Cannot find custom tool AGDataSetGenerator on this system

Question

I've inherited a legacy .Net 3.5 VB app to support from a client and they'd like to make some small data changes. Before we begin I think it's important to note that I am running Windows 7 64 bit, and VS 2013 Ultimate R2.

While making my first changes to the project, I noticed their datasets use a custom tool AGDataSetGenerator (written by Shawn Wildermuth in 2004). I did a lot of poking around on how to register custom tools. I went over to http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/8582/Inherit-from-ADO-NET-DataSet-to-create-your-own-bu and got the source code of the tool, inside the project there are a couple of utility files that you need to run in order to register the tool. Remember this was made in 2004 so things were a little different back then.

I modified the Reg.cmd file to point to v2.0.50727 since my project is running .Net 3.5 and .Net 3.0 and 3.5 are both just minor updates from .Net 2.0 and not completely new .net versions. Also I noticed that there is both a Framework and a Framework64 folder with the C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net folder, so I added both locations to my .cmd file in hopes to cover all of my bases. Code Below

Reg.cmd - Original

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\regasm /codebase /verbose F:\AGDataSetGenerator.dll`

Reg.cmd - My Modified Version

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regasm /codebase /verbose F:\AGDataSetGenerator.dll
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\regasm /codebase /verbose F:\AGDataSetGenerator.dll

Then it was on to the.reg file.

Upon opening the file my first thought was, cool, I can just switch the version from 7.1 to 12.0 and away we go. Not the case. After quite a bit of googling I found the first line registers the tool for VB.Net, and the second registry entry registers the tool for C#, so for me I only need the first line, also VS now a days registers to a new location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\ for 64 bit specific registers. So in hopes to cover my bases once again, I tried including both 32 bit and 64 bit locations. I even threw in a more global register for both 32 and 64 bit that in hopes that would point visual studio to the generator entry, unfortunately I'm a bit out of my wheelhouse here so I was pretty much grabbing at straws.

BSDataSetGenerators.reg - Original

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\Generators\{164B10B9-B200-11D0-8C61-00A0C91E29D5}\AGDataSetGenerator]
@="ADOGuy DataSet Generator"
"CLSID"="{87BF1B1C-E1DF-4f24-A07E-2BD9B8CAD316}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\Generators\{FAE04EC1-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}\AGDataSetGenerator]
@="ADOGuy DataSet Generator"
"CLSID"="{3C13044D-394D-45cd-89FF-51C885BFBCD9}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

BSDataSetGenerators.reg - My Modified Version

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\CLSID\{87BF1B1C-E1DF-4f24-A07E-2BD9B8CAD316}]
@="AGDataSetGenerator"
"InprocServer32"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\mscoree.dll"
"Class"="BottomLine.Generators.VBNETAGDataSetGenerator"
"Assembly"="AGDataSetGenerator, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=35e4ca7ea38d2508"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\CLSID\{87BF1B1C-E1DF-4f24-A07E-2BD9B8CAD316}]
@="AGDataSetGenerator"
"InprocServer32"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\mscoree.dll"
"Class"="BottomLine.Generators.VBNETAGDataSetGenerator"
"Assembly"="AGDataSetGenerator, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=35e4ca7ea38d2508"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\Generators\{164B10B9-B200-11D0-8C61-00A0C91E29D5}\AGDataSetGenerator]
@="AGDataSetGenerator"
"CLSID"="{87BF1B1C-E1DF-4f24-A07E-2BD9B8CAD316}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\Generators\{164B10B9-B200-11D0-8C61-00A0C91E29D5}\AGDataSetGenerator]
@="AGDataSetGenerator"
"CLSID"="{87BF1B1C-E1DF-4f24-A07E-2BD9B8CAD316}"
"GeneratesDesignTimeSource"=dword:00000001

Regardless of everything I've tried. When I right-click a dataset and try to run custom tool. BAM! I get the following:

If anyone can get this working in similar settings to my own, I'd love to know how you did it.

Answer 1

I'm very much the type of person that find's it very hard to take NO for an answer when it comes to technology. Unfortunately the answer here is simply just "No". The custom tool is very much outdated and to get it to work in VS 2013 just isn't feasible (I still can't bring myself to say impossible).

I'm writing this answer because I have a workaround that I suggest anyone in the same situation use straight out of the gate instead of trying to get that old tool to work. As a workaround, I created a new data project in .Net 3.5 and used entity framework to bring in just the models I needed to update. I generated my models from database and then went to the .aspx code behinds and replaced references to the outdated generated datasets. It took some refactoring but using EF instead of those ancient generated datasets cut the code by about 40%. Win Win in my opinion. Hope this helps someone else in the future.

Answer 2

According to the old .reg reference to VS 7.1, that means it was built to work in VS 2003. I know that VS plugin coding changed a lot in VS 2010 and later editions. So, it is possible this plugin may only work in VS 2003... possibly all the way up to VS 2008. But, it may need to be re-written to work in anything later.

Hopefully you have MSDN or know someone who does. I would spin up a VM, install VS 2003 (or you could try up to VS 2008), and install this plugin using the original .reg/.cmd.