Creating an Add-In file

The .rsaddin file includes important information about an Add-In that can be accessed by RobotStudio. This file is placed in a location where RobotStudio accesses it and loads the corresponding Add-In. This topic shows the necessary steps to create one of these files.

Creating an Add-In file

Add the basic elements of an .rsaddin file. Please note that the pathname specified in schemaLocation may change depending on its installation location and the version of RobotStudio SDK. The "RobotStudioAddIn" elements will contain the rest of the tags described in this topic.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<RobotStudioAddIn xmlns="urn:abb-robotics-robotstudio-addin"
                  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                  xsi:schemaLocation="urn:abb-robotics-robotstudio-addin file:///C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\ABB\SDK\RobotStudio%202024%20SDK\RobotStudioAddin.xsd"
                  autoLoad="false">
</RobotStudioAddIn>

Add the "ApplicationId" of the Add-In so it can be identified from other Add-Ins. To ensure that the Add-In's application id is not repeated between companies, use the reversed domain name of your company plus the name of the Add-In as shown in the following example.

Specify the type of the Add-In with the "AddInType" element.
```
<ApplicationId>com.mycompany.RobotStudioEmptyAddin1</ApplicationId>
<AddInType>General</AddInType>
```

Add the information regarding the assembly (.dll) of the Add-In. The file name of the .dll, as well as its path, need to be defined inside the "Assembly" elements.

<Assembly>
  <FileName>RobotStudioEmptyAddin1.dll</FileName>
  <Path>c:\users\USER_NAME\source\Repos\RobotStudioEmptyAddin1\RobotStudioEmptyAddin1\bin\Debug</Path>
</Assembly>

Specify the requirements that RobotStudio needs to have to execute the Add-In with the "MinimumHostVersion", "Dependencies" and "Platform" elements.
```
<MinimumHostVersion>20</MinimumHostVersion>
<Dependencies>Station</Dependencies>
<Platform>Any</Platform>
```
By default, the minimum host version is the SDK number used to produce the Add-In. The dependencies are the libraries that the Add-In needs to have, and the "Platform" element specifies if there is any x86-specific component used by the code.

The complete .rsaddin file contains the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<RobotStudioAddIn xmlns="urn:abb-robotics-robotstudio-addin"
                  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                  xsi:schemaLocation="urn:abb-robotics-robotstudio-addin file:///C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\ABB\SDK\RobotStudio%202024%20SDK\RobotStudioAddin.xsd"
                  autoLoad="false">

  <ApplicationId>com.mycompany.RobotStudioEmptyAddin1</ApplicationId>

  <AddInType>General</AddInType>

  <Assembly>
    <FileName>RobotStudioEmptyAddin1.dll</FileName>
    <Path>c:\users\USER_NAME\source\Repos\RobotStudioEmptyAddin1\RobotStudioEmptyAddin1\bin\Debug</Path>
  </Assembly>

  <MinimumHostVersion>24</MinimumHostVersion>
  <Dependencies>Station</Dependencies>
  <Platform>Any</Platform>

</RobotStudioAddIn>

The .rsaddin file contains information regarding the Add-In and should be packed together with it when distributed. The path to the assembly (.dll file) should be removed in the .rsaddin file when packaging. If the Add-In's .dll file is copied to the Add-In directory of RobotStudio, the .rsaddin file should also be copied to the same directory so that its information is easily accessible. For more information regarding this topic, please consult the Packing and Distributing an Add-In topic.

my_package
  RobotStudio
    Add-In
      AddIn1.dll
      AddIn1.rsaddin
  manifest.xml
  thumbnail.png

Creating an Add-In file

Creating an Add-In file

See Also