Developing Visual Studio Extensions
You have many alternatives to choose from when you decide to write an extension to Visual Studio. At the most basic level, you can write a macro to automate repetitive tasks. You can also write a Visual Studio add-in or wizard to automate programming tasks or customize Visual Studio commands and properties.
If you want to integrate a large component into Visual Studio, for example, a new project system or a new programming language, you can create a Visual Studio package by using the Visual Studio SDK. If you want to create an application that is based on Visual Studio technology, you can create a Visual Studio isolated shell application. Both Visual Studio integrated extensions and Visual Studio isolated shell applications are based on VSPackages. For more information, see VSPackages.
Another extension mechanism, which is based on the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), lets you customize and extend the Visual Studio editor just by creating MEF component parts. You do not have to create and register a VSPackage to use these extensions. For more information, see Extending the Editor.
Visual Studio SDK Templates
When you install the Visual Studio SDK, a number of project templates are added to your Visual Studio installation.
Template |
Location |
Using the Template |
|---|---|---|
VSIX Project template |
Visual Basic and Visual C# Extensibility |
|
Editor templates |
Visual Basic and Visual C# Extensibility |
|
Visual Studio Package |
Visual Basic and Visual C# Extensibility - or - Other Project Types Extensibility |
Walkthrough: Creating a Menu Command By Using the Visual Studio Package Template |
Visual Studio Shell Isolated |
Other Project Types Extensibility |
See Also
Concepts
Managed Extensibility Framework Overview
Spectrum of Visual Studio Automation