Calling esriRegasm manually (outside an ArcGIS-installation)

Since ArcGIS 10 during the Visual Studio build an additional target with the execution of a program named esriRegasm is called. Amongst other things this program adds the COM-categories in the registry.

If you need to call this program outside a build at an own cmd-prompt you could often see some strange errors.

Having the right permissions

First at all you need administration permissions. This is for the registry-entries.

You could open an admin-cmd like:

Win + R
runas /user:<AdminUser> cmd

Attention: If you have a 64-bit system you must take the cmd.exe from %windir%\SysWOW64. Then with “right mouse button” > “Run as administrator” you get the admin-cmd.

Otherwise this error is thrown (only if parameter /e is specified):

ESRIRegAsm::Register Command line: “C:\Projects\_Esri2011\Workshop\bin\EsriDE.Samples.ContentFinder.LegacyAgdAdapter.dll” /p:Desktop /e

Registry Capture On. Registering managed library… Registry Capture Off. Processing Registry Entries… Created configuration file: {84afc21e-7c0f-4fa6-8aad-0c02ef35ea9f}_esride.samples.contentfinder.legacyagdadapter Copying configuration file to destination…

Operation Failed 00A49118

**********************************

Press Enter to continue…

and a message pops up:

Registration failed.

Could not write to disk.

Run esriRegasm

Go to the directory with the esriRegasm-program. for instance: cd c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin

Execute the program with the full assembly-name and option /p:Desktop for instance: esriRegasm.exe “C:\Projects\_Esri2011\Workshop\bin\EsriDE.Samples.ContentFinder.LegacyAgdAdapter.dll” /p:Desktop

Run esriRegasm at a build or CI-server without ArcGIS-installation

For this scenario we copy the needed Esri-stuff to a folder beneath our project. In my case this folder is <project-root>\tools\Esri\

You need from “c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin” the following files:

ESRIRegAsm.exe
ESRIRegAsm.exe.config
DADFLib.dll

Put your commands in a batch and run this batch as a build-step.

Update 2011/05/13

It seems, that the batch was a wrong hint.

One correct variant, is to change the ESRIRegAsm-calls in the *.scproj Files.

Originally there is (for new Addins):

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ESRI\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ESRI\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets')" />

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">

</Target>



<Target Name="AfterBuild">

    <Warning Text="Unable to create .esriAddin; missing ESRI ArcGIS Add-in SDK component(s)." Condition="!Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ESRI\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets')" />

</Target>

or (for “old style” components):

<Target Name="BeforeClean">

    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(CommonProgramFiles)\ArcGIS\bin" Command="esriRegasm.exe &quot;$(TargetPath)&quot; /p:Desktop /u /s" Condition="Exists('$(TargetPath)')" />

</Target>

<Target Name="AfterBuild">

    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(CommonProgramFiles)\ArcGIS\bin" Command="esriRegasm.exe &quot;$(TargetPath)&quot; /p:Desktop /s" />

</Target>

and you should change this to:

<Target Name="BeforeClean">

    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SolutionDir)\.." Command="$(SolutionDir)\..\tools\Esri\esriRegasm.exe &quot;$(TargetPath)&quot; /p:Desktop /u /s" Condition="Exists('$(TargetPath)')" />

</Target>

  

<Target Name="AfterBuild">

    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(SolutionDir)\.." Command="$(SolutionDir)\..\tools\Esri\esriRegasm.exe &quot;$(TargetPath)&quot; /p:Desktop /s" />

</Target>

BTW: maybe a own target frees you from the complex line in the *.csproj. Maybe I will investigate this later.

Update 2011/05/16

Okay – some things are stranger than first thought. This update ends up with a folder structure and project settings to run the stuff

First at all my folder-structure

part of src-folder:

Screenshot for Calling esriRegasm manually (outside an ArcGIS-installation)

part of tools-folder:

Screenshot for Calling esriRegasm manually (outside an ArcGIS-installation)

Next thing: we must edit the ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets file:

<!-- ORIGINAL ESRI -->

<!--

<Exec 

	IgnoreExitCode="true"

	Condition="!Exists('Dont_EsriRegAddin.txt') And Exists('$(AddInFileToBeDeployed)')"

	WorkingDirectory="$(CommonProgramFiles)\ArcGIS\bin"

	Command="esriRegAddin.exe &quot;$(AddInFileToBeDeployed)&quot; /s">

	<Output TaskParameter="ExitCode" PropertyName="ESRIRegAddinExitCode" />

</Exec>

-->

		

<!-- MARKO -->

<Exec 

	IgnoreExitCode="true"

	Condition="!Exists('Dont_EsriRegAddin.txt') And Exists('$(AddInFileToBeDeployed)')"

	WorkingDirectory="$(ProjectDir)\..\..\..\tools\Esri"

	Command="esriRegAddin.exe &quot;$(AddInFileToBeDeployed)&quot; /s">

	<Output TaskParameter="ExitCode" PropertyName="ESRIRegAddinExitCode" />

</Exec>

<!-- ORIGINAL ESRI -->

<!--

<Target Name="CleanArcGISAddin" Condition="Exists('$(ZipIntermediatePath)AddInID.txt')">



	<!- get addin id and run ESRIRegAddin /u ->

	<ReadLinesFromFile File="$(ZipIntermediatePath)AddInID.txt">

		<Output TaskParameter="Lines" PropertyName="AddInCleanID" />

	</ReadLinesFromFile>



	<Exec IgnoreExitCode="true" WorkingDirectory="$(CommonProgramFiles)\ArcGIS\bin" Command="esriRegAddin.exe &quot;$(AddInCleanID)&quot; /u /s" />

	<Delete Files="$(ZipIntermediatePath)AddInID.txt" />

</Target>

-->

	

<!-- MARKO -->

<Target Name="CleanArcGISAddin" Condition="Exists('$(ZipIntermediatePath)AddInID.txt')">



	<!-- get addin id and run ESRIRegAddin /u -->

	<ReadLinesFromFile File="$(ZipIntermediatePath)AddInID.txt">

		<Output TaskParameter="Lines" PropertyName="AddInCleanID" />

	</ReadLinesFromFile>



	<Exec 

		IgnoreExitCode="true"

		WorkingDirectory="$(ProjectDir)\..\..\..\tools\Esri"

		Command="esriRegAddin.exe &quot;$(AddInCleanID)&quot; /u /s" />

	<Delete Files="$(ZipIntermediatePath)AddInID.txt" />

</Target>

and also the *.csproj of the Add-in:

<!-- ORIGINAL ESRI -->

<!--

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ESRI\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ESRI\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets')" />

-->

<!-- MARKO -->

<Import

	Project="$(ProjectDir)\..\..\..\tools\Esri\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets"

	Condition="Exists('$(ProjectDir)\..\..\..\tools\Esri\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets')" />

<Target Name="AfterBuild">

	<!-- ORIGINAL ESRI -->

	<!-- Gives build warning when add-in targets file is not found. -->

	<!--

	<Warning Text="Unable to create .esriAddin; missing ESRI ArcGIS Add-in SDK component(s)." Condition="!Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ESRI\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets')" />

	-->



	<!-- MARKO -->

	<Warning

		Text="Unable to create .esriAddin; missing ESRI ArcGIS Add-in SDK component(s)."

		Condition="!Exists('$(ProjectDir)\..\..\..\tools\Esri\ESRI.ArcGIS.AddIns.targets')" />



</Target>

Here you could have a look at the stuff:

Democode for ESRI 2011 (Die Deutschsprachige GIS-Konferenz)