Please Help - Set up of environment for Plug In Development (1 Viewer)

[dvgeek]

Hello Developers & Experts,

I would like to get involved and start on some plug-in development. I have some () programming background and a lot of systems background.

I've just set up a new VM Windows7-64 environment for development (nothing but OS on this & updated with all the MS updates/patches). I have read through the relevant Wiki sections on development and am a bit confused on the basics. Please pardon me if the answers exist to my questions and point me to right resource link.

1. What do I need to install on this clean environment?
2. Visual Studio Express 2010 / 2012 / 2013?
3. Do I need to install all the required software mentioned for development of Media Portal even for Plug-In development? I do not plan on touching (modifying) any of the main code - I do understand I will need to reference / call some functions, etc. in the PlugIn code I develop.
4. My understanding is that from ver 1.6 the shift has been to .Net 4 - but the Plug-In development wiki says I have to target .Net 3.5?
5. What is the sequence for installs of the required software? Is there any?

The reason I picked a VM to do this, is because after installing all the pre-reqs, I would like to manage the development environment with snapshots, so that I can always go back to a point of reference without having to install all the pre-reqs again.

Thank you for a wonderful product and hoping I can contribute to the PlugIn community.

 

[ChubbyArse]

I've just been through this - so hopefully I can advise.

1. You'll need all of the pre-reqs mentioned on this page here - however it is easier to just install 1.7.0.0 (or 1.6.0.0) on your development box and let it install the pre-reqs for you. I tried to avoid a complete install of MediaPortal as I tend to not usually do that on dev boxes (I'm used to GAC problems etc - but there doesn't seem to be any GAC elements to MP - phew).
2. I'm running in Visual Studio 2013 full - so I can't vouch for express development...
3. Like i said in 1, it's easier to just install MP on the dev box. Ther are configuration files and databases (mysql) that are created and populated by the installer - that are too difficult to hand-crank. Just let the installer do the work.
4. I'm currently devloping my plugin against 4.0. In fact, I dropped to 3.5 and the references from the MP installed folder - don't appear then as they are built for 4.0.
5. Again, let the installer do the work. Have a search through some of my previous posts as it seems I trod a similar path to that which you are trying.

I'm also developing on an i5 4GB running VirtualBox (with 2 of the cores and half the memory) with a Windows + VS2013 image. It takes a little while to get going but once it's running it's pretty good.

Good luck getting up and running. I've got some difficulties with my plugin solution and creating the installer - so follow my posts as I may ask similar questions to you.

For info my repository is here:

 

[sytone]

I just installed Media Portal on my machine and linked to the assemblies in the installation folder so I knew it worked with that version. I am using VS2012 but the full version, the Express version will work fine it is just missing the enterprise features.

For my project I have a post build action that copies just the assembly to the pugins directory and also copy any skins over. That way I can start MP and the new version is there. Also if I am updating skins I just build and ignore the error that the assembly cannot be copied (It is locked by MP) but the skins will go across and if you go between windows the skins will be updated.

I have also attached to the running process and debugged using this model without issues.

 

[Edalex]

Welcome guys. Feel free to PM me or catch me on IRC with practical questions.

 

[dvgeek]

@Edalex - Thank you - I will try to document every step of my set-up and post it here.