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&gt> 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:

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)