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This article contains the overview of several different methods for extending Visual Studio IDE. The creation, debugging, registration and end-user deployment of Visual Studio extension packages will be explained in detail.
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The following series of articles is dedicated to the development of the extension package for Visual Studio 2005/2008/2010/2012 IDEs utilizing .NET framework and C# programming language. The following topics will be covered:
The content of these articles is based on our experience in developing an MSVS extension package plug-in for PVS-Studio static analyzer. A more detailed in-depth references for the topics covered here are available at the end of each article through the links to MSDN library and several other external resources.
The articles will cover the extension development only for Visual Studio 2005 and later versions. This limitation reflects that PVS-Studio also supports integration to Visual Studio starting only from version 8 (Visual Studio 2005). The main reason behind this is that a new extensibility API model was introduced for Visual Studio 2005, and this new version is not backward-compatible with previous IDE APIs.
There exists a number of ways to extend Microsoft Visual Studio features. On the most basic level it's possible to automate simple routine user actions using macros. An add-In plug-in module can be used for obtaining an access to environment's UI objects, such as menu commands, windows etc. Extension of IDE's internal editors is possible through MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework) components (starting with MSVS 2010). Finally, a plug-in of the Extension Package type (known as VSPackage) is best suited for integrating large independent components into Visual Studio. VSPackage allows combining the environment automation through Automation Object Model with usage of Managed Package Framework classes (such as Package). It also provides the means of extending the automation model itself by registering user-defined custom automation objects within it. Such user automation objects, in turn, will become available through the same automation model from other user-created extensibility packages, providing these packages with access to your custom components.
In its' earlier versions, PVS-Studio plug-in (versions 1.xx and 2.xx to be precise, when it was still known as Viva64) existed as an Add-In package. Starting with PVS-Studio 3.0 it was redesigned as VSPackage because the functionality Add-in was able to provide became insufficient for the tasks at hand and also the debugging process was quite inconvenient. After all, we wanted to have our own logo on Visual Studio splash screen!
Contrary to Add-In plug-ins, developing VS extension packages requires the installation of Microsoft Visual Studio SDK for a targeted version of IDE, i.e. a separate SDK should be installed with every version of Visual Studio for which an extension is being developed. We will be examining the 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012 versions of Visual Studio. Installation of Visual Studio SDK adds a standard project template for Visual Studio Package (on the 'Other Project Types -> Extensibility' page) to VS template manager. If selected, this template will generate a basic MSBuild project for an extension package, allowing several parameters to be specified beforehand, such as a programming language to be used and the automatic generation of several stub components for generic UI elements, such as menu item, an editor, user toolwindow etc.
We will be using a C# VSPackage project (csproj), which is a project for managed dynamic-link library (dll). The corresponding csproj MSBuild project for this managed assembly will also contain several XML nodes specific to a Visual Studio package, such as VSCT compiler and IncludeinVSIX (in later IDE versions).
The main class of an extension package should be inherited from the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package. This base class provides managed wrappers for IDE interaction APIs, implementation of which is required from a fully-functional Visual Studio extension package.
public sealed class MyPackage: Package
{
public MyPackage ()
{}
...
}The Package class allows overriding of its base Initialize method. This method receives execution control at the moment of package initialization in the current session of IDE.
protected override void Initialize()
{
base.Initialize();
...
}The initialization of the module will occur when it is invoked for the first time, but it also could be triggered automatically, for example after IDE is started or when user enters a predefined environment UI context state.
Being aware of the package's initialization and shutdown timings is crucial. It's quite possible that the developer would be requesting some of Visual Studio functionality at the moment when it is still unavailable to the package. During PVS-Studio development we've encountered several such situations when the environment "punished us" for not understanding this, for instance, we are not allowed to "straightforwardly" display message boxes after Visual Studio enters a shutdown process.
The task of debugging a plug-in module or extension intended for an integrated development environment is not quite a typical one. Quite often such environment itself is utilized for plug-in's development and debugging. Hooking up an unstable module to this IDE can lead to instability of the environment itself. The necessity to uninstall a module under development from the IDE before every debugging session, which in turn often requires restarting it, is also a major inconvenience (IDE could block the dll that needs to be replaced by a newer version for debugging).
