Dependency Manager and Manage Vendor Libraries not working

[chauser]

CTRE has their beta vendor dep available and we set out to install it.

The Dependency Manager button opens the dependency manager pane which thinks for awhile but then remains empty. This is maybe not too surprising as it requires stuff out in the internet to enable finding the available dependency.

More surprising to me is that the Manage Vendor Libraries item on the WPILib menu (button at the top of the screen) seems to do nothing. No dialog or menu opens when it is clicked.

[PeterJohnson]

CTRE's vendor library is not yet published in the vendor repo. However, there are other libraries available (DogLog and Studica) so the menu should work.

[sciencewhiz]

I was able to use both the dependency manager with the two vendordeps that Peter mentioned on a project created with the 2026 beta. I was also able to use the Manage Vendor libraries to install the CTRE 2026 beta vendordep from an online install.

Can you describe the source of the robot project that you're trying to install the vendordep in? Is it imported from 2025 using the WPILib importer? Is it a new project generated with the 2026 beta VS Code? Manually updated in some fashion? Generated by another tool?

Can you post the output from the WPILib menu open project information and post the .wpilib\wpilib_preferences.json?

[sciencewhiz]

Also note that vendordeps are installed per project. I see the behavior you're seeing if I don't have a WPILib project open

[chauser]

The team described the behavior as occurring in an imported project, but I have to admit that when I reproduced it for myself it was outside the context of a project. I'll get more information about exactly what they did and provide an update.

[chauser]

Thanks for adding the check. I don't think there was any actual problem -- the student doing the work was just unaware of how to add a dependency that didn't show up in the Dependency Manager and then it was my mistake in testing it outside the context of a WPILib project.
So, closing.