Add-in; Failure to get code to execute when toolbar button pressed

Question

I had written several VBA routines for ArcGIS up through v9.3 and have since upgraded to 10. Since VBA will be a thing of the past in the next version, I downloaded and installed VB Express 2008 and successfully (I think) migrated the VBA to VB.Net 2008. I saved out each of the routines to their respective *.vb files and ran the Add-In wizard for a new project, adding each routine as a button added to a toolbar.

Everything compiles and I get my toolbar to show up in ArcMap, but when I press any of the buttons, they grey out and nothing executes. Similarly, the breakpoints I have inserted go hollow with a yellow triangle and when I hover over the breakpoint, it states that "The breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document."

I think that somehow I am missing the magic of how to tie the XML stuff (which I understand controls the toolbar and buttons) to the VB.Net code (which perform the actions). Is there any VB code that links the code back to the XML so it functions?

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dale Bridgford

P.S (added later) To provide a bit more background, I am enclosing a portion of the code. This is typical of what I have cludged together from various posts. All variations that I have tried are equally inoperative.

Again, any insight as to where I have gone astray would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dale Bridgford

` Imports ESRI.ArcGIS.Geometry

Namespace ERMDTools

Public Class btnAddHyperlink
    Inherits ESRI.ArcGIS.Desktop.AddIns.Button
    Public Sub New()

    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub OnClick()
        Dim pFeature As IFeature, pLayer As ILayer
        Dim pMap As IMap
        Dim pSRE As SpatialReferenceEnvironment
        Dim pQF As IQueryFilter
        Dim pMSR As ISpatialReference
        Dim pGeoDataset As IGeoDataset
        Dim pMxDoc As ESRI.ArcGIS.ArcMapUI.IMxDocument
        pMxDoc = Nothing
        pMxDoc = m_App.Document
        pMap = pMxDoc.FocusMap
        pMSR = pMap.SpatialReference `

Answer 1

I have solved my dilemma, more or less. I have found that the structure of the vb for the Add-In needed to be as follows:

[CODE]Imports ....

Public Class btnAddHyperlink Inherits ESRI.ArcGIS.Desktop.AddIns.Button

Public Sub New()

End Sub


Protected Overrides Sub OnClick()

    Dim pFeature As IFeature, pLayer As ILayer

    Dim pSRE As SpatialReferenceEnvironment
    Dim pQF As IQueryFilter[/CODE]

and with that structure, the button would hit the code. Again, many thanks for everyone's assistance.

Dale

Answer 2

After struggling with this issue myself and getting nowhere, I think I've found a couple of culprits.

First one: If you're targeting ArcMap 10.0, you can only use .NET 3.5. ArcMap 10.1 will support 4.0.

Second: Your projects should target AnyCPU. Mine were targeting x86 which was causing the behaviour Dale described above -> clicking the button then it goes gray. When I switched to AnyCPU this problem went away.

I hope this helps somebody. Cheers.