It should be noted that a VSPackage debugging process in this aspect is substantially easier than that of an Add-In package. This was one of the main reasons for changing the project type of PVS-Studio plug-in.
VSPackage solves the aforementioned development and debugging issues by utilizing Visual Studio Experimental Instance mechanism. Such an experimental instance could be easily started by passing a special command line argument:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\
Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /RootSuffix ExpAn experimental instance of the environment utilizes a separate independent Windows registry hive (called experimental hive) for storing all of its settings and component registration data. As such, any modifications in the IDE's settings or changes in its component registration data, which were made inside the experimental hive, will not affect the instance which is employed for the development of the module (that is your main regular instance which is used by default).
Visual Studio SDK provides a special tool for creating or resetting such experimental instances —CreateExpInstance. To create a new experimental hive, it should be executed with these arguments:
CreateExpInstance.exe /Reset /VSInstance=10.0 /RootSuffix=PVSExpExecuting this command will create a new experimental registry hive with a PVSExp suffix in its name for the 10th version of IDE (Visual Studio 2010), also resetting all of its settings to their default values in advance. The registry path for this new instance will look as follows:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0PVSExpWhile the Exp suffix is utilized by default for package debugging inside VSPackage template project, other experimental hives with unique names could also be created by the developer at will. To start an instance of the environment for the hive we've created earlier (containing PVSExp in its name), these arguments should be used:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\
Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /RootSuffix PVSExpA capacity for creating several different experimental hives on a single local workstation could be quite useful, as, for example, to provide a simultaneous and isolated development of several extension packages.
After installing the SDK package, a link is created in the Visual Studio program's menu group for resetting the default Experimental Instance for this version of the IDE (for instance, "Reset the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Experimental Instance").
In the end, the faster you'll figure out how the debugging environment works, the fewer issues you'll encounter in understanding how plug-in initialization works during development.
Registering a VS extension package requires registering a package itself, as well as registering all of the components it integrates into the IDE (for example, menu items, option pages, user windows etc.). The registration is accomplished by creating records corresponding to these components inside the main system registry hive of Visual Studio.
All the information required for registration is placed, after building your VSPackage, inside a special pkgdef file, according to several special attributes of the main class of your package (which itself should be a subclass of the MPF 'Package' class). The pkgdef can also be created manually using the CreatePkgDef utility. This tool collects all of the required module registration information from these special attributes by the means of .NET reflection. Let's study these registration attributes in detail.
The PackageRegistration attribute tells the registration tool that this class is indeed a Visual Studio extension package. Only if this attribute is discovered will the tool perform its search for additional ones.
[PackageRegistration(UseManagedResourcesOnly = true)]The Guid attribute specifies a unique package module identifier, which will be used for creating a registry sub-key for this module in Visual Studio hive.
[Guid("a0fcf0f3-577e-4c47-9847-5f152c16c02c")]The InstalledProductRegistration attribute adds information to 'Visual Studio Help -> About' dialog and the loading splash screen.
[InstalledProductRegistration("#110", "#112", "1.0",
IconResourceID = 400)]The ProvideAutoLoad attribute links automatic module initialization with the activation of a specified environment UI context. When a user enters this context, the package will be automatically loaded and initialized. This is an example of setting module initialization to the opening of a solution file:
[ProvideAutoLoad("D2567162-F94F-4091-8798-A096E61B8B50")]The GUID values for different IDE UI contexts can be found in the Microsoft.VisualStudio.VSConstants.UICONTEXT class.
The ProvideMenuResource attribute specifies an ID of resource that contains user created menus and commands for their registration inside IDE.
[ProvideMenuResource("Menus.ctmenu", 1)]The DefaultRegistryRoot attribute specifies a path to be used for writing registration data to the system registry. Starting with Visual Studio 2010 this attribute can be dropped as the corresponding data will be present in manifest file of a VSIX container. An example of registering a package for Visual Studio 2008:
[DefaultRegistryRoot("Software\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\9.0")]Registration of user-created components, such as toolwidows, editors, option pages etc. also requires the inclusion of their corresponding attributes for the user's Package subclass. We will examine these attributes separately when we will be examining corresponding components individually.
