Deployment
The following describes how add-ins are deployed. The add-ins covered in this topic are:
- Hosted Add-in
- General Add-in
- SmartComponent
Deploying Hosted Add-ins
Hosted Add-ins are also referred to as PowerPacs.
A PowerPac requires that RobotStudio is installed to be meaningful. RobotStudio can optionally be installed side by side with another version.
A PowerPac is its own product and shall be installed separately from RobotStudio. Under development it should be possible to install a PowerPac side by side with a previous version.
Requirements for Hosted Add-in Deployment
A hosted add-in shall be installed in its own folder structure under:
%ProgramFiles(X86)%\Common Files\ABB\
Example:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ABB\Sample PowerPac 2020
The name of the installation root folder shall be “Name Version”.
Example:
Sample PowerPac 2020
The name of the .rsaddin file shall be the same as the root installation folder.
Example:
Sample PowerPac 2020.rsaddin
During development it should be possible to install two major versions of the hosted add-in side by side.
A hosted add-in should specify the minimum RobotStudio version it requires to work, using the
MinimumHostVersion
element. This makes sure that a newer add-in not be loaded into an older RobotStudio.A hosted add-in should specify its license feature name using the
LicenseFeature
element if required.It is important that the file name is unique between different versions since this makes it possible to install two add-ins with different versions.
Deploying General Add-ins
Refer to the Loading of Add-Ins chapter to get information related to this.
Deploying Smart Components
In order that the SmartComponents appear along with RobotStudio SmartComponents, the SmartComponent with .rslib extension should be placed under:
%ProgramFiles(X86)%\ABB\RobotStudio version<\ABB Library\Components