VSX Insider

How to identify menus and commands with Visual Studio?

2009-10-23T14:32:00.001+04:00

Sometimes when we extend the Visual Studio it's very important to know what IDs the menu or command has. Ed Dore published great post Using EnableVSIPLogging to identify menus and commands with VS 2005 + SP1, which describes how to enable VSIP (the old abbreviation of VSX) logging.

To do that all you need is to add(or change) the setting in Windows Registry that informs IDE to enable logging. That is the registry file content for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 or above:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\General]
"EnableVSIPLogging"=dword:00000001

Similar registry file will work for Visual Studio 2008 as well:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\General]
"EnableVSIPLogging"=dword:00000001

Once "EnableVSIPLogging" setting is set to 1, you can click on menu or command with CTRL+SHIFT pressed to see the information about clicked item in message box like this:

Look to Ed Dore's post for more details.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Beta Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 released!

2009-10-20T22:02:00.001+04:00

On 21 October developers can try new possibilities provided by Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 and .NET Framework 4.0!

The most important things:

Top testing possibilities
IDE improvements
New drag-and-drop data binding mechanism for Silverlight and WPF
Development tools for Windows 7, SharePoint and other technologies
New integration possibilities with such technologies as: ASP.NET MVC, UML, Expression, multi-core and database

Read more about and download new Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio 2010 SDK Beta 1 released

2009-08-04T07:23:00.000+04:00

Visual Studio 2010 SDK Beta 1 is now available for download here.

I have received the 2009 Microsoft MVP Award!

2009-07-07T17:18:00.002+04:00

I have received the 2009 Microsoft MVP Award for this year as well. I've been awarded in 2008 and now I'm still Microsoft MVP. Cool! :)

Create innovative extensions for Visual Studio 2010!

2009-05-24T13:13:00.008+04:00

I have received the cool information about the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 extensibility. So I have just decided to quote it in my blog as is: “Are you building new tools to simplify your life or change the way people work? Check out the opportunities to create innovative extensions for Visual Studio 2010…

Examples of cool things you can do:

Overlay rich metadata on top of the editor to bring new information to your fingertips

Develop new project templates to accelerate your work (examples: New Project Dialog)

Create innovative user interface elements using the WPF Shell

Upload your extension to the Visual Studio Gallery to find it in the Extension Manager

Other things you should know:

With v2 of the Visual Studio Gallery that went live on 5/14, you can use the Extension Manager to find products from the ecosystem from within Visual Studio
(with Beta1, the Extension Manager will only surface extensions posted to the Gallery in the VSIX file format; Beta2 will include the MSI format)

We just released the new SDK along with the new Shell redistributables, look for them at the dev center: http://msdn.com/vsx

If you’re developing extensions for VS 2010, you’ll want to stay tuned to the dev center for more information

Fun things to help you get started – these can be found in the Extension Manager (Tools>Extension Manager): search for Editor Extensions

DemoDashboard Sample:

The DemoDashboard sample is a WPF “dashboard” designed for folks presenting demos in VS2010 to get real-time audience feedback via Twitter. Use this sample to give presentations, build your own widgets, etc. The wiki on the CodePlex site will give you all the info you need to get started. You can share the feedback you get with your followers on Twitter.

get it: Tools>Extension Manager

or from the Gallery: here

source: http://demodashboard.codeplex.com

screenshot:

RegEx Editor Sample:

This sample was built to ease the your pain when working with regular expressions. It shows re-hosting of the editor in a window and provides a nice starting point for similar projects.

get it: Tools>Extension Manager

or from the Gallery: here

source: http://editorsamples.codeplex.com

screenshot:

Custom Intellisense Sample:

This sample provides a custom WPF-based UI for Intellisense -- with databinding and other cool features. You might want to use it as-is, you might want to personalize it, you might want to build new features for it – the choice is yours.

get it: Tools>Extension Manager

or from the Gallery: here

source: http://editorsamples.codeplex.com

screenshot:

Image Insertion Sample:

This sample is all about visualizing resources inline, it provides some nice transparency effects when you’re dragging an image from the solution explorer, and will automatically resize text to fit the image.

get it: Tools>Extension Manager

or from the Gallery: here

source: http://editorsamples.codeplex.com

screenshot:

FAQ:

1. What is the Extension Manager and how do I find it?

The Extension Manager in Visual Studio enables developers to discover Visual Studio Extensions from within the product itself. It consumes data directly from the Visual Studio Gallery, giving developers direct access to partner and community products that extend and enhance Visual Studio. If you have a free or free trial version of your product hosted on the Visual Studio Gallery, a developer will be able to download and install that product directly from within the IDE. (In Beta1, the in-product experience will show only extensions uploaded as a VSIX. In Beta 2 we will expand the in-product experience to also include extensions uploaded as MSI and reference links to other download sites.)

The Extension Manager enables a developer to install, upgrade, uninstall, enable, and disable extensions, making it easier to manage a portfolio of extensions.

To find the Extension Manager: Tools>Extension Manager.

2. So this means the Visual Studio Gallery can now host downloads?

Yes, we’re excited to announce that the Visual Studio Gallery can now host your downloads. Keep in mind that at this time the gallery does not include a commerce framework so we recommend creating a free or free trial version of your product that can be hosted on the Visual Studio Gallery. Of course we still support reference links for users who prefer to host their own downloads.

3. What else is new @ the Visual Studio Gallery?

Thanks to some great work by the MSDN team we’ve moved the Visual Studio Gallery to be part of MSDN. Some of the benefits:

The new navigation model supports all types of Visual Studio Extensions and has sections for Tools, Controls, and Templates

The integration with MSDN now gives users a chance to take advantage of a shared profile across all MSDN properties. Contributing to the gallery can enhance your MSDN reputation giving high quality contributors the recognition they deserve.

Visual Studio Gallery contributions offer an optional discussion board to separate your reviews and give contributors an opportunity to post updates, respond to feedback, & discuss bugs.

All entries include a usage chart to give contributors a sense of which of their products are getting the most traffic on the Visual Studio Gallery.

4. What’s the deal with the VSIX file format I’ve heard about?

Both the new Visual Studio Gallery and the Extension Manager work with .VSIX files, which is a new deployment model for extensions, similar to a renamed .ZIP file. This transition provides Visual Studio users a new low-overhead, reliable way to deploy Visual Studio Extensions. There’s tooling available to help you with this, and you can find instructions and other helpful tips at the Visual Studio Extensibility Dev Center: http://msdn.com/vsx.

Visual Studio 2010 SDK available for download

2009-05-24T11:40:00.002+04:00

A few days ago Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 SDK becomes available for download. The Visual Studio 2010 SDK Beta 1 provides tools and templates for building Visual Studio extensions. By using the Visual Studio SDK, you can build your own tool windows, create menu commands, and add extensions to the new Visual Studio editor and other features.

You can download the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 SDK here.

Also check the Visual Studio 2010 SDK Beta 1 Readme to avoid possible problems with migration.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 released!

2009-05-24T08:52:00.001+04:00

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 has been released to the web. It has the new look and feel which relies heavily on WPF. There are a few screenshots available on Jason Zander's WebLog.

Visual Studio 2010 has some new interesting features like Extension Manager, and a lot of cool improvements in Code Editor. There are a few links pointing and describing new stuff in Visual Studio 2010:

Somasegar’s weblog: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET FX 4 Beta 1 ships!

Jason Zander's WebLog: A New Look for Visual Studio 2010

Quan To's VSX blog: Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 is available (for MSDN subscribers)

MSDN: Visual Studio 2010 New Features, Extensibility Points and Partner Opportunities

MSDN: Visual Studio Team System 2010 New Features, Extensibility Points and Partner Opportunities

You can download Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 here.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Snip your DSL into prototypes

2009-05-14T08:15:00.001+04:00

In case you did not see it yet, have a look at the cool white paper Snip your dsl into prototypes posted on NetFxFactory.

It provides the intersting solution based on DSL Tools.

Source: http://www.netfxfactory.org/blogs/papers/archive/2008/06/25/snip-your-dsl-into-prototypes.aspx

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio now in Russian!

2008-11-09T02:37:00.001+03:00

Being Russian myself I glad to announce that from now Russian localization of Visual Studio is here.

There are links to download Russian Visual Studio trials and related staff, which I grabbed from Quan To's weblog :)

Visual Studio Team Suite Trial (90 days)
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Trial (90 days)
Visual Studio Professional Trial (90 days)
VSTS 2008 Test Load Agent Trial (90 days)
MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008
NETFX 3.5
NETFX 3.5 LP

And these two links are stolen from VSX Team Blog: the Russian edition of Visual Studio has just been released which includes a Russian Integrated Shell and Russian Isolated Shell. Read more details on Quan To's Visual Studio Extensibility blog. And...