It's also possible to write any user-defined registry keys (and values to already existing keys) during package registration through custom user registration attributes. Such attributes can be created by inheriting the RegistrationAttribute abstract class.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, Inherited = true,
AllowMultiple = false)]
public class CustomRegistrationAttribute : RegistrationAttribute
{
}The RegistrationAttribute-derived attribute must override its Register and Unregister methods, which are used to modify registration information in the system registry.
The RegPkg tool can be used for writing registration data to Windows registry. It will add all of the keys from pkgdef file passed to it into the registry hive specified by the /root argument. For instance, the RegPkg is utilized by default in Visual Studio VSPackage project template for registering the module in the Visual Studio experimental hive, providing convenient seamless debugging of the package being developed. After all of the registration information have been added to the registry, Visual Studio (devenv.exe) should be started with '/setup' switch to complete registration for new components inside the IDE.
Before proceeding to describe the deployment process itself, one particular rule should be stressed:
Each time after a new version of the distribution containing your plug-in is created, this new distribution should be tested on a system without Visual Studio SDK installed, as to make sure that it will be registered correctly on the end-user system.
Today, as the releases of early versions of PVS-Studio are past us, we do not experience these kinds of issues, but several of these early first versions were prone to them.
Deploying a package for Visual Studio 2005/2008 will require launching of regpkg tool for a pkgdef file and passing the path to Visual Studio main registry hive into it. Alternately, all keys from a pkgdef can be written to Windows registry manually. Here is the example of automatically writing all the registration data from a pkgdef file by regpkg tool (in a single line):
RegPkg.exe /root:Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0Exp
"/pkgdeffile:obj\Debug\PVS-Studio-vs2008.pkgdef"
"C:\MyPackage\MyPackage.dll"After adding the registration information to the system registry, it is necessary to start Visual Studio with a /setup switch to complete the component registration. It is usually the last step in the installation procedure of a new plug-in.
Devenv.exe /setupStarting the environment with this switch instructs Visual Studio to absorb resource metadata for user-created components from all available extension packages, so that these components will be correctly displayed by IDE's interface. Starting devenv with this key will not open its' main GUI window.
We do not employ RepPkg utility as part of PVS-Studio deployment, instead manually writing required data to the registry by using our stand-alone installer. We chose this method because we have no desire of being dependent on some external third-party tools and we want full control over the installation process. Still, we do use RegPkg during plug-in development for convenient debugging.
Beginning from Visual Studio 2010, VSPackage deployment process can be significantly simplified through the usage of VSIX packages. VSIX package itself is a common (Open Packaging Conventions) archive containing plug-in's binary files and all of the other auxiliary files which are necessary for plug-in's deployment. By passing such archive to the standard VSIXInstaller.exe utility, its contents will be automatically registered in the IDE:
VSIXInstaller.exe MyPackage.vsixVSIX installer could also be used with /uninstall switch to remove the previously installed package from a system. A unique GUID of the extension package should be used to identify such package:
VSIXInstaller.exe /uninstall: 009084B1-6271-4621-A893-6D72F2B67A4DContents of a VSIX container are defined through the special vsixmanifest file, which should be added to plug-in's project. Vsixmanifest file permits the following properties to be defined for an extension:
To include additional files into a VSIX container, the IncludeInVSIX node should be added to their declarations inside your MSBuild project (alternately, they could also be marked as included into VSIX from their respective property windows, by opening it from Visual Studio Solution Explorer).
<Content Include="MyPackage.pdb">
<IncludeInVSIX>true</IncludeInVSIX>
</Content>In fact, the VSIX file could be viewed as an almost full-fledged installer for extension packages on the latest versions of Visual Studio (2010 and 2012), allowing the extensions to be deployed by a "one-click" method. Publishing your VSIX container in the official Visual Studio Gallery for extensions allows end-users to install such package through the Tools -> Extension Manager IDE dialog.
This new VSIX installation procedure in Visual Studio 2010 does substantially alleviate package deployment for end-users (as well as for developers themselves). Some developers even had decided to support only VS2010 IDE and versions above it, if only not to get involved with the development of a package and installer for earlier IDE versions.
Unfortunately, several issues can be encountered when using VSIX installer together with Visual Studio 2010 extension manager interface. For instance, sometimes the extension's binary files are not removed correctly after uninstall, which