Hi all,
I will try to help you out.
Some time passed since I last worked on it, so please be patient with me
As already mentioned, the net bridge plug-in functionality is quite similar to win32 plug-ins written in C++ plug ins or delphi.
There is nothing really complex about, in general it acts as a bridge between the IA and the net plug-in. On his own the bridge do nothing, just forwarding the messages and the variables.
glenharvy wrote:...checked the contents of the $SUPPORTDIR$ and each of the required dll's as well as ini files do exist.
Do you copy the runtime net bridge dll as well?
Like I said, the net bridge do only the variable forwarding, all the actual work must be done by your plug-in.
glenharvy wrote:...The author of this beast uses IDE and Compile time dll's as meaning one and the same thing - at least I think he does. If he doesn't then I am more confused than ever. At the bottom of his notes he states:...
There are two net bridge dlls. Reflecting the two IA plug ins you can find in the IA samples.
One for the runtime plug-in, the one you can find in the IA samples as: mEXEPlug.dpr
And one dll for the compile time plug-in, the one you can find in the IA sample plug ins as mIDEPlug.dpr
I do not claim to be an IA expert, but the two above was sent me to be those that a net bridge is needed for.
And as for the statement from the doc, it just means that you need to copy all your files AND the runtime net bridge dll as well.
The documentation was not intended for end users, It was targeted at my customer at IA. That is why it may be a bit confusing
An important issue is, that IA must use the net bridge dlls, not your assemblies. IA can not use net assemblies, because of it, you need to use the net bridge dll instead when working from IA point of view. IA will load the bridge dll, and this will in turn read the ini and load your assembly, and then just forward all function calls.
So when configuring the IA, you have to forgot about your assembly, just use the bridge dll.
I hope that makes all of it a bit more clear?