Professional Visual Studio Extensibility (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: class library, code snippets, edit point, Visual Studio, Visual Basic, Reference Include (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Whether you want to integrate optimized builds, enhanced programming tools, or other rapid application development features, this unique resource shows you how to develop customized extensions. After a quick introduction of basic concepts, this book delves into the automation model and add-in development with the help of a case study, numerous examples, and sample code. Youll discover how to take advantage of the Add-in Wizard, manipulate solutions and projects, work with text in documents and programming code, create Tool Options Pages, and more.

From the Back Cover

Professional Visual Studio Extensibility

Are you ready to extend the capabilities of Visual Studio to become more efficient and productive? Whether you want to integrate optimized builds, enhanced programming tools, or other rapid application development features, this unique resource shows you how to develop customized extensions. It not only covers the Visual Studio IDE but also provides you with an excellent reference when coding add-ins, macros, and extensions.

After a quick introduction of basic concepts, this book delves into the automation model and add-in development with the help of a case study, numerous examples, and sample code. You'll discover how to take advantage of the Add-in Wizard, manipulate solutions and projects, work with text in documents and programming code, create Tool Options Pages, and more. Next you'll gain an in-depth understanding of specific extensibility options including the Visual Studio Shell and Domain-Specific Languages Tools. After that, you will learn how to integrate your own functionality with Visual Studio with the help of VSPackage. You'll then be able to apply your knowledge to other extensibility points covered in different chapters, including debugger type proxies and visualizers, code snippets, templates, MSBuild, and macros to save time and money when developing applications.

What you will learn from this book

• A quick overview of Visual Studio Shell and Domain-Specific Languages Tools

• Techniques for creating, debugging, testing, and deploying your add-ins

• Ways to work with user interface elements, Windows Forms, and controls via code in your add-ins

• Steps for extending Visual Studio functionality using VSPackages

• Tips for writing and managing code snippets to make your coding process easier

• Using Visual Studio templates to save time when writing code for common projects

• How to use MSBuild to write custom builds for Visual Studio and .NET applications

• New techniques for recording, developing, debugging, deploying, and running macros

Who this book is for
This book is for .NET developers who are interested in extending Visual Studio 2003, 2005 and 2008. It is also for programmers who want to write highly scalable applications quickly and efficiently. 

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (March 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470230843
• ISBN-13: 978-0470230848
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #498,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not much here, August 19, 2008

By	Demetrius Tsitrelis - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm not sure what the basic idea for the book was; to provide a summary of some (not anywhere near all) the features of the Visual Studio SDK or to serve as an introduction to using the SDK?

In any case, the book is mostly filler. The few examples are always trivial ones like hooking up a button or printing a message somewhere. I think I learned more about the capabilities of the SDK from reading the (argh!) actual SDK doc intros than from reading this entire book.

If you just want to write macros or add-ins for Visual Studio then there are other better books, online examples, etc. If you want to do something more advanced like create a VSPackage, language service, etc. then this is not the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars As boring as he looks, November 13, 2008

By	Nelson Drueding - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I agree with Demetrius. The book lacks substance and the style is dry, dry dry. I know this stuff isn't sexy, but this author seems to go out of his way to put the reader to sleep. A pity. All the other books in this series I've read (quite a few) are much, much better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money, April 18, 2009

By	Girish P. Nair "Girish" (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Rather than buy this book, please read MSDN articles. I didn't get anything out of it.