How to add global exception handling to a add-in dll?

Question

Here's my context:

• I am writing a WPF add-in for an application.
• This Application's main thread is unmanaged.
• I want to add a global exception handling system for this add-in to handle any unhandled exceptions.

Here's what I've tried but not working:

• I cannot add a try-catch block to my Application.Run() code line. Because I am an add-in, that code fragment is in the application.
• System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadException is not working too. There might not be an WinForm Application exists. (WPF hosting in unmanaged code.)
• AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException is not working too. Because maybe it's handled by the Application itself. It just doesn't enter my code.

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So, any ideas for this situation?

Answer 1

You shouldn't touch global exception handling even if you could, you are writing an add-in and hooking into global exception handling will change not just the behavior of your add-in but also the main application and every other add-in in the system - doing something that may introduce bugs into other add-ins is not being a good neighbor :-)

Now, what you can do it wrap every externally callable method in your add-in with a try-catch block, this is obviously unmaintainable but an AOP system like PostSharp can easily add those for you while keeping the handling code in a nice central location.