Plugin Compliance
Overview EZ-Robot is committed to offer users a secure and dependable robot development environment. Due to the high expectation of efficient, dependable and secure from users, there are a few dependencies and restrictions which we enforce in your plugins during review.
Avoid Length GUI Thread Processing It is very convenient to throw a bunch of code into an event raised by a GUI widget, such as a button or checkbox. When code is executed in an event raised by the user interface, it runs in the thread of that object. This means lengthy code will delay/pause the user interface experience until the code has completed and processing is returned to the GUI thread. This behavior must be reduced at all cost by using events, threading or background workers.
Events .Net framework provides a number of events for controls, forms and such. Additionally, the ARC framework provides events for various activities. It is highly preferred to use Events rather than Timers. This includes servo movements, new camera frames, adding/removing controls to workspace, and more. It's good etiquette to unsubscribe from events when your plugin is being closed in the OnClosing() event. If you do not unsubscribe from events, the .Net framework will not know your plugin and respective controls have been disposed, and therefore it may still attempt to execute the method. Notice that an unsubscribe from event is a -= and a subscribe to event is +=
public MyPluginForm() {
// Subscribe to events to monitor control activity on the workspace
OnBehaviorControlAdded += FormMain_OnBehaviorControlAdded;
OnBehaviorControlRemoved += FormMain_OnBehaviorControlRemoved;
}
private void FormMain_OnBehaviorControlAdded(object newControl, int page) {
MessageBox(string.Format("{0} has been added to the workspace #{1}", newControl.Text, page));
}
private void FormMain_OnBehaviorControlRemoved(object removedControl) {
MessageBox(string.Format("{0} has been removed from the workspace", removedControl.Text);
}
private void MyPluginForm_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e) {
// Unsubscribe from events that I subscribed to while my plugin is going away
OnBehaviorControlAdded -= FormMain_OnBehaviorControlAdded;
OnBehaviorControlRemoved -= FormMain_OnBehaviorControlRemoved;
}
Timers One of the most common timers that is used from convenience is System.Windows.Forms.Timer, which is heavily frowned upon and will always have your plugin revoked from public access. An alternative and accepted timer for your background worker is System.Timers.Timer.
The difference between these two timers is trivial programatically, but vast in their operational behavior. The System.Windows.Forms.Timer will raise the elapsed event in the user interface thread, while the System.Timers.Timer will raise the event in a background thread.
As a new programmer, you may be familiar with the behavior of System.Windows.Forms.Timer not raising the elapsed event until the previous event has completed. With System.Timers.Timer, if your last elapsed event has not completed, a new one will still be raised. Avoid using a Lock() statement for this behavior, and instead use a boolean variable shown in this example...
System.Timers.Timer _timer;
bool _isRunning = false; // variable to ensure timer runs once at a time
public FormMaster() {
InitializeComponent();
_timer = new System.Timers.Timer();
_timer.Elapsed += _timer_Elapsed;
_timer.Interval = 100;
_timer.Start();
}
void _timer_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e) {
// Check if another copy of the time event is running, if so get out
if (_isRunning)
return;
_isRunning = true;
try {
// Do some work
} catch (Exception ex) {
// Uh oh!
} finally {
_isRunning = false;
}
}
Cross-Thread Invoking While new programmers may feel comfort placing code in events owned by GUI widgets in the user interface thread, there is a different experience when working in a background thread. A background thread will not be able to modify parameters of a GUI object that exists on a different thread. This is called a Cross-Threading Exception. ARC has a helper class to make life easy for you, which is EZ_Builder.Invokers. You will need to use Invokers when updating UI components from System.Timers.Timer or most events that aren't triggered by UI. The Invokers class will check if an invoke is required.
void _timer_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e) {
if (_isRunning)
return;
_isRunning = true;
try {
EZ_Builder.Invokers.SetText(textbox1, "Here is a number: {0}", 5);
EZ_Builder.Invokers.SetChecked(checkbox1, false);
EZ_Builder.Invokers.SetBackColor(button1, System.Drawing.Color.Red);
} catch (Exception ex) {
// Uh oh!
} finally {
_isRunning = false;
}
}
User Configuration Settings Never under any circumstances save user configuration settings in a separate project file. Always save user configuration settings in the ARC Project File using the tutorial step for Saving/Loading Configuration. Plugins that save configuration data locally to the drive will be revoked from public status. This is to ensure a seamless user experience within the ARC environment. If you have questions about saving custom user data, please inquire on the community forum for assistance.
Exception Handling Always wrap code in Try {} Catch {} to avoid unhandled exceptions, which will exit EZ-Builder. Your plugin will execute under the ARC master assembly. If your plugin throws an error that is not handled within an exception, the ARC instance may close.
try {
// do some work
} catch (Exception ex) {
EZ_Builder.EZBManager.Log("Error in control '{0}'. Message: {1}", this.Text, ex.Message);
}
Is this out of date? There doesn't seem to be a GetConfiguration function within EZ_Builder.Config.Sub.PluginV1
Look at the tutorial step titled [color=#ce3991][size=3][font=OpenSans, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"]Code: Saving/Loading Configuration
[color=#ce3991][size=3][font=OpenSans, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"]The get and set configuration methods are overrides of the form. There’s a great video on the first step of this tutorial that demonstrates the step by step of building a plugin. I recommend watching that because it helps fill in any steps that were missed. [/font][/size][/color]
[color=#ce3991][size=3][font=OpenSans, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol, Noto Color Emoji]When you’ve done it once, it makes sense and voila, you can rinse and repeat
[/font][/size][/color][/font][/size][/color]
Excellent, thanks - I will do. I really must learn not to just jump ahead in the process
Hey no problem - I do it all the time, and end up frustrated because I dont know what it was that I missed. Excitement gets the best of me
Trying to follow the tutorials but can't find where the plugin page has gone. How do I add a new plugin to the ez-robot / Synthiam site to get the XML?
