How do I remove an add-on?
I have tried a couple third party add-ons, and a couple that I have developed myself, mostly toolkit widgets. What is the best way to remove a given add-on? (Say, if I want to upgrade and an add-on is not compatible)
- Do I need to find every instance of the add-on in every page and remove it through the web interface?
- Do I remove it from the admin > settings > toolkit? (or is it sufficient to remove it from the App_Data/Sitefinity/Configurations/whatever.config ?)
- Remove the dll in my bin folder?
Anything else? Alternate methods? Suggestions?
Here is a screenshot from my issue. I have a widget that is misbehaving after my update to 4.2 SP1. I would like to simply remove this widget, but there is no 'handle' for it.
Ideas?
Wierd!...its not like it exists on a parent template or anything?
No, it was a third party plugin (breadcrumb control) that worked great in 4.2, but when I upgraded to 4.2 SP1 I lost the handle.
I would like to remove this plugin anyway. Anyone know how to remove a misbehaving widget with no handle?
This bit of code can tell you the pages that dude is on if you want to selectively remove it.
Yeah, sorry not sure how to do that by code :o
...this is why I don't like not having to rely on plugins over native controls....and I just had one of our devs install this very addon into 4.2, we havent updated to SP1 yet....so...crap :)
Wait, wait! Steve you are onto something! I can't believe I didn't think of that. Working with another person and obviously our communication crossed wires on where that widget was located. It WAS in the parent page. (facepalm)
Whew. Thanks. :-)
Whew...I am glad :)
...so now I can upgrade safely, thanks for letting me know :)
That plugin still caused me some trouble during the upgrade. It has a strange method of installation as well in needing to register a separate path for some resources. Make sure you get the latest version of it updated for SP1. And if you are on a production site, I'd do it after hours. I had to apply the update a couple of times (from my backup) before I got my project, my dependent project, and both of my third party plugins all agreeing which version of the sitefinity.dlls were now installed. :-P
I wish that the third party plugins didn't cause a dependency on a particular sitefinity.dll. I've had to wait for my plugins to be updated before I could apply the service pack.
I am going to be very selective in applying third party plugins from this point on since a version mismatch on upgrade can so easily cause a yellow screen of death. I wish Sitefinity was smart enough to hide a failing widget (and notify the admin), rather than failing the whole page.
Dan
By the way, thank you for the bit of code to find where widgets are installed. I will DEFINITELY use that. We are up to over 200 pages on our site so it is getting hard to track widget usage.
@Steve: If you don't have a breadcrumb control, I have a user control I put together that works well. If you're interested let me know. I focused on a simple, reliable, user control that can be included in your project (so it is not pre-compiled and version specific), until we get the official Sitefinity breadcrumb control.
Dan
@dannysorensen
Yes, I want that control please! :)
steve at sitefinitysteve . com
If possible :)