Let a "Breakpoints" window (by default opened by Debug>Windows>Breakpoints [ctrl+B, D]) serve as an example. Basically I select few breakpoints in it and I would like to know in my add-in which elements in this window are selected. I am aware that I can get collection of breakpoints in project but I would like to know what elements are selected in "Breakpoints" window.
"Is it possible to get selected items in window or even access its content at all?"
Also I am not sure whenever or not should I post a separate question for this but is there actually a way to capture user activity in IDE like for example capturing an event when user sets (adds) a breakpoint?
Originally I also asked if is it possible to achieve certain things in Visual Studio Express Edition. But this part is irrevelant.
Conclusion:
(after reading jessehouwing's answer)
I guess it is not possible using an Add-ins. Use VSPackages isntead. Also Add-ins are deprecated as of Visual Studio 2013 version.
As mentioned in my comments, what you're trying to accomplish is explicitly prohibited in the Visual Studio Express edition and is a violation of it's license. To extend the product, you need to have at least Visual Studio Professional Edition. many of the extensibility points will actively refuse any communication with 3rd party add-ins.
Almost all the things you're asking are possible using Visual Studio Extensibility once you've installed the professional edition. Products like OzCode show that almost everything is possible. Remember that most features inside visual studio are themselves extensions of the product.
Your question, indeed a whole list of questions, is indeed not the way to ask something on StackOverflow. I can give you some pointers to the documentation, which you've probably already found, and maybe to some open source products that themselves extend parts of Visual Studio that can serve as examples, but from there you'll have to piece something together until you're able to ask more specific questions.
Events you can subscribe to, the breakpoints are a CommandEvents I suspect.
Manipulating windows inside Visual Studio
Projects that extend the debugger that might serve as an example:
PyTools (debugger for Python inside Visual Studio)
Node.js tools for Visual studio (extending the Immediate Window)
But there is no easy answer to your question that fits inside this window. I'd suggest you use a tool like Reflector to look at how Microsoft accomplishes certain things (most of Visual Studio Extensibility is written in .NET anyways) and to look at open source projects that extend visual studio behavior. There are quite a few out there on Codeplex.
I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish and how it's different from the Breakpoints features inside Visual Studio Professional and up.
I suggest you ask your question in the Visual Studio Extensibility forums over on MSDN, which is in a collaborative forum format, instead of a Q&A format, allowing people to answer your question bit by bit.
Related
I have recently installed Visual Studio 2015 (Enterprise), and although I only selected C++ from the programming languages list, it has also installed F#. A language I have never used and will not use, simply because I'm working with C# and VB currently, and I'm satisfied with the results I get. My plan is moving to C++ after I learn C#, so I have nothing to do with F#. It's only taking up space from my disk and I want to remove it. I've been looking all morning about an easy way to do so, but all I could find was a lot of questions regarding earlier VS releases and somehow managed to successfully remove the F# project templates. But the rest is still there - screenshot:
As you can see I cannot uninstall it via Extensions and Updates, nor I can find it in Programs and Features. I could find some F# SDK and F# for VS stuff in the registry, but I'm not experienced enough with it to find the uninstallers. Any ideas?
Goto Programs and Features in Windows, and select Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 and click Change, when the Setup dialog appears, select Modify then untick the following:
I'm currently writing a tool to help maintain unit and integration tests (coded tests). I've started extending Visual Studio to make the developer experience nicer, which got me to notice the new-ish CodeLens feature.
The stuff I'm currently showing as a tooltip should probably actually be part of the CodeLens info.
Question: Does anyone know how to extend CodeLens in Visual Studio?
Thanks.
As #RichardBanks says, officially CodeLens is not extensible. Technically I think it may be possible at the moment. Look for *CodeSense*.dll in the visual studio directory for hints. There is no documentation at present and the API can still change going forward.
I suggest you'd venture into this for research purpose only, distributing any 'plugin' seems like a very bad idea until Microsoft opens up the API, which they probably will.
CodeLens is officially extensible since Visual Studio 2019 was released.
CodeLens for Everyone
CodeLens has been a feature found only in Visual Studio Enterprise, but that will change in an upcoming preview of Visual Studio 2019, when it will also be available for the Community edition, likely in 2019. CodeLens shows the number of references a type or method has, information about unit tests covering the method, and data directly from Application Insights.
In addition, Microsoft has made CodeLens fully extensible1, so third-party extensions can start to add their own experiences on top of it. CodeLens makes key information about your types easy to find, while keeping you in the source code. Lenses for source control history and IntelliTrace are still an Enterprise-only feature.
Looks like this is the best place to start looking at when implementing your own CodeLens extension.
1. Highlight mine.
Code Lens is not currently extensible.
I can't say for sure, but I think there are still some features the team wants to add before they open it up for extension (e.g. git support).
I'd like to use Code Map, which can be used in Visual Studio 2012, also in Visual Studio 2010.
If you don't know what Code Map is, this is how it looks like:
here's a tutorial from Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/dn194476.aspx
Is it somehow possible to use this in VS2010 or is there any similiar tools, which displays the different method calls? By this I want to display a method Method1() which calls another method called Method2(). This should be displayed like in the CodeMap (not by using hierarchy call, I want to see it with a UI). It should be free or an extension for VS2010.
I'm not aware of a free version that offers something that the Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate Edition offers, but you have a few alternatives:
NDepend features a Call Graph option
You can open the VS2010 solution in VS2012
Debugger Canvas offers a similar feature while debugging
Architecture Explorer Dependency Graphs and Sequence Diagrams
My company recently created a Visual Studio 2010 add-in that allows us to create LINT files from any given visual studio project from 2010, 2008 and 2005. We now want to get this same add-in to work in Visual Studio 2012, because we know that many of our customers will be using this in the near future, if not already.
We thought that it should be a simple "switch-in", and that the same code should work for both, but lo and behold, the VS10 add-in didn't work in VS12. So I copied the code (absolutely no changes) into a VS12 add-in, and surprise surpise, it did work. Naturally, we do not want to have two versions of the same code; bad for readability, bad for maintainability, so we still want to find a way to get the VS10 add-in to work in VS12.
I think the problem lies in the Microsoft.VisualStudio.VCProjectEngine assembly. This is interpreted differently in VS12 to how it was in VS10, meaning that when VS12 reads the add-in, it doesn't do what we want it to do.
I have done some research into this problem, and many people suggest creating a work around by using reflection, but I am reasonably new to this concept and don't feel confident enough to try it and risk seriously ruining the add-in.
So my question is this: Is there a nice and easy way of being able to read the VS10 version of the Microsoft.VisualStudio.VCProjectEngine into VS12?
Much appreciated :)
I later found an answer to this question and realised it hadn't been confirmed on the thread.
The answer indeed lies in the VCProjectEngine assembly. For some reason, this is a different module in Visual Studio 2010 to the module (with the same name) in Visual Studio 2012, which means any code requiring the module when written in VS2012 will not work in VS2010 and visa-versa.
It's a pain, because it means we have two lots of exactly the same code, but that is the way it has to be.
In relation to this stackoverflow question, how would I go about creating my own Visual Studio 2008 plug-in?
I've checked the Visual Studio Developer Centre on MSDN, but the amount of info is overwhelming. There are loads of project types, and I don't even know where to start.
Where should I start looking if I want to write something which meets the following requirements:
A plug-in that runs like a "service" in Visual Studio, and is able to poll Visual Studio for information, and handle Visual Studio events.
The info I'd like to access from VS are things like, what projects are currently open, who has them open, and other solution/project file based info.
The events I'd like to be able to handle are things like, the opening/closing/editing/creating/deleting of Solutions / Projects / individual files.
I'd also like to be able to handle any interaction with VS on a per solution basis. So, I'd like to handle any interaction with files, even code editing, but also, just other interaction, like with the menus, or just the IDE itself.
As well as these, I'd also like to be able to store data somewhere. Where is this usually done? Can I add Metadata to the Solution file? Or, does it make sense to save this info to a small local instance of a database, that is somehow attached to the solution..?
I just need a push in the right direction, is any of this possible? What part of the Visual Studio Developer Centre should I focus on? What APIs should I check out?
cheers!
An add-in can do most of that. There's a template in VS2008 for creating a base add-in.
I have an add-in that you can download that hooks into the solution/project load events etc - it is free and comes with source code ( http://www.huagati.com/projectloader/download/huagatiprojectloader.zip ). This particular add-in detects when projects/solutions are loaded and pre-loads referenced assemblies to work around a CLR bug that can cause VS2008 to crash. Anyway, the source code for it shows how to detect some of the events you're looking for.
Other than that, the definitive resource on add-in development and all the little quirks and tricks involved is Carlos Quintero's blog ( http://msmvps.com/blogs/carlosq/ ) and the "howto" article series on his website ( http://www.mztools.com/resources_vsnet_addins.aspx ).
Craig Skibo's blog ( http://blogs.msdn.com/craigskibo/ ) also has some useful tips.
You want:
Visual Studio Extensibility Developer Center
VSX Forum
Visual Studio 2008 SDK
Professional Visual Studio Extensibility by Keyvan Nayyeri
Buy the book, if nothing else.