Да здравствует Студия!!! :)

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Microsoft Visual Studio Tips book by Sara Ford released

2008-10-28T10:24:00.002+03:00

This week new Microsoft Visual Studio Tips book written by Sara Ford has been released.

You might know that Sara posted a lot of valuable tips about working in Visual Studio at her blog. Sara’s tips can be found also found here in Russian translated by Vitaly Zaiko. And here in French, and in Spanish as well.

Read more details on Amazon website about Microsoft Visual Studio Tips book.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Near future: Visual Studio 2010 и .NET Framework 4.0

2008-10-05T16:46:00.001+04:00

About 10 months ago we got Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. Very soon we'll got a new set - Visual Studio 2010 и .NET Framework 4.0!

Read more about next generation of developer tools from Microsoft on MSDN website here: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Overview. There is also some words about that in Russian.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Do you want to update you system? Install VS2008 SDK 1.1 RTM!

2008-09-07T13:29:00.001+04:00

Before installing Visual Studio SDK 1.1 RTM I decided to install Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 announced recently...

After some attempts to install the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1, I figured out that I had to install Service Pack 3 for my Windows XP Professional first. I have also installed Service Pack 1 for .NET Framework 3.5 because Visual Studio SDK 1.1 RTM requires it.

Well my decision caused the 3 hours of installations and entire update for my machine :)

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1 is released!

2008-08-21T12:28:00.001+04:00

Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1 has been released today and now it’s available for download!

A week ago VS Ecosystem team released a Service Pack 1 for the Visual Studio 2008 and today they completed another big deal – VSSDK 1.1. Developers who will be developing against Visual Studio Service Pack 1 now have updated tools, headers, and some new features in the SDK.

There are some notes about what is included to the 1.1 SDK release:

Significant size reduction for Visual Studio Shell redistributable packages. The Visual Studio Shell Isolated and Visual Studio Shell Integrated redistributables are now approximately 150 megabytes smaller. The redistributables no longer carry the full .NET Framework 3.5 payload. However, they contain a bootstrapper that automatically downloads the .NET Framework 3.5 runtime if it is not installed on the target computer.
Support for progress feedback in a chained installation. The Visual Studio Shell Isolated and Visual Studio Shell Integrated redistributables can now pass installation progress back to the chaining process. This lets developers display accurate progress in their setup programs.
Visual Studio Shell development now supports normal user. Developing and deploying a Visual Studio Shell application no longer requires the developer to be an administrator on a Windows XP computer or to have elevated privileges on a Windows Vista computer.
DSL Print Preview. The ability to preview a DSL before printing has been added to the DSL designer.
New XML Tree Editor sample. The SQL Server team has provided a new XML Tree Editor sample. The earlier sample has been removed.
New TFS Samples. Two new TFS samples have been added.
- VSExtensibilitySample. This new TFS sample provides an example of creating a Visual Studio add-in that interacts with the Version Control user interface of Team Explorer. The sample comes with a detailed Word doc that provides insight into the requirements of such an add-in.
- RichClientCustomControl. This new TFS sample provides an example of creating Work Item Tracking custom controls that work within Team Explorer. The sample comes with a detailed Word doc that provides insight into the requirements of custom controls as well as a separate document that describes how to write custom controls that can be used within the Team Server Web Access environment .
Updated Shell documentation. Documentation about the Shell has been added.

The Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1 can be downloaded here.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

VS 2008 SDK 1.1 RTM is coming...

2008-08-14T00:05:00.001+04:00

Good news! Yesterday Visual Studio Team released the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 as well as .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. Great! But even more cool is that the matching VS 2008 SDK 1.1 RTM will be coming next week!

Read more details and links related to these service packs:

MSDN: Visual Studio 2008 Development System - Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

Somasegar's WebLog - Service Pack 1 for VS 2008 and .NET FX 3.5 released!

VSX Team Blog - Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Now Available

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Ed Dore's VSX samples from closed GotDotNet website

2008-08-02T00:32:00.001+04:00

I hope Ed won't mind about the re-posting here in my blog his great VSX samples I've downloaded from currently closed GotDotNet website when it was alive. (Ed, in case you want me to remove them from here, just let me know).

So there are the following samples available:

HierAnarchy Sample Package (HierAnarchy.zip, 37k)
Sample MPF based Visual Studio Package written in CSharp. This sample demonstrates how to create a Solution/Server Explorer type toolwindow. It also implements a very minimalistic IVsUIHierarchy interface, and just enough properties to actually display a few nodes in the VsUIHierarchy's tree control.

MyErrors Sample Package (MyErrorsPackage.zip, 39k)
Sample Visual Studio Package written in C#; that illustrates using an ErrorListProvider to participate in the ErrorList ToolWindow. This package implements a toolwindow from which you can add ErrorTask objects to the ErrorList ToolWindow.

TBEdit Sample Package (TBEdit.zip, 37k)
Sample Visual Studio Package written in C#; that implements a custom editor based on a UserControl that supports several logical views via a tab control.

MPEdit Sample Package (MPEdit.zip, 43k)
Sample Visual Studio Package written in C#; that illustrates creating and hosting the Visual Studio Core Editor, VsCodeWindow as a child control, in a managed user control based editor.

CWTool Sample Package (CWTool.zip, 43k)
Sample Visual Studio Package written with C#; that illustrates two techniques for creating and hosting the Visual Studio Core Editor, VsCodeWindow as a child control, in a managed toolwindow.

AllowParams Sample Package (AllowParams.zip, 38k)
Sample Visual Studio package that illustrates how to leverage the ParametersDescription property on OleMenuCommand objects, in order to support the ALLOWPARAMS flag on commands defined in the package’s .CTC resource.

Find CommandBar Sample Package (FindCommandBar.zip, 58k)
My description: Sample Visual Studio package that illustrates how to retrieve a Visual Studio CommandBar using IVsProfferCommands.

DSRefViewer (DSRefViewer.zip, 29k)
My description: Actually, I don’t know what does the package illustrates. Just look at the code yourself! :)

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio Gallery: new features added

2008-07-05T11:46:00.001+04:00

A few days ago the Visual Studio Gallery has been significantly updated.These new features are focused on helping you be always up to date on the latest additions to the gallery as well as on making us available to add rich details information about our extensions.

There are following updates released: RSS feeds, Tags, new WSIWYG editor, zooming to 640х480 images, User Rating, Full Reviews and many other improvements. Read more details on Anthony's post and visit Visual Studio Gallery to try it yourself!

Keep in touch and happy extending!

I have received the 2008 Microsoft MVP Award!

2008-07-02T05:57:00.001+04:00

Yesterday I have received the 2008 Microsoft MVP Award. Very cool.

The award is for the contribution to VSX community. I was awarded in C# category because of there is no VSX category within the MVP program yet. Hope that will be here in future.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio Gallery updated!

2008-06-07T10:01:00.001+04:00

A few months ago the Visual Studio Gallery has been announced as the one stop shop for Visual Studio Extensions. Hundreds of extensions have been added already for these several months. In case your add-in or package is still not submitted there - do that now to promote your extension absolutely for FREE!

Today Anthony Cangialosi announced a new set of needed features that will improve the appeal of the Visual studio Gallery. This update is related to possibility to rate extensions and provide a review for them. Also some improvements in searching.

Next time Anthony promised to add RSS feeds, which would be really great to see, because that will allow us to easily track all updates and new Visual Studio extensions appearing on the Gallery.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

VSX future - will it be MEF?

2008-06-05T13:32:00.001+04:00

Today I have noticed an interesting post in Aaron Marten blog, which is talking about Managed Extensibility Framework or just MEF. There is also some words about MEF from Krzysztof Cwalina.

Aaron assumes that this frameworks will be used for Visual Studio Extensibility platform in the future. The first version of MEF CTP June 4 2008 has been released just two days ago. As it mentioned in MEF Introduction materials:

What is MEF?

The Managed Extensibility Framework or MEF provides developers with a tool to easily add extensibility to their applications and with minimal impact on existing code. The application developer can define extension points according to the functionality required of an extension, while the extension developer uses those points to interact with the application.

MEF enables this extensibility to take place without creating a hard dependency in either direction. Applications can be extended at run time without recompilation, and extensions can be used by multiple applications sharing the same extension requirements. MEF also allows an application to delay the loading of an extension while still examining its metadata, enabling efficient traversal of large catalogs of extensions...

Maybe the next version of Visual Studio IDE will be architected with MEF.Who knows?..

Keep in touch and happy extending!

VSX Survey (Spring 2008)

2008-06-05T10:47:00.001+04:00

Now a new VSX Survey is available to fill out. Please take a few minutes to fill out the VSX Survey (Spring 2008). These surveys are the way we can affect to VSX team priorities and work directions.

