A plea for help from a VS developer...

[Jimdoria]

Dontationcoder has been one of my favorite forums since it was founded, and now I'm hoping one of the cool developers here can help me out of a pressing software-related conundrum.

But first, the story: I'm an avid OneNote user, and for years (years!) toyed with the idea of getting a digital note taking tablet (like the Adesso CyberPad) to use with OneNote.

Problem 1: Ink created on these tablets not compatible with ink in OneNote. There was a solution available, but the company that made it dropped off the web and it disappeared.

But ONE DAY, I came across a post about a new app that would take the ink files from the tablet and bring them into OneNote. And it was was open source hosted on CodePlex!

So this year for my birthday I finally got the CyberPad. As soon as the box was open, I went to CodePlex, and...

PROBLEM 2: The app is not available as a binary! Only as source code.

And I don't own Visual Studio.
 

So I'm hoping some developer here will take pity on me, and help me out by downloading the source code for this app, building it and sending me the binary.

It's at http://top2onenote.codeplex.com. I've posted a similar query on the developer's blog, but someone made the same request back in August and it hasn't been fulfilled yet, so I'm not hopeful I'll see it from him anytime soon.

If anyone could take care of this for me, I promise to send happy thoughts and good mojo your way every time I use my new digital tablet!  

[timns]

Here you go.

Top2OneNoteAddInSetup.zip (1162.34 kB - downloaded 395 times.)

[f0dder]

Jimdoria: you could've probably downloaded the express edition of Visual Studio and compiled with that - but definitely seems a waste of time and bandwidth if that's the only time you'd use it - not a bad idea asking here

[Jimdoria]

Thank you so much Timns! You da best!

Fodder - I actually downloaded VS Express not too long ago, as I used to program in VB and ASP and wanted to see what was new. Suffice it to say, I was kind of over my head in the new environment. Plus, I've never known anything about C or C#.

I also wasn't sure this project could be built using the Express version of the tools.

[timns]

Thank you so much Timns! You da best!

Fodder - I actually downloaded VS Express not too long ago, as I used to program in VB and ASP and wanted to see what was new. Suffice it to say, I was kind of over my head in the new environment. Plus, I've never known anything about C or C#.

I also wasn't sure this project could be built using the Express version of the tools.

-Jimdoria (February 24, 2011, 02:44 PM)

Glad to be of service! Please let me know if it's all ok.

[Jimdoria]

Actually, I don't want to be a pest, but I'm having some difficulty.

Without an installer, I'm not sure how to get this added into OneNote. There's a section in the registry for Add Ins, but all the addins seem to require a CLSID to be registered, and I'm not sure how to do this.

Here's a sample registry export of one of the installed add-ins keys:

[Select]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\OneNote\AddIns\{717CCF19-F72B-4e24-BFD7-48F6EB732D6D}]
"CLSID"="{717CCF19-F72B-4e24-BFD7-48F6EB732D6D}"
"UnloadAfterClick"=dword:00000000
"CommandBar"=dword:00000001
"LoadOnNewWindow"=dword:00000000
"Name"="OneNote 2007 Printout Manager"
"IconPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\OneNote\\Add Ons\\Printout Manager\\toolBttn.bmp"
"ButtonText"="Printout Manager"
"EventDesired_HierarchyChange"=dword:00000000
"EventDesired_Navigation"=dword:00000000
"IconIndex"=""

If I register the DLL with REGSVR32 will it create the necessary CLSID?
If so, I can probably fill in the rest of the registration info by hand.

[timns]

How annoying! I would expect regsvr32 to do the trick for you - there is in fact an installer in this archive, but it's incomplete.

[Jimdoria]

So I register TOP2ONENOTEADDIN.DLL using RegSvr32...

Then how do I find the resulting CLSID? Just search the registry for the DLL filename?

Can you tell what was missing from the installer?
I wonder why the developer didn't finish it.

[timns]

So I register TOP2ONENOTEADDIN.DLL using RegSvr32...

Then how do I find the resulting CLSID? Just search the registry for the DLL filename?

Can you tell what was missing from the installer?
I wonder why the developer didn't finish it.

-Jimdoria (February 26, 2011, 11:35 AM)

I don't know - and VS does not help: "unrecoverable build error" when trying to create the msi installer.

EDIT: the master finagler did it! Please see my original post for the updated link.

[jgpaiva]

Jimdoria: if the trouble is fixed, maybe you could post in the blog a link to this thread?

[Jimdoria]

@jgpaiva: You read my mind. I did want to ask timns first to see if he minds, since it's his work.

@timns: Thanks again so much for this! The installer worked great and I'm now happily importing TOP files into OneNote!

The tool is a little flaky - it doesn't seem to import all the ink. Circles for example or underlines get lost (I know they are in the TOP file because another viewer program shows them as written on the tablet)

But for straight handwriting input, this thing is great, and the text search DOES work. Woot!

So do you mind if I post a link back to this thread on the developer's blog?

[timns]

Whoops sorry I only just spotted this post. Please go ahead 

[Jimdoria]

Thanks Tim!

I'm going to post a follow-up to this thread for anyone who might need this info in the future. There are a few more things to getting it all to work I want to put out there. I'll link from the developer's blog to the new thread and link back to this post from there as well.