NET:Tutorials:HelloWorld

Introduction

This Tutorial will help you configure Visual Studio 2005 and create your first LVM DOTNET application. This tutorial does not cover any .NET languages. (This tutorial will use Visual C# Express Edition)
If you don't have Visual Studio, you can use Visual C# Express Edition from Microsoft. [1]

Configuring the Project for Inner Space

Once you have Visual Studio loaded, perform the following actions:

• File -> New Project
• Choose Windows Application
• Name: ISXHelloWorld
  

- Note: If you are creating a project that will need ISXWarden protection, the Project Name and all forms should be prefixed with ISX.

• Click OK

At this point you should have your first LVM DOTNET project! In order to prepare the project to work with LVM DOTNET perform the following actions:
Configure your application to use a Strong Name:

• Project -> ISXHelloWorld Properties
• Choose the Signing Tab
• Check the Checkbox: Sign the Assembly
• Under the Choose a Strong Name Key File choose New...
• When the Create A Strong Key Name dialog Box appears choose a Key File Name. You an also choose a password if you desire one.

Now that you have configured your application to use a Strong Name, configure your application to add itself to the GAC automatically:

• Project -> ISXHelloWorld Properties
• Choose the Build Events Tab
• In the Post Build Events Command Line Window, enter the following code:
  • "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /i "$(TargetPath)"
  • "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe" /l "$(ProjectName)">"$(ProjectDir)name.txt"
  • (Update the path of .NET 2.0 to match yours if you choose a different installation directory)

When you build your project, You will have a file in your project directory called name.txt. This is the information you will use later to launch your assembly from within Inner Space.

Configure your application with a reference to the Lavish.InnerSpace.dll library

• Project -> Add Reference
• Choose the Browse Tab
• Browse to your Inner Space installation directory
• Select the Lavish.InnerSpace.dll file and choose OK

After following these steps, your project is now ready to run within Innerspace!

Code Time

Your application can be compiled and run in Inner Space, but it isn't going to do much yet. So I will show a quick "Hello World" application to show the basics of working within Inner Space.

Follow these steps to configure your form:

• Place a label on the form
  • Configure the text property of the Label with the following text: "Hello World!"
• Place a Button on the form
  • Configure the text property of the Button with the following text: "Close"
• Double Click the button on the form to add code to handle the Button1.OnClick Event

Add the InnerSpaceAPI namespace to your code:

• At the top of the code form, add the following code under the other USING commands
  • using InnerSpaceAPI;

Add code to the Button1_Click Code to unload our form

• In the Button1_Click function, add the following code
  • InnerSpaceAPI.InnerSpace.Echo("Goodbye World!");
  • Application.Exit();

This will say Goodbye World! in the console, and unload!

At this point you are ready to compile your application!

ISXHelloWorldCode

Here is the complete code listing for the application:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using InnerSpaceAPI;  //Namespace for InnerSpaceAPI
namespace ISXHelloWorld
{
   public partial class Form1 : Form
   {
       public Form1()
       {
           InitializeComponent();
       }
       private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
       {
           //Say goodbye!
           InnerSpaceAPI.InnerSpace.Echo("Goodbye World!");
           Application.Exit();
       }
   }
}

Running ISXHelloWorld

Running your application is pretty strait forward, but you need a bit of information first. Open the name.txt file in your project directory and copy the line that looks similar to this:

ISXHelloWorld, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=ad2c3650b019fe4b, processorArchitecture=MSIL

In the Inner Space Console in game, simply type the command:

DOTNET ISXHelloWorld "ISXHelloWorld, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=ad2c3650b019fe4b, processorArchitecture=MSIL"

Hint: Copy and paste the text in the "" from your name.txt file.

TODO:

Add Screenshots and clean up formatting.

--BlizzWishes 22:20, 1 December 2006 (EST)