Custom Command Deployment Checklist

UPDATE:  This post applies only to the Vault 2011 release.  The Vault 2012 checklist can be found here.

For my first post of the year, I would like to go over the various things that can keep your custom Vault Explorer command from deploying properly.  In many of the cases, you don't get an error or anything.  Instead, the command just doesn't show up, leaving you to wonder what went wrong.

With that in mind, I created a checklist for you to use when you can't figure out why your command is not showing up:

• Are you using Vault Workgroup, Collaboration or Professional?
  (custom commands are not available in base Vault)
• Did you reset your menus in Vault Explorer?
  (either delete Menus.xml or right-click on the menu bar and select Customize)
• Did you deploy to [VaultClientInstallDir]\Explorer\Extensions\[myExtension]?
• Did you include a .vcet.config file?
• Does the .vcet.config file have the correct Assembly name?
  (it should be your DLL name without the ".dll" at the end)
• Does the .vcet.config file have the correct Folder name?
• Does your assembly have an ApiVersion attribute?
• Is your project using .NET 3.5 or earlier?
  (.NET 4.0 is not supported for command extensions. Click here for instructions.)
• Does your IExtension implementation have a default constructor?
  (a default constructor is a constructor with no arguments, if no constructor is in the code, the compiler will create one)
• Do your CommandSite objects have non-empty Label values?
  (the label can't be null or empty, even if you are not displaying a sub menu)