Plugin assemblies are not found when debugging HeuristicLab

[swagner]

When debugging HeuristicLab an exception is thrown that some plugin assemblies are not found. For example, when debugging a scatter search workbench, this problem ocurrs. The assembly HeuristicLab.ScatterSearch is not found, although it is located in the plugins folder.

Surprisingly, when starting HeuristicLab normally, there is no exception and the workbench can be opened and executed as expected.

[gkronber]

try turning off "break on thrown" for CLR exceptions in the debug->exceptions... dialog. If this fixes your problem turn off only the specific exception.

[swagner]

Sorry, but this doesn't fix the problem. I already checked the debug -> exceptions settings and there is no break if any exception is thrown but only if they are user-unhandled (break on thrown is off for all). Any other ideas?

[gkronber]

Sorry I can't reproduce the described erratic behavior.

The first try of loading SS_TSP resulted in an exception (specific version of HeuristicLab.Data not found) this happened in both scenarios, with debugging enabled and disabled. However the observed behavior is typical for the scenario where a plugin is compiled and linked against an older version of a referenced plugin than the currently installed one. To put it plainly the ScatterSearch plugin in the installation directory is outdated and needs to be recompiled/redeployed.

Recompiling the ScatterSearch plugin, linking against the newer version of HeuristicLab.Data in %Program Files%\HeuristicLab 3.0 fixed the exception for me.

Maybe I have a different build setup. When building the core solution all plugins are copied into the plugin folder of the local installation. Running the solution executes HeursisticLab.exe in the local installation with the working path also set to the local installation. I think this is defined in the solution file so it should be the same configuration for everybody. However I'm not sure about the working path setting, please check this.

The private solution (which defines ScatterSearch) links against the DLLs in the local installation so rebuilding the private solution should lead to a consistent state in respect to plugin dependencies in the local installation path.

[swagner]

Replying to gkronber:

Maybe I have a different build setup. When building the core solution all plugins are copied into the plugin folder of the local installation. Running the solution executes HeursisticLab.exe in the local installation with the working path also set to the local installation. I think this is defined in the solution file so it should be the same configuration for everybody. However I'm not sure about the working path setting, please check this.

Argh! This was the reason for the problem. The configuration setting to start an external program for debugging (the local installation of HeuristicLab) is not defined in the solution file but has to be set manually in each working copy. I already set that a while ago for debug builds but forgot it for release builds. As I was starting the release build, the built executable and not the local installation was executed and as a consequence, all plugins not contained in the core repository were missing. Well, damn it, I really should have tought of that earlier.

Thank you very much for your help and I'm really very sorry for wasting your time with such a stupid mistake. Sorry!

[swagner]

Deleted the attached workbench.

[swagner]

Milestone 3.0 deleted

[swagner]

Milestone Iteration 0 deleted

[swagner]

Milestone Current deleted