourites.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.757    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Favourites.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.757    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.NpvrSpotifyPlugin.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.757    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.NpvrSpotifyPlugin.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (2) C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (3) C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [ERROR][1]    Unexpected error: System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
   at System.Reflection.Module._GetTypesInternal(StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()
   at NUtility.PluginRegistry.LoadPluginsFromRoot(String pluginDirectoryBase)
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyFree.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyFree.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (2) C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (3) C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [ERROR][1]    Unexpected error: System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
   at System.Reflection.Module._GetTypesInternal(StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()
   at NUtility.PluginRegistry.LoadPluginsFromRoot(String pluginDirectoryBase)
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyMetadata.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyMetadata.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.830    [DEBUG][1]    Skipping non-existant plugin directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Plugins\

[imilne]

I've got a similar issue (I think), but in my case I'm trying to use a third-party DLL that will only work if it's placed in the same location as NextPVR.exe.

It's mediaInfo.dll, and it comes with a C# wrapper class that does a whole bunch of [DllImport("MediaInfo.dll")] calls. Visual C# Express doesn't want to know about the DLL (probably because it's not a .Net assembly), but everything compiles and runs ok - so long as the DLL goes in the right place.

It would be nice to just leave it in with my plugin, but I'm guessing that's not possible? No big deal if it isn't, but this is all black-magic windows stuff to me...

Iain

[sub]

I've got a similar issue (I think), but in my case I'm trying to use a third-party DLL that will only work if it's placed in the same location as NextPVR.exe.

It's mediaInfo.dll, and it comes with a C# wrapper class that does a whole bunch of [DllImport("MediaInfo.dll")] calls. Visual C# Express doesn't want to know about the DLL (probably because it's not a .Net assembly), but everything compiles and runs ok - so long as the DLL goes in the right place.

It would be nice to just leave it in with my plugin, but I'm guessing that's not possible? No big deal if it isn't, but this is all black-magic windows stuff to me...

Iain

That looks like a native DLL rather .NET, so there probably isnt anything I can do about that one. I seem to remember reading that you can manually call the win32 LoadLibrary api, specifying a full path to the DLL (in your plugin directory), prior to calling any of calls that use that DLL then it should work correctly (since the calls resolve to the already loaded DLL).

[sub]

Bump. Log from v2.0.3 showing the same problem:

Code:

[...startup]
2011-03-29 14:03:49.367    [DEBUG][1]    Created mutex. Must be only instance.
2011-03-29 14:03:49.565    [DEBUG][1]    Version: 2.0.3
2011-03-29 14:03:49.567    [DEBUG][1]    SingleInstance()
2011-03-29 14:03:49.710    [INFO][1]    About to connect to remote recording service
2011-03-29 14:03:49.712    [DEBUG][1]    RecordingServiceProxy@exit
2011-03-29 14:03:49.747    [DEBUG][1]    Using skin: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\skin\Default\
2011-03-29 14:03:49.752    [DEBUG][1]    About to look for plugin directories in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\
2011-03-29 14:03:49.755    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.755    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Common.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.755    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Favourites.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.757    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.Favourites.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.757    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.NpvrSpotifyPlugin.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.757    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.NpvrSpotifyPlugin.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (2) C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (3) C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [ERROR][1]    Unexpected error: System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
   at System.Reflection.Module._GetTypesInternal(StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()
   at NUtility.PluginRegistry.LoadPluginsFromRoot(String pluginDirectoryBase)
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyFree.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.825    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyFree.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (2) C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    Looking for assembly in (3) C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Plugins\common\MusicSpot.Common.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [ERROR][1]    Unexpected error: System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.
   at System.Reflection.Module._GetTypesInternal(StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()
   at NUtility.PluginRegistry.LoadPluginsFromRoot(String pluginDirectoryBase)
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    About to check for plugin interfaces in: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyMetadata.dll
2011-03-29 14:03:49.827    [DEBUG][1]    Plugin PDB also exists: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\Spotify\MusicSpot.SpotifyMetadata.pdb
2011-03-29 14:03:49.830    [DEBUG][1]    Skipping non-existant plugin directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Plugins\

If you rename the Spotify directory to 'MusicSpot' does it help?

[imilne]

That looks like a native DLL rather .NET, so there probably isnt anything I can do about that one. I seem to remember reading that you can manually call the win32 LoadLibrary api, specifying a full path to the DLL (in your plugin directory), prior to calling any of calls that use that DLL then it should work correctly (since the calls resolve to the already loaded DLL).

Ok, thanks. I'll get the google pigeons on the case and see what they can find.