Installing a Custom Visual Studio Language Service

Question

I've written a new Visual Studio language service for my software studio's internal scripting language following the directions from a very useful article Writing Your First Visual Studio Language Service. I've got my grammar working great, some simple goto cases up and running, and text coloring. I've done my testing both in the Irony GrammarExplorer and the Visual Studio Experimental Hive, and I feel I'm ready to use it normally in visual studio and deploy it out to a few other programmers for some early testing and feedback.

The problem is I don't know how to install the language service. I have this nice little DLL that works in the Experimental Hive, but no clue how to have it running whenever I start up visual studio. I've looked all over the internet and found that particular step is glossed over everywhere I look. Maybe I'm just blind, or it's much easier than I think it to be, but I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me detailed steps on how to install my language service.

Thanks in advance!

Superior

Answer 1

After getting the Tumbleweed badge on here I managed to track down the solution. There were a couple important bits people might find useful.

First off a PLK (Package Load Key) is needed. It can be generated here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/cc655795.aspx Be sure to make sure that all the information you enter is correct, and is entered into the Assembly for the dll.

The PLK is installed by adding to the rsx file for the solution, usually as item 104, and then matching that item number in the ProvideLoadKey attribute in your code.

Next testing the PLK is a bit of a hassle. Tips can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb164677%28v=VS.90%29.aspx I highly recommend first using the /noVSIP switch with the experimental hive right from the start. I found using /log doesn't really help, it's much better to use the Package Load Analyzer once you've installed your package and are still having PLK issues.

A more detailed description from the package load analyzer can be done with this command line: devenv /command tools.analyzepackage /analyzeargs {your GUID} analyzepkg.txt

Once you're satisfied and ready to deploy, there is a tutorial that seemed more buried than it should be over at MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb458038%28VS.90%29.aspx

One thing that I found was curious with the RegPkg tool found in the VS SDK bin directory was that it would cause my package to load fine in the development solution it existed in, but would not not load in other solutions. There appears to be an extra step to call devenv /setup which I was missing, and this is taken care of in the deploy tutorial I provided in the previous paragraph through the use of a Custom Action.

Anyway I hope this helps someone running through the same process as me.

Superior

I should mention some of this is VS2008 specific. They made the process easier in VS2010. – Superior

Answer 2

One other thing that I spent a couple of hours bumping into that the MSDN tutorial doesn't mention: If you're deploying to a 64-bit computer, the instructions as given won't work. After quite a bit of searching, I stumbled across a posting halfway down this forum thread that explains it: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vsx/thread/989c5bea-3dd0-4e60-891a-f8f006e1b9a2

The MSDN tutorial says to install your registry keys here and regpkg.exe generates registry keys here as well:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\...

But on 64-bit computers, Visual Studio loads its settings not from there but from here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\...

Notice that extra "Wow6432Node" in there; the registry keys are otherwise identical but for that extra "Wow6432Node" in the path. So on 64-bit machines, you'll either need to use those extended registry keys, or you can install a hybrid 32/64-bit .dll to both sets of registry keys without ill effect. I have a .reg file that installs to both sets of keys, and it works very nicely.

Hope this helps save somebody else some time!

(For what it's worth, I used the "Codebase" mode for regpkg, not the "Assembly" mode.)

Dash

Very interesting, I didn't run into this myself but it's good to know! – Superior