Extension installation issue

Hello,

I downloaded the extension and tried installing it.  Unfortunately, I'm getting an IO error during installation.  I have included the log below:

8/9/2011 11:04:44 AM - Microsoft Visual Studio Extension Installer
8/9/2011 11:04:44 AM - -------------------------------------------
8/9/2011 11:04:44 AM - Initializing Install...
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM - Extension Details...
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Identifier      : 4237f4ea-953b-4e22-a27b-5a99e245fac4
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Name            : Mindscape NHibernate Model Designer
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Author          : Mindscape
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Version         : 1.0.337.15858
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Description     : A designer for creating domain models for the NHibernate object-relational mapper
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Locale          : en-US
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     MoreInfoURL     : http://www.mindscape.co.nz/products/nhdesigner/default.aspx
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     InstalledByMSI  : False
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     MinFramework    : 4.0
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     MaxFramework    : 4.0
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Supported Visual Studio Editions :
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -         Version : 10.0
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -             Ultimate
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -             Premium
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -             Pro
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     Supported Isolated Shells :
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -     References      :
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM -
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM - Searching for applicable products...
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM - Found installed product - Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional
8/9/2011 11:04:45 AM - The extension with ID '4237f4ea-953b-4e22-a27b-5a99e245fac4' is not installed to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional.
8/9/2011 11:04:49 AM - The following target products have been selected...
8/9/2011 11:04:49 AM -     Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional
8/9/2011 11:04:49 AM -
8/9/2011 11:04:49 AM - Beginning to install extension to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional...
8/9/2011 11:04:49 AM - Install Error : System.IO.PathTooLongException: C:\Documents and Settings\Robert.Eberhart\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions\Mindscape\Mindscape NHibernate Model Designer\1.0.337.15858\ItemTemplates\VisualBasic\1033\NHibernateModelDesigner.zip: VisualBasic.vstemplate
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.ExtensionManagerService.BeginInstall(IInstallableExtension installableExtension, Boolean perMachine, AsyncOperation asyncOp)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.ExtensionManagerService.InstallWorker(IInstallableExtension extension, Boolean perMachine, AsyncOperation asyncOp)

I haven't had issues with other extensions with regards to the location of the extension and I did a quick check and do not see an option where one can change the location where extensions are installed.

The operating system is Windows XP.   The Visual Studio version is Professional.

Any assistance you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Robert Eberhart

Hello Robert,

Thanks for reporting this issue.  This appears to be an issue with the VSIX installer -- it isn't 'long path' friendly, and the XP default profile path is so long that a VSIX with a moderately long name can tip it over the edge.

The only fix you can really make at your end is to redirect your profile to a different directory with a shorter name.  (On Windows Vista and Windows 7 the default profile directory is a lot shorter so if you can use one of those OSes instead then that should also solve the issue -- but that's a bit of a sledgehammer solution!)

I have tweaked the NHibernate Designer package to use slightly shorter template names which I think will bring the path length under the crucial limit.  These will be included in builds numbered 18191 and above.  I will ask our Visual Studio Gallery guy to upload the updated build as soon as possible -- hopefully within the next few hours but he is travelling at the moment so it may take a bit longer!

Hello,

Thanks for your prompt response.

I actually found a solution to my problem.  I don't know if anyone else has experienced my problem, but here's what I did.

1. Change the VSIX extension of the package to ZIP and then open up the file.  
2. Open the file "extension.vsixmanifest"
3. Change the value in the <Name/> element from "Mindscape NHibernate Model Designer" to "MindscapeNHMD".  
4. Change the extension back from ZIP to VSIX
5. Double-click on the package to install

I was able to install the package using the above steps without issue.  The downside to this method is that you can't really use NuGet to get the latest package, and I think that the files in my account are out of sync with the NuGet Online gallery (i.e. an older build).  

One other item of note, is there another way of registering the product within Visual Studio?  The way I registered the product was adding a NHibernate Model to a solution, clicked on the link to buy the product, and then entered in the relevant information.  

Good to hear you have a workaround.  We still hopefully the next drop will solve the problem though, because we don't want you to have to do this every time you update!

We believe Extension Manager will still check the online gallery for updates even if you installed from a local VSIX, and we *think* it should still find them because it uses a GUID rather than the product name -- but we are not sure.

We don't provide a way to activate the product without creating or loading a model, basically because if you never create or load a model you're probably not going to get a lot of value out of the product *grin*.  If you've got a use case where it would be useful to activate the product without creating or loading a model then let us know and we'll see if we can support it.