Orchard CMS Custom Module Project File - orchardcms

I have an existing solution (multiple projects, one MVC web project) that I'm trying to wrap into an Orchard module.
All documentation says that the web csproj should be at the root under my module directory (eg Modules/MyModule/MyWeb.csproj).
However, I have an existing solution structure where the sln file sits at the top level and each csproj file (and project content) sits in its own directory (the standard solution structure when you build a multi-project app in Visual Studio).
Is there a way I can tell my Module.txt file that the Orchard Module csproj is under MyModule/MyWeb/MyWeb.csproj? I'd prefer to not restructure the whole solution.
Thank you.

Note: As a point of clarification, it is not ~/Modules/MyModule/MyWeb.csproj but ~/Modules/MyModule/MyModule.csproj. The Folder name of the Module must match the file name of the project (before .csproj). This is enforced by the Dynamic Extension Loader, which requires ~/Module/{ModuleId}/{ModuleId}.csproj. (A similar approach is required for themes.)
The only potential way to do this is to write a custom module that follows the above that contains a custom loader. Within your module, create your own implementation of IExtensionLoader, and register it with Autofac. However, I don't know if it would work; I've never tried.
You will probably have an easier time reorganizing your solution.

Related

How does Orchard resolve references in modules?

The documentation (here and here) is notably lacking information on how references in modules are resolved:
References Resolution
(TODO: Explain how Orchard figures out references by looking at the "References" section of the csproj file as well as looking at additional assembly binaries dropped in each module "bin" directory)
Unfortunately, this is exactly the information that I need. I have created a custom module that has a reference to a custom-built, in-house DLL. When I try to use a class from this DLL, I get the following Exception:
Could not load type 'Custom.MyClass' from assembly 'Custom, Version=[version], Culture=[culture], PublicKeyToken=[token]'.
So, my question is thus: What does Orchard do with module references, and is there anything special I need to do to have Orchard pick up my module's references?
EDIT: Looks like some better information can be found in this blog post and its comments. However, my custom assembly already exists in src\Orchard.Web\App_Data\Dependencies, and I'm still getting the error.
EDIT2: We have a copy of the custom DLL in the lib folder, so I tried referencing that one instead (as we have another module that does so successfully), but still no change.
EDIT3:: In reference to the previous two edits, it's not copying from the lib folder to the App_Data\Dependencies folder. I just added a new DLL to the lib folder and referenced it, and it didn't appear in the Dependencies folder. I think the current Custom.dll isn't replacing the one that's there, which is why I'm getting the error I am. But why isn't Orchard copying into the Dependencies folder?
In order to have Orchard to use your custom module you need to have it on path: your_web_application_path/Modules/your_custom_module, we are using sym links to achieve that.
Then your main module (web application) should see your custom module. If you are adding new module to existing orchard app, you probably need to enable it by hand from admin panel/modules menu. For new installations you could add feature enable directive to your recipe and add dependency to main module.txt file (assuming you want your module always on).
Another trouble shooting tips:
make sure your module build path is set to bin/ folder (not some bin/debug etc.)
make sure your module is really an orchard module (have module.txt file) and is seen in admin panel/modules
make sure it is enabled, new modules are by default disabled
make sure referenced libraries are referenced from static folder I mean not from someting like bin which is clean up during rebuild

Which project file element specifies a WinRT class library project and not .NET?

I have a WPF class library that I want to port to be a WinRT class library. My plan is to copy the project, edit the project file so that it's a WinRT project instead of WPF, and see where I stand.
However, I cannot find which element in the project file makes it a WinRT project, and not .NET. Any ideas?
I've tried everything including diffing the project file with a WinRT class library project file, and slowly changing it over, but the WPF project never switches to WinRT in VS's eyes.
Sorry if this sounds nuts, I'm looking for the quickest way to find out how much work I need to do to port across.
Thanks
I'd take a different approach to that:
First I'd create a new Windows Store apps class library project.
Then I'd copy all the files from the existing WPF class library folder to the new Windows Store apps class library project folder (without overwriting any of existing files)
In the Solution Explorer window I'd enable Show All Files to see all the copied files and folders.
I'd multi select all the items in the treeview that belong to the project and click on Include In Project from the context menu.
At this point the only thing potentially still missing would be settings at the project level such as conditional compilation symbols and missing references which could easily be added by comparing both projects in Visual Studio or just trying to compile the new projects and seeing what goes wrong.

Orchard module doesn't work when built with VS2012

I've made a hello world module for orchard following this tutorial http://docs.orchardproject.net/Documentation/Building-a-hello-world-module
I've opened up the csproj in VS2012 and changed the projecttype guids to be MVC https://stackoverflow.com/a/12811015/828859
When I build the module in MVC orchard uses the published DLL.
When i attempt to go to the /helloworld route i get 404 resource cannot be found
When i save a file and let the dynamic compilation in orchard do it's thing it works fine.
I would like to be able to deploy with a DLL so does anyone have any ideas on the problem?
Ok, two things.
First - you won't be able to deploy your module as a single DLL. There are lots of things that do not get compiled into the DLL, eg. the Module.txt manifest. It has to be there under /Modules/<YourModuleName> (as well as module's .csproj file, .cshtml files and some more). Otherwise, Orchard won't be able to find your module.
So the source code for the module has to be there, although if you build it and the module's DLL is in /Modules/<YourModuleName>/bin folder, dynamic compilation won't kick in.
Second - module development should be done using full source code - not with the downloaded deployment package. Please read here how to get full source code.

monotouch bindings project to framework

What are the correct steps to creating a bindings project for a Framework versus a library? (Yes, they are close to the same thing, but NOT the same, the framework is a directory structure with header files, library and resources). These are what I've come up with, note that none of the Framework specific steps are documented as far as I can tell at the Xamarin web site (please prove me wrong).
Create the bindings project via MonoDevelop wizard.
Generate the ApiDefinition.cs and StructsAndEnums.cs files with btouch or by hand.
Copy the file from the root of the framework directory to lib.a (e.g., ArcGIS to libArcGIS.a) and add it to the project. It is important to note that the file without any file extension in the framework directory is in fact a library file.
?? Include framework resources ??
You'll notice that I get foggy at the third step. How to you add these resources to the bindings project? The large part of the bindings project links and runs fine, but I think it crashes at times because it is missing an expected resource.
You must (a) create a C# contract that describes the Objective-C contracts and how you want your projection into C# to look like, and (b) statically distribute the library with your project.
To kick the automatic population of the linkwith.cs you must rename the framework library (for example MyFramework) to use the library pattern (in this case, "libMyFramework.a")
Resources you have to select and flag as resources, they will be bundled directly into your app, and extracted when the library is consumed.

Should third-party static libraries be included as an item in VC++ 2010 project?

I use third party static library (provided as a .LIB file without source code) in my project. For linking purposes it is enough to add it via "Properties/Linker/Input->Additional Dependencies"
This library is not used in any other project in the solution.
I wonder if I should add it as an item to project file itself. The advantages that I see: it will be immediately obvious that this project uses it and one wouldn't have to add it to version control system manually (anything that is a part of the project/solution is added automatically if you use something like AnkSVN).
The project in VCS must be buildable. It is impossible without the lib. So you should add it.

Resources