Deploy & Install: Create Revit Manifest Files Programmatically With C#

In this post, let us see how to create Revit Manifest files programmatically. It is necessary many times and especially important for Revit addin installers.

In development environment, it is not a bad idea to hard code the paths of debug version addin assemblies in manifest files, just as various wizards, coders and widgets of RevitAddinWizard do, to save time; however in product environment, doing so is obviously inconvenient and inflexible for users and unprofessional for software itself.

So it is introduced here an easy to use and functional method which can help create a Revit manifest file on the fly:

void CreateManifestFile(string filename, string assembly, string classname, string id, string appname)
{
    using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(filename, false, Encoding.UTF8))
    {
        writer.WriteLine("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>");
        writer.WriteLine("<RevitAddIns>");

        writer.WriteLine(string.Format("\t<AddIn Type=\"Application\">"));
        writer.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\t<Assembly>{0}</Assembly>", assembly));
        writer.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\t<FullClassName>{0}</FullClassName>", classname));
        writer.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\t<ClientId>{0}</ClientId>", id));
        writer.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\t<Name>{0}</Name>", appname));

        writer.WriteLine(string.Format("\t</AddIn>"));
        writer.WriteLine("</RevitAddIns>");
    }
}

As can be seen the above works for Application addin types only but can be easily extended to cover Command types as well. Regarding the StreamWriter code, I’d like to point out the encoding matter again. The Encoding.UTF8 enum value has to be used here to be consistent with the XML encoding as declared in its header; otherwise tricky issues may just occur.

If the following test code is given:

CreateManifestFile(@"c:\temp\Test.Addin", @"c:\temp\Test.Dll", @"TestNamespace.TestClass", Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), "TestApp");

a manifest file with the following content will be created:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RevitAddIns>
<AddIn Type="Application">
  <Assembly>c:\temp\Test.Dll</Assembly>
  <FullClassName>TestNamespace.TestClass</FullClassName>
  <ClientId>0db6baba-16e3-443c-aca6-f73997a326b3</ClientId>
  <Name>TestApp</Name>
</AddIn>
</RevitAddIns>

Simple and cool, isn’t it?

And better, it does not bring in any dependencies.

Revit Manifest Register of RevitAddinWizard helps create an installer custom action project flexibly in no time. The action will automatically create a manifest file, append proper path to the specified assembly, and deploy the file to the right Revit Addin roaming folder during installation.

Deploy & Install: Revit Application Addin Manifest

Deploy & Install: Revit Command Addin Manifest

Deploy & Install: Revit Addin Roaming Folders

Deploy & Install: The Registry of Revit 2011

Deploy & Install: The Registry of Revit 2012

Deploy & Install: Where Are Revit Products Installed

Deploy & Install: Manifest Navigator of RevitAddinWidget

Deploy & Install: RegEdit Launcher of RevitAddinWidget

Deploy & Install: Revit Locator of RevitAddinWidget

Deploy & Install: Manifest Encoding

Deploy & Install: Manifest Loading

Deploy & Install: Manifest ClientId