Extensibility Tools for Visual Studio

Download this extension from the VS Gallery or get the nightly build.

An extension built for and by Visual Studio extension authors.

See the changelog for changes and roadmap.

Features

• VSCT files
  • Intellisense for custom GUIDs
  • Intellisense for custom IDs
  • Intellisense for built-in groups and menus
  • ImageMoniker Intellisense
  • Snippets
  • Auto-sync VSCT commands to C# class
• Editor margin
  • Shows document encoding
  • Shows content type of the ITextBuffer under caret
  • Shows active classifications under caret
  • Shows caret position and selection range
• Dialog for digitally signing VSIXs
• Pkgdef/pkgundef files
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Intellisense
  • Snippets
  • Brace matching
  • Validation
  • Formatting
• VsixManifest files
  • Auto-sync to Resx file
  • Automatically create .ico file based on icon file
• Support for VsixGallery.com
• Show Project information (for debug purposes)
• Export KnownMonikers to PNG file
• VS Theme color swatch window
• View Activity Log
• Enable VSIP Logging
• Item templates
  • Snippet file
  • Browser Link Provider class
  • Editor drop handler
• Create ImageManifest files

VSCT files

The Visual Studio Command Table leaves a lot to be desired in terms of both Intellisense and discoverability of even the most common use cases.

This extension improves on that.

Intellisense for custom GUIDs

Get Intellisense for symbols and groups through out the .vsct file whether you're defining Groups, Menus, Buttons, KeyBindings or CommandPlacements.

Intellisense for custom IDs

Provides Intellisense for IDs based on the guid attribute on the same XML element.

Intellisense built-in groups and menus

All the built-in groups and menus are located under the guidSHLMainMenu GUID and Intellisense is now provided for all the corresponding IDs.

ImageMoniker Intellisense

Over 3500 images is available as ImageMonikers in the KnownMonikers collection in VS. You can now see all the images directly inside Intellisense.

Snippets

All main XML elements in the VSCT file has snippets associated with them and can be invoked by hitting the Tab key.

Auto-sync VSCT commands

Auto-generate the PackageGuids and PackageIds classes every time you save the VSCT file. This keeps your code in sync with the VSCT file at all times.

Feature contributed by phofman

Editor margin

The margin is located below the bottom scrollbar and comes in handy when writing extensions that extends the VS editor.

Document encoding

Shows the encoding of the current document and more details on hover.

Content type

Shows the content type of the ITextBuffer at the caret position. The over tooltip shows the name of the base content type.

Classification

Displays the name of the classification at the caret position in the document. The hover tooltip shows the inheritance hierarchy of the EditorFormatDefinition's BaseDefinition attribute.

Selection

Displays the start and end position of the editor selection as well as the total length of the selection.

Pkgdef files

Syntax highlighting

Colorizes registry keys, strings, keywords, comments and more.

Intellisense

Intellisense is provided for tokens and GUIDs.

Snippets

By typing a question mark on an empty line, a list of snippets appear. Hit Tab on the snippet you want and it will be inserted.

Brace matching

Matches parentheses and square brackets.

Validation

Validates various common mistakes like unknown tokens and unclosed strings and braces.

Formatting

Format the entire document or just the selected lines.

VsixManifest files

You can enable auto-sync on any .vsixmanifest file. Simply right-click the file in Solution Explorer and select Auto-sync Resx and Icon Files.

Auto-sync resx files

This will generate a file called source.extension.resx that is designed to replace the VSPackage.resx file that is added by default by the VSIX project template.

Whenever you change the .vsixmanifest file, the .resx files is updated accordingly as well.

Auto-sync icon file

Icon files (.ico) are always hard to create and maintain, so this feature will auto-generate it for you automatically.

All that is required is that you've referenced an image file in the .vsixmanifest's Icon property and a new .ico file is automtically generated with the right dimensions for VS extensions.

Auto-sync C# class file

A C# class file is also produced which contains a static class with various string constants such as Name, Description and Version of the VSIX.

Example:

namespace MyExtension
{
    public static class Vsix
    {
        public const string Id = "f86b5aa5-733c-4e8f-8d3b-ea6f9b97b344";        
        public const string Name = "Name of VSIX";
        public const string Description = "Description of VSIX";
        public const string Version = "1.0";
    }
}

Support for VsixGallery.com

VsixGallery.com is an open source gallery for Visual Studio extensions and is primarily used for hosting CI built extensions - a staging environment.

There are two things that make automatic integration with VsixGallery.com easy. Put your code on GitHub and automate the build process with AppVeyor.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't. Right-click the solution node in Solution Explorer and click both of the buttons shown below.

That will add some files to the solution folder that require almost no modifications by you. These files are AppVeyor.yml as well as common GitHub files such as CONTRIBUTION.md (tailored to VSIX development), CHANGELOG.md etc.

Read more about adding your extension to VsixGallery.

Show Project Information

A context-menu command is available on every project type that makes it very easy to see all the properties on said project.

This makes it easy to troubleshoot and debug project related issues.

Export KnownMonikers to file

You can now easily export any of the KnownMonikers from IVsImageService2 to a PNG file on disk in the size you need it in.

The button to invoke the Export Image Moniker dialog is located in the top level Tools menu.

Theme color swatch window

To see all the VS environment colors available used in the Light, Blue and Dark theme, you can use the Theme Swatches window.

Open it from View -> Other Windows -> Theme Swatches

The tool window lets you search for colors and provides an easy way to copy them into XAML or C#.

View Activity Log

Getting to the Visual Studio Activity Log can sometimes be a bit cumbersome when dealing with both the regular and the experimental instance.

A menu command under the top level View menu let's you open the right Activity Log easily.

This will open the Activity Log in the Visual Studio web browser.

Enable VSIP Logging

VSIP Logging allows you to see GUIDs and command ids for menu commands. Just press Ctrl+Shift as you click a menu item or group with the mouse.

Read more about VSIP Logging.

Item Templates

Several item templates are added to make it easier to create extension. These item templates all come with functionality that's easy to modify to your needs.

Create Image Manifest files

Right-click any .png or .xaml files and invoke the Generate Image Manifest command from the context menu.

This will ask you where to put the .imagemanifest file and then generate it. If a .imagemanifest file already exist, the guid will remain the same but the sources and IDs will be updated.

Contribute

Check out the contribution guidelines if you want to contribute to this project.

License

Apache 2.0