Pablo Galiano :

In my opinion this initiative provides a lot of transparency to the community about what the VSX team has been working on, recent news, announcements, events and on what they are working on now plus the roadmap for the future. Following this direction there is also a VSX Team blog.

Of course there is a lot of work to do to build a VSX community, my friend and VSX guru Victor already mentioned his vision of a VSX Community and I completely agree with him.

But I think that this is a really good thing and the VSX team is going to put a lot of effort to continue building the community.

On the news section there is a pointer to VSSDK Assist, many thanks to Ken and the VSX team to provide a pointer on the community letter and to increase the visibility of the project.

Pablo

posted Monday, July 02, 2007 5:50 PM by pga with 1 Comments

Visual Studio Extensibility got easier

Let’s make a small introduction first:

Visual studio provides three levels of extensibility:

· Macros

o Macros are not new and we know them from Office

· Add-ins

o This is the next level in the VSX hierarchy, it provides more powerful extensibility points and full control of the Visual Studio Automation Object model

· Packages

o This is the last level in the VSX hierarchy, it provides more power and flexibility than the Visual Studio Automation Object model

Packages:

Creating a VS Package is not a simple task and the beginning it was only for C++ experienced developers.

With the inclusion of the Manage Package Framework (MPF) developing a Vs Package got easier because MPF allows a VSX developer to extend VS using managed code.

But in my opinion a set of tools on top of the MPF were missing. A set of tools that provide a higher level of abstraction, guidance, best practices and code generation to support the creation on VSX assets, a set of tools that can make the learning curve really low and most important a set of tools that can boost your productivity.

VSSDK Assist to the rescue:

A couple of months ago I started on codeplex a project named VSIPFactory. This project was the beginning of this vision.

It then became VSSDK Assist and the current version provides an initial toolset of utilities that allow a VSX developer to:

Create:

· VS Package solution

· VS Package project

· VS Services

· VS Tool Windows

· VS Commands

· VS Tool Options Pages

· Subscribe to VS Events

Configure:

· VS Package

· VS about/splash screens

Deploy:

· Configure VS Package Load Key

· Create VS Package Deployment Information

Test:

· Create VS Package Load Key Report

· Test VS Package Load Key

· Test VS Splash Screen

Utility:

· Register VS Packages

· Unregister VS Packages

· Refresh VS Package Registration Information

· Launch VS on Experimental Hive

· Browse your VS Package

Of course this is only the beginning, future versions will cover more and more Visual Studio Extensibility points.

So go and download it J

Pablo

posted Friday, June 08, 2007 8:15 AM by pga with 2 Comments

Visual Studio 2008 Shell

The Visual Studio 2008 Shell was just announced. After seeing the screenshots and reading the main features:

Faster Development. The Visual Studio Shell accelerates development by providing a base integrated development environment that can host custom tools and programming languages.
A Familiar Environment. Developers can build on the Visual Studio platform and provide end users a familiar user interface, speeding the learning curve for both.
Optimized for Languages & Tools. Created in response to requests from our partners, the Visual Studio Shell gives you the option of integrating your tools with Visual Studio or creating an isolated, custom-branded application.

I can only say WOW; finally extending VS will be much easier. :)

Meanwhile you can continue using VSIPFactory and of course a version running on top of Visual Studio 2008 Shell will be available in the future. :)

Pablo

posted Monday, June 04, 2007 6:42 PM by pga with 1 Comments

Configuring a Package Load Key with VSIPFactory

The Visual Studio authenticates valid VSPackages that users can install and use by using package load keys (PLKs).

A PLK is a public-key encoded string that is generated for a specific VSPackage. Visual Studio authenticates the PLK to before loading the VSPackage into the Visual Studio integrated development environment.

A PLK can be obtained for free from the Visual Studio Industry Partner Web site.

Once we obtain one we need to install it. This process is really simple but with VSIPFactory is even simpler :)

Steps:

Enable VSIPFactory
Right click on the VSPackage Project
Choose VSIPFactory\Deploy\Configure VS Package Load Key
Specify the information about the Package
Specify the PLK

Note:

The PLK is created based on the following information:

Package Guid

Company Name (This is entered when first creating your login on the Visual Studio Industry Partner Web site)

Product Name (This is entered when first creating the product information)

Product Version

Mininum Visual Studio Edition

If you change any of these values you must obtain a new PLK from the Visual Studio Industry Partner Web site

Pablo

posted Friday, May 18, 2007 11:04 PM by pga with 1 Comments

VSIPFactory and the Package Browser

I am currently working on my spare time on the next CTP of VSIPFactory, and in particular in a new feature that will be called the "Package Browser".

The Package Browser basically gives you useful information about a VSPackage and a snapshot of the assets that it provides. The current implementation only shows Services and ToolWindows. On the future it will provide information about Commands, Option pages and so on. It is of course integrated with VS and is used at design time when are at the developing stage.

As you may know VSIPFactory is an open source project and I am really open to suggestions to improve the authoring of Visual Studio Extensibility assets, so please let me know if you have any feedback before releasing it on the next CTP.

Some screenshots:

Package information:

ToolWindow information:

Pablo

posted Friday, May 18, 2007 10:24 PM by pga with 1 Comments

Analyzing a Package Load with VSIPFactory

One of the new features of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK Version 4.0 is the Package Load Analyzer.

Based on this tool VSIPFactory automates the creation of the PLK report at "design time" and displays the result into the VS Output Window.

Steps:

Enable VSIPFactory
Right click on the VSPackage Project
Choose VSIPFactory\Test\Create VS Package Load Key Report
The report is shown of the VS Output Window

If the PLK verification fails here you have some useful pointers to troubleshoot the issue:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb164677(VS.80).aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/dr._ex/archive/2006/12/14/debugging-package-load-failures.aspx

Pablo

posted Friday, May 18, 2007 12:04 AM by pga with 1 Comments

Creating a VS Service with VSIPFactory

Before focusing on the creation of a VS Service with VSIPFactory, some little background:

A VS Service is a contract between two VSPackages. One VSPackage offers a specific set of interfaces for another VSPackage to consume.
A VS Service needs to be registered with VS, after we register it we can start consuming it
Some useful pointers:

Now the steps to create a Service with VSIPFactory: