/VSSDK-Extensibility-Samples

Samples for building your own Visual Studio extensions

Primary LanguageC#MIT LicenseMIT

Visual Studio Extensibility Samples

Join the chat at https://gitter.im/Microsoft/extendvs

These samples demonstrate how to customize the appearance and behavior of the Visual Studio IDE and editor using the Visual Studio SDK. The following are some of the ways in which you can extend Visual Studio:

  • Add commands, buttons, menus, and other UI elements to the IDE
  • Add tool windows for new functionality
  • Add support in Visual Studio for new programming languages
  • Add refactoring or language analyzers to fix and improve code
  • Add a custom project type or new project or item templates
  • Enable high-DPI/high resolutuion, theme-aware, and high contrast images and icons in your UI
    • For Visual Studio 2013, only high-DPI images/icons are supported; use the below sample High-DPI_Images_Icons
    • For Visual Studio 2015, samples that demonstrate using the Image Service/Catalog (for high-DPI, theme-aware, and high contrast support) are denoted below with * and docs can be found [here] (http://aka.ms/VSImageService)
  • Reach millions of developers via the Visual Studio Gallery

Getting started

  1. Clone the repo to download all samples (How to)

    git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/VSSDK-Extensibility-Samples.git

  2. Find samples in the table below

  3. Read the readme included with each sample and try it in Visual Studio

Samples Overview

For more details see the readme included with each sample.

Sample Name Description
Basic_Source_Control_Provider* Shows how to add hooks for a simple source code provider
Build_Progress_Bar* Displays a tool window written in WPF showing build progress
Caret_Fish_Eye Uses line transformation API to zoom lines in proportion to cursor distance
Code_Sweep Searches for words matching terms in an XML schema across a solution
Combo_Box Place combo boxes in a Visual Studio toolbar
CommandTargetRGB Shows how to create a multi-instance tool window
Completion_Tooltip_Customization Replaces the completion tooltip UI
Diff_Classifier Classifier with color highlighting
Editor_With_Toolbox Creates a custom toolbox associated with a specific file extension
High-DPI_Images_Icons Use these helpers to make your images/icons in VS 2013 only scale on high dense displays
Highlight_Word Highlight any words that match the word currently under the text cursor
Intra-text_Adornment Text adornment that replaces hexadecimal color values with color swatches
LightBulb* Creates a custom lightbulb to set text case in text files
MSDNSearch Implements MSDN search functionality directly into Quick Search
Menu_And_Commands* Demonstrates how to add commands to various places in the IDE
Ook_Language_Integration Implements language support for a simple programming language
Options_Page* Shows how to add custom pages to the Tools / Options dialog
Reference_Package Boilerplate containing minimum requirements for a functional extension
Reference_Services Shows how to create and consume services as a service provider
RunningDocumentTable(RDT)_Event_Explorer Creates an explorer grid to log events in a tool window
Single_File_Generator Creates a file generator that uses XML as basis for creating a new C# file
Source_Code_Control_Provider* More complex example of a source code provider
Todo_Classification Classifier that highlights TODO comments and displays a matching glyph
Typing_Speed_Meter Displays an adornment with a typing speed indicator in the Text Editor
WPFDesigner_XML WPF-based visual designer for editing .vstemplate XML files
WPF_Toolwindow* Provides a sample toolwindow that can host a WPF or WinForms control
Windows_Forms_Controls_Installer Loads custom Windows Forms controls inside the toolbox

Other useful resources

  • If you've never written a Visual Studio extension before, you can find more information about developing features at: Starting to Develop Visual Studio Extensions.

  • For details on how to create user experiences that are seamless and consistent within the IDE, visit the Visual Studio User Experience Guidelines. You will also find information about the common user models and interaction patterns that are used and how you can utilize them as well.

  • You can publish your completed extension to the Visual Studio Gallery.

  • Writing an extension for Visual Studio Team Services? Check out the VSO extension samples at the dedicated repository.

Thank you for your support for Visual Studio - we're excited to see what extensions you build!