Never mind. Just found the "Create skill control" link
I am trying to follow the instructions for adding my own plugin but I cannot seem to find the place to register the plugin based on the instructions.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
The new button to create a plugin skill control is less than an inch below the button you pressed to create this question.
Thanks for the quick response.
This what happens when you are working on robotics when its way past your bed time.
You miss the obvious
No problem - i get it
Sorry but can I ask you something why I didn't see the ARC library when I added visual studio even though I set up the C ++. DLL library and there's another way to execute it and send / receive console in out but I don't know how to do it with EZ_builder?Please follow the tutorial. It’s impossible to know why you’re plug-in isn’t showing up without asking you if you followed each step of the tutorial
. Reviewing your screenshots, it doesn’t appear as if any of the tutorial steps have been followed.
Hi i fixed it. thanks
Hello, I am trying the tutorial to get the robot to speak. I am using Visual studio. Currently, the sound is output from the pc instead of the robot. Is there a code I can attach so that the sound comes from the robot speakers instead of the pc?
Look in this tutorial for the step labeled "output audio from ezb". It’s lower down in the list. There’s instruction examples for either playing audio (ie mp3) or text to speech.
Error: the referenced component" EZ_builder,EZ_B" could not be found, DJ Sure i hope you can help me !
Joinny, you have to add the referencing by following the instructions in this tutorial. They are outlined with step by step to easily follow. Click add references, and browse to the appropriate files as directed in the tutorial. I can’t write anything clearer in response. The step to add references is incredibly clear but you’re skipping it.The error cannot read the COM file, I downloaded it and when I follow the instructions, I get an error, while other files read normally. .
sorry for me but i tried many different ways but still show the error,I couldn't find EZ_B.dll file even though I downloaded it
None of the required references are in your list. Please follow the tutorial. It explains exactly how to click the browse button and navigate to the folder and select the files.
Sorry, but the reason I can't reference is because there is no file in the EZ_B folder and there is an error : this folder is empty , I am trying to solve it. I would like to thank DJ sure for answering my superfluous questions and I'm sorry for bothering you
I need to playback 5 Serial Bus servos in sequence.
What protocol is it? A "serial bus" is a generic term for anything using a UART that's chained together sharing the same RX line. Also, why did you add a photo with the question text added in your response?
Are you planning on making a skill control to do this? You wrote the question in the skill control thread in a comment - I'd like to make sure your question is in the right place to help you out.
To begin, I would recommend starting with servo Script control so you can make the serial bus protocol work - then consider making a skill control only if you're planning on distributing the effort to others: https://synthiam.com/Products/Controls/Scripting/Servo-Script-19068
He seems rather demanding as well. I guess he needs the benefit of the doubt as English may not be his native language....
I have installed all the software dependencies and still ARC does not detect that I have Visual Studio installed. OS is Windows 10, .NET 4.8 or newer, Visual Studio Community 2019.
When the popup says it doesn’t detect visual studio, you can still skip and continue. I wonder why it’s not detecting it? We had a hard time trying to find a proper way of detecting - even Microsoft’s suggestion didn’t actually work eye roll
ill look into it a bit further and see if we can find a better way of detecting
@DJ: It's easy to find the Visual Studio 2017 and up: Microsoft: https://github.com/Microsoft/vswhere/wiki/Find-MSBuild
Some quick c# code to use with .NET: https://github.com/ppedro74/Utils/blob/master/FindVisualStudio/Program.cs
We went this route and it didn’t work on my computer - because I had a preview of visual studio installed which isn’t in that directory path. Microsoft had numerous suggestions of detecting visual studio. The one which worked for our various installations was a registry check.
apparently with the above individual, the registry didn’t work either. I’ll have to combine a few methods.
everything looks simple from the outside - until you have a hundred thousand+ installations of your software. That’s when you run into things like this lol
@DJ: I agree sometimes the things go out of script easily.
I avoid going through the registry keys, unless is recommended by the vendor. A lot of people blame the changes (keys, entries are renamed etc), but, that is normal if I own my product is my business and is part of the software evolution. Some products you can break the support contract agreement if you query directly the database, or if you look elsewhere outside of the public API.
Is true story some years ago a "rogue" developer on my team released a Sharepoint integration using a mix of APIs and database queries, everything worked well with multiple clients, until one day the Microsoft Black suits visit one of the customers to follow up on an unrelated support ticket, and they basically used "unsupported" card and left the client hanging, and we had problems too, unfortunately the Rogue developer went to another galaxy ... and the team suffered the consequences.
That does not mean I'm not tempted to do it...
I used the vswhere before and I would say is almost 99% bulletproof, is used with Xamarin, NVIDIA, Intel setups. If you add vswhere.exe to your project (nuget package) you cover scenarios where the tool is not present or have been deleted (broken uninstalls).
The other fallback could be ask the user the visual studio version.
The other reason to avoid registry is due to Visual Studio uses a private exclusive registry keys to store more stuff: http://www.visualstudioextensibility.com/2017/07/15/about-the-new-privateregistry-bin-file-of-visual-studio-2017/
So the things are getting more complex.
The above post is only part of the "Full solution" for example I have one setup with visual studio 2017 c# installed and Visual studio 2019 with Python and C++, vswhere will return 2019 version, but my c# is done with VS2017.
If you are generating customized vs version project files, maybe a fallback (ask the VS version) will cover more bases.
Yes - Microsoft has a few pages on how to identify visual studio and we tried them all during testing - the one we went with was with registry. I'm going to combine the two as using only one method apparently doesn't work for all cases.