In late July, we discovered a bug in our installation script that caused DevForce installations to always hang on certain Vista machines (such as Sony VAIO laptops).  The fix for this bug turned out to have an unintended side effect that is now causing Object Mapper problems for customers who have installed a German version of Windows XP.  The rest of this post documents the cause of this problem and how to correct it.

The side effect of the aforementioned bug fix is that it installs the ORM files in C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Anwendungsdaten\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\Addins instead of in C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\Addins.  From a registry standpoint, this is the correct location, but if you have read the previous posts in this thread, you will understand that this will break the operation of the Object Mapper.

I did research this matter and found that the reason that Visual Studio uses a hard coded "English name" for "Application Data" instead of an internationalized name is due to a bug in Visual Studio.

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=109056

There is a known bug with the %ALLUSERSPROFILE% value, the next portion of the path, Application Data, is localized on some non-English locales, but we hard code to Application Data. The fix for this is to add your own value to the registry to point to the directory you install your Add-in into.

This bug will be fixed for the next release of Visual Studio.

The recommended fix for getting the Object Mapper working on machine with a German OS is to add an "Add-in File Path". 

This is what it looks like using a German Visual Studio.

Open up “Extras” menu in Visual Studio 2005, and select “Optionen”. 

I've tried again to get the ORM menu entry and now I succeeded, through the "Customize - Addins" function, dragging the entry to the menu. The situation regarding the directories is as follows:

Although my OS and my VS2005 software are German, the proper directory for the Visual Studio plugins is obviously

C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\Addins.

Note that this is mixed: "Dokumente und Einstellungen" is German, "Application Data" is not.

The "hard-wired" name in Installshield seems to be right.

In the folder

C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Anwendungsdaten\Microsoft

(the "fully" German version), there is no folder "MSEnvShared". I created it and the content therein, but it didn't seem to have any impact. I deleted it again, and the ORM still works.

It appears that the InstallShield installer and the Object Mapper Installer have different opinions as to where the Add-Ins are located. The Object Mapper Installer uses the registry, so we believe it has the correct opinion. The InstallShield-based Installer knows about certain "Special Folders" and knows the "Internationalized names" for these folders. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any "Special Folder" for the "Application Data" folder underneath "All Users". Instead, it "hard-wires" the name to "Application Data" underneath the "Special Folder" for "All Users".

My guess is that you may be able to fix your problem by copying the three files: (IdeaBlade.DevTools.Orm.AddIn, IdeaBlade.DevTools.Orm.AddIn.dll, Visual.Studio.CommandBars.dll ) from the path that contains "Application Data" to the path that contains "Anwendungsdaten". If this doesn't work, let me know. If necessary, we can build you a new setup.exe.

The fix will require me to add a custom action to install/uninstall the files in the correct location. Since we don't have a version of a German XP or a German Visual Studio, I am wondering if you could help me test the installation.

I have already tried the measures in the installation guide, but I can't get it to work. I located the add-in in the folder

Destination folder missing: C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\All Users\Anwendungsdaten\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\Addins.

Note that the Object Mapper Installer tries to use the German folder name ("Anwendungsdaten" instead of "Application Data"), while the original Setup obviously installed in "Application Data" (both use the German "Dokumente und Einstellungen", though).

I also tried to rename the add-in in the folder where I found it, restarted VS, renamed again and restartet VS again, to no avail. It seems to me that the Add-In might be looking for a "Tools" menu, but in the German version this menu is named "Extras".