Application Plugins in Windows [XP]

**ChristianEhrlicher** · 8th February 2007, 05:09

I tried out plugandpaint example and everything works fine.
Did you output some debug messages in MainWindow::loadPlugins() (don't forget CONFIG +=console)?
Do you use VS2005 -> did you also copy the .manifest files?
Take a look into the registry (regedit) under HKCU\Software\Trolltech\Qt Plugin Cache 4.2\ (or Qt Plugin Cache 4.2.debug for debug) to see if your plugins are found and if they've the correct build key.

The plugandpaint example loads the plugins manually so it should be easy to see if they're found by modifiyng MainWindow::loadPlugins().

**dcurtis** · 8th February 2007, 06:16

Yes, i am using vc2005.

I am also manually loading plugins from my Main app. I don't believe this is the same problem.

Thanks for the reply though.

**ChristianEhrlicher** · 8th February 2007, 06:34

So why don't you try out to debug it as I mentioned?

**dcurtis** · 8th February 2007, 06:43

Originally Posted by ChristianEhrlicher

So why don't you try out to debug it as I mentioned?

i already did with my own app.. i know they are being found because with the same directory structure on another machine they work.

**ChristianEhrlicher** · 8th February 2007, 06:50

So the only problem I can think of is a problem with the manifests / side by side assemblies. The goal was to simplify the dll hell with those crap, but ...
Try to load the dll with QLibrary and see if it works - when it works, the manifest shouldn't be the problem.

**dcurtis** · 9th February 2007, 03:01

Originally Posted by ChristianEhrlicher

So the only problem I can think of is a problem with the manifests / side by side assemblies. The goal was to simplify the dll hell with those crap, but ...
Try to load the dll with QLibrary and see if it works - when it works, the manifest shouldn't be the problem.

Well, i've debugged the problem and here it is;

in vs2005, it automatically embeds the manifest into the .dll / .exe file. For some reason if you do embed the manifest into a plugin dll, it will NOT load. I don't know why but that is the problem. I recompiled all my plugins without the manifest and they run fine. I'm going to attempt to use the command line tools to embed the manifest and see if there is the same problem just for my own curiosity. Thanks for all your replies. Thanks cmake! Really i love it but damn, what a bug.

/edit: also, if you embed the manifest into the plugin dll using mt.exe (rather than letting VS2005 do it for you, it does not cause a problem!) What the heck MS...