When I first saw Shaun Sullivan’s code to create a .NET plugin in Raiser’s Edge I was a bit concerned. I tried out the code and after a bit of fiddling with it I managed to get it to work. Although I thought and still think that having an extra HTML page with the plugin as a user control was a bit of a hassle.

A much easier solution that I have done several times is to simply create a .NET class library with a form. When you start your plugin the form is shown directly in a new window.

Start off by implementing the IBBPlugin interface in the same way as you would do for a VB6 plugin.

For the document type you can select anything that you want as this is apparently ignored.

The important function for our purposes is the IBBPlugIn_OnLoad
method. In this you should typically make a call to show the .NET form that will show your plugin content.

It is as simple as that. 

When you compile the class library you have to ensure that the library is viewable by COM components so that RE can see it. This is done in the project’s settings.

You have to also remember that you cannot simply install the library (the dll output) using regsvr32 as you would with a COM dll. Instead you have to install it using regasm <dll name> /codebase

This will ensure that the dll is registered for use with Raiser’s Edge.

Visual Studio 2005 does allow for powerful install applications and this can also be done to install your plugin but that is for another post article