There are 6 web pages with 23 multiple choice and fill-in-the blank questions in this survey. This is the second VSX survey, as VSX team plans to offer a similar survey every 6 months and track the trends from the results.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Microsoft is changing UI: VSX Forum now is red!

2008-06-05T10:36:00.001+04:00

Last time a lot of Microsoft online resources have changed their UI. Main tendency is to move onto Vista look and feel. Most of the web sites is becoming red. So blue color is in the past, red is rocking the mountains now! :)

The pioneer was VSX Developer Center, which has been updated as part of a rollout of several developer centers on msdn.com with a new and improved layout and templates. Then the VSX Forum has been updated as well. Now it's red!

Keep in touch and happy extending!

VSX Developers Conference 2008

2008-06-05T10:14:00.001+04:00

The VSX Developer Conference 2008 has now been officially announced. It will be on September 15th & 16th, 2008 at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, Washington for two full days of sessions. Each day will have two session tracks presented by Microsoft product team members and industry influencers.

You will meet the VSX team and many others from Microsoft, as well as hundreds of developers from around the world who are members of the VSIP program and the VSX developer community.

A broad range of Visual Studio extensibility topics will be presented including:

Visual Studio extensibility overview
Future of Visual Studio
Using the Visual Studio SDK
Building applications based on the free Visual Studio Shell
Programming language service integration
Building custom Domain Specific Language (DSL) tools
Team Foundation Server (TFS) extensibility
Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) extensibility
Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA)
And many more VSX topics!

Registration Fee: $100

Keep in touch and happy extending!

VS 2008 SDK for VS 2008 Sp1 Beta is shipped

2008-05-20T20:55:00.001+04:00

James Lau just posted on his blog that they shipped the matching VS 2008 SDK for VS 2008 Sp1 Beta. They are calling this VS 2008 SDK 1.1 Beta.

You can download VS 2008 SDK 1.1 Beta immediately here. Read details about that release in Readme for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1 Beta posted on Quan To's Visual Studio Extensibility blog.

There is also the VSX European Tour has been started. Read more about that on James's blog post...

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack shipped

2008-04-08T06:59:00.001+04:00

Soma just announced that the Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack shipped.

This product is a freely available for download to any Visual Studio 2008 Standard or above customer and is fully covered under Microsoft’s standard support policies.

New book on Visual Studio Extensibility by Keyvan Nayyeri

2008-03-11T23:18:00.001+03:00

Yesterday a new book with the title "Professional Visual Studio Extensibility" by Keyvan Nayyeri has been officially released.

The book is available from Wiley and Wrox and will be available from Amazon shortly. Well, good job Keyvan - keep it up!

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Web Editor Performance Fix for Visual Studio 2008

2008-03-03T00:10:00.001+03:00

If you didn't know yet, there is a hotfix available for VS 2008. Read blog post "Downloadable Hotfix: Performance and Editor fixes for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express 2008" for details.

Web Tools team of Visual Studio released patch, that fixes following issues:

   1. Freezes while typing in page with custom controls
   2. Conversion between source code and designer view
   3. Very slow behavior, while opening large HTML document
   4. Visual Editor stops response with big HTML files
   5. And more performance oriented issues.

You can download this patch from here.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008 released

2008-03-01T13:56:00.001+03:00

Ken Levy just announced in VSX Team blog that PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008 is now available for free download. PowerCommands, is a set of useful commands for Visual Studio 2008.

Visit MSDN Code Gallery website for more details about PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008 project and commands functionality. Below is the list of the commands included in PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2008 version 1.0:

Collapse Projects
Copy Class
Paste Class
Copy References
Paste References
Copy As Project Reference
Edit Project File
Open Containing Folder
Open Command Prompt
Unload Projects
Reload Projects
Remove and Sort Usings
Extract Constant
Clear Recent File List
Clear Recent Project List
Transform Templates
Close All

If you are looking for such functionality for Visual Studio 2005, have a look at CoolCommands 3.0 for Visual Studio 2005 from Gaston Milano.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Visual Studio Gallery Website

2008-02-28T04:40:00.001+03:00

Last month Soma posted about MSDN Code Gallery - snippets, samples and resources. Today a new gallery has started off - meet Visual Studio Gallery website! Check out the video on Channel 9: Anthony Cangialosi and Ken Levy: Visual Studio Gallery.

This website is a one-stop shop for all Visual Studio extensions. It includes everything from free VS PowerToys like tools to VSIP products. Any developer is able to post information and a link to their Visual Studio extensions.

All extensions are grouped into categories like Setup & Deploy, Programming Languages, Controls & Libraries, Testing, Web and so on. You are able to search Gallery in specified categories and for a given version of Visual Studio. Know how to see all the VS Gallery extensions from Anthony Cangialosi.

The goal of this website is to give developers an easy way to find extensions for Visual Studio. Visual Studio extensions might include products and free applications in the form of macros, add-ins, packages, project templates, or other types of extensions to Visual Studio that are packaged-up and ready to use by developers to improve their development experience.

To start using Visual Studio Gallery you can just go to the website, click on “My Account” link in the top right corner and sign in with your Windows Live ID to start the process. Publish your Visual Studio Extension on the Visual Studio Gallery today!

Keep in touch and happy extending!

HOW TO: Change Existing Item Template in Visual Studio

2008-02-27T15:18:00.001+03:00

If you don’t like some item templates in Visual Studio, there are two ways to tackle the problem: create a new custom template (recommended way) or change the existing one.

To create a new custom template you should standard functionality of Visual Studio via using File -> Export Template menu. There are two great articles explaining how to do that:

MSDN: Create Reusable Project And Item Templates For Your Development Team
CodeBeter.com: Creating Custom Item Templates in Visual Studio 2005

Note that the first way is recommended and using the second one described below may damage your Visual Studio installation.

To change existing template you have to do some manipulations specified below. Further instructions are based on the assumption that we want to change the C# class template for Visual Studio 2005 installed in default location.

1. Find the code file template here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\1033\Class.zip

2. Copy original Class.zip file somewhere (and also make a second backup copy of it)

3. Extract copied Class.zip and open Class.cs file in test editor. You should see following:

4. Modify the class template you wish. I have removed using directives, added public modifier for class and added the default class constructor:

5. Save the changes

6. Archive modified template back using standard Compressed Folder from Explorer:

7. Replace original Class.zip file with new one

8. Open Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt and execute following command to refresh the templates:

devenv.exe /installvstemplates

9. Open IDE, create a new C# project and add a new class:

That's all.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

It's possible to create a VSPackage with F#

2008-02-26T09:59:00.001+03:00

Aaron Marten just posted about the first Visual Studio package he created using functional language F#.

This package is very simple and it only adds a new menu command to the tools menu. But using functional programming for extending Visual Studio looks very promising. Especially for creating new language integration packages - all the stuff related to scanner and parser logic.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Mouse Gestures add-in for Visual Studio

2008-02-24T14:26:00.001+03:00

Today I have noticed in the VSX Forum the post about a new add-in for Visual Studio named Mouse Gestures. Now you are able to use mouse gestures in your favorite IDE!

From author's description:

Mouse gesture is a way of combining computer mouse movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command. Mouse gestures can provide quick access to common functions of a program.

For those of you who use Opera or Mozilla Firefox with mouse gesture extension, that functionality is not new. But if you are still not an addict of mouse gestures, have a look at these links explaining what Mouse Gestures are?

Somebody calls himself LKabrt (thanks a lot) has created an Mouse Gestures add-in the Visual Studio, which allows you to use mouse gestures in the Visual Studio IDE. It works with Visual Studio 2005 as well as Visual Studio 2008. The project is available in source and binary forms under the BSD license on CodePlex website.

You can download the latest add-in sources, binaries or installer from Releases section of project on CodePlex.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Annoying error 'Not enough storage is available to complete this operation'

2008-02-18T18:44:00.001+03:00

If you ask Google about this message, you will see that there are a lot of reports that people get that error it in very different situations.

I have got this error working on really big Visual Studio solution. One of the 50 projects has failed during the build process with the message:

Error 1211 Unexpected error writing metadata to file 'SKIPPED_INFO_HERE' -- 'Not enough storage is available to complete this operation'

After a lot of searching, I have figured out that there is a problem with a hard limit of memory per process in windows of 2 GB. This article from Microsoft about Memory Support and Windows Operating Systems. It explains some details about that and contains the tips how to increase this limit to 3 GB.

There is a summary for required steps:

Add the /3GB switch to your boot.ini file
Open up a VS 2005 command prompt
Change directory to the <Visual Studio>\Common7\IDE directory
Type command 'editbin /LARGEADDRESSAWARE devenv.exe' and press ENTER
Reboot Windows and Build your solution again

Note: it makes sense to backup the files you change - boot.ini and devenv.exe

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Simple Managed Language Service Sample - MyLanguageService

2008-02-16T15:14:00.001+03:00

I read a lot of questions in VSX Forum about how to create custom language service using MPF. Most of askers can't figure out how to do that from VS SDK documentation. Most of them would like to play with the sample. I have prepared a very simple sample of managed language service, which I called just MyLanguageService. I hope it will help you to start developing a new language service.

MyLanguageService is a package for Visual Studio 2005, containing simple managed language service. I have used the latest VS SDK 4.0 RTM for Visual Studio 2005. MyLanguageService sample's functionality is to highlight the custom syntax in the files with .my extension.

Download the sources here: VSXInsider.MyLanguageService.zip

Keep in touch and happy extending!

New custom project can't be saved

2008-02-15T09:41:00.001+03:00

Working on Neutron, I had the problem with saving Neutron's custom project. A new project has been created in a temporary directory.

When I try to save whole solution the old style save project dialog box appears.

But after specifying the name and directory to save the project, and pressing on Save button and get the error dialog with following message:

The operation could not be completed. No such interface supported

After some research the work around this weird problem has been found. To prevent this strange behavior all of you need is go in Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> General and check 'Save new projects when created' option.

This will not affect projects already opened. But that will prevent new ones from the problem we are discussing.

As you can see, just a work around is described in this post. I have reported this bug to Microsoft Connect last year. You can see my feedback here: Solution is not saved when "Save new projects when created" is unchecked. But the real fix for that bug is still not ready. You can add your 2 cents by voting for it! ;)

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Upgrading VS 2005 Packages to VS 2008

2008-02-13T14:15:00.001+03:00

Once Visual Studio 2008 (aka Orcas) has been released, all extenders are focused on this new IDE. The last VS SDK version for Visual Studio 2005 (aka Whidbey) has been prepared, and all further VS SDK versions deal with VS 2008.

The top question still is "How to upgrade my package to be compatible with Orcas?"

James Lau prepared two great guides helping VS extenders to do that:

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Do you have anything to say about Visual Studio performance?

2008-02-10T20:08:00.001+03:00

Today I have read the post at VSEditor's blog that Holden Karau joined to the Visual Studio platform team.

Holden Karau is a new Performance PM intern on the team. As Holder said in the post:

"I really want to here anything you have to say about VS performance..."

So if you have any - do that!

Keep in touch and happy development!

Failed to retrieve paths under VSTemplate for the specified registry hive

2008-02-08T12:06:00.001+03:00

If you are getting "Failed to retrieve paths under VSTemplate for the specified registry hive" error building the Visual Studio 2008 SDK samples, have a look at Aaron Marten's blog post "Remember to reset your Experimental hive".

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Adding VSCT compilation support to Whidbey (VS 2005) projects

2008-02-06T17:06:00.002+03:00

This post demonstrates how to add VSCT support for Whidbey (VS 2005) projects.

Post downloads: VSXInsider.Prepared.Files.Whidbey.VSCT.Compilation.zip
Note: I have re-posted it from the blog at my previous employment
Helpful related references:

About a month ago Aaron Marten wrote a post “CTC is dead...Long Live VSCT! (Part 1)” where he announced a new XML-based format called VSCT, which is far easier to work with than CTC. Two weeks ago James Lau announced VS SDK for Orcas Beta 1 (April CTP). One of the improvements of April CTP is that command table configuration (.ctc) files have been deprecated in favor of XML command table (.vsct) files and all samples that used .ctc files have been converted to use .vsct files.

Well, that is good but it is done for Visual Studio Codename Orcas only. The latest VS SDK 4.0 RTM for Visual Studio 2005 announced a little bit earlier still uses CTC but it includes VSCT compiler in pre-release state. You can find it here: C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\Prerelease\.

To demonstrate how to add VSCT support for Whidbey (VS 2005) projects we will use the C# Reference.MenuAndCommands sample included into Visual Studio SDK Version 4.0. You can find it in that directory: C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\VisualStudioIntegration\Samples\IDE\CSharp\Reference.MenuAndCommands\. At the end of this tutorial, we will get this sample working with VSCT instead of CTC. Follow instructions below.

1. Before we will substitute CTC with VSCT let’s see how it looks now. Press F5 to run the MenuAndCommands sample in experimental hive and see some menu items added under main menu item ‘Tools’. Note command ‘C# Command Sample’ – it will be our marker in this tutorial.

2. The first thing we should care about is to obtain VSCT analogue for our CTC file. The easiest way to do that is to build the project to get .cto file compiled from current .ctc file and then create a .vsct file from an existing .cto file using VSCT.exe utility. I have used the following command to perform the conversion from <project_root>\obj\Debug\ directory where two input files PkgCmd.cto and PkgCmd.ctsym are located.

> "C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\Prerelease\VSCT\VSCT.exe" PkgCmd.cto PkgCmd.vsct -SPkgCmd.ctsym

3. Now let’s replace CTC part of the MenuAndCommands sample project with VSCT analogue. Create new folder VSCTComponents under project root directory and copy just generated PkgCmd.vsct file from obj\Debug\ there. Then make it part of the project. To be sure that we have no CTC here let’s remove all from CtcComponents folder except image GenericCmd.bmp, because it is still needed. Let’s also replace the text of the button ‘C# Command Sample’ with ‘C# Command Sample (VSTS)’ to have some differences in resulting UI. See what we have now.

Note: you can easily add IntelliSense for .vsct files via browsing for C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\Prerelease\VSCT\VSCT.xsd file in ‘Schemas’ property in Properties window (accessible by F4).

4. Rebuild the solution and then execute ‘devenv.exe /rootsuffix Exp /setup’ command to refresh Visual Studio UI. Then press F5 to see the result – all menus disappeared. To get all back in VSCT incarnation of menu items we need to write some code right in MenuAndCommands.csproj project file. To do that unload the project and open it for editing using ‘Edit MenuAndCommands.csproj’ command.

5. Add the following line importing .targets file as it is shown on the picture below. I have prepared the VSCT_overrides.targets file, so you just need to download it and save in the project root directory.

6. Now our PkgCmd.vsct file declared as <None Include="VSCTComponents\PkgCmd.vsct" /> in MenuAndCommands.csproj file. Replace this line with the following code. Child node ResourceName specifies the name of CTO object which will be merged into assembly resources with.

7. Save the changes and reload the project. Select ‘Load project normally’ option in the Security Warning dialog which will be appeared. Rebuild the project and see results in output window. There are 4 errors that occurred due to automatic generation.

Note: make sure you use ‘Normal’ level of MSBuild build output verbosity.

8. You can easily fix them by adding 4 IDSymbol tags under according GuidSymbol tags or just download fixed version of PkgCmd.vsct file I have prepared. Then build the project again and verify that all errors go on.

9. Rebuild the solution and then execute ‘devenv.exe /rootsuffix Exp /setup’ command to refresh Visual Studio UI. Then press F5 to see the result – menus appeared again. Note the changed text ‘C# Command Sample (VSTS)’.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Enter the world of Visual Studio Extensibility now!

2008-02-06T15:23:00.001+03:00

The Visual Studio Extensibility world consists of 3 parts: Macros, Add-ins and Packages. Look at good explaining the various levels of Visual Studio extensibility at Dr. eX's Blog : Visual Studio Extensibility Demystified.

To start working on your extension I would recommend you to keep the following roadmap:

Learn documentation

Overview Visual Studio SDK Documentation
Mostly for add-ins developers: Visit Carlos Quintero's blog and his great collection of Resources about Visual Studio .NET extensibility
Subscribe to VSX Team Blog and other VSX blogs to be informed about news

Figure out what do you want to create and what level of Visual Studio extensibility do you need for that
Download the latest version of VS SDK from VSX Developer Center web site
Start working on your extension and ask any questions in VSX Forum, where VSX community members help each other.

Keep in touch and happy extending!

Welcome to the VSX Insider's blog!

2008-02-05T14:09:00.001+03:00

I started learning the Visual Studio Extensibility (VSX) a year or two ago. This was called as Visual Studio Integration Program (VSIP) those days. The home for VSX is the VSX Developer Center with the VS SDK download, documentation, news, resources, community references, and more.

I decided to start this blog for sharing my experience related to the Visual Studio Extensibility world. For those of you that would like to know about myself, please visit my personal website.

Stick around if you want to read more about topics such as Visual Studio Extensibility (VSX), Visual Studio Software Development Kit (VS SDK), Managed Package Framework (MPF) and other related ones.

Welcome to the VSX Insider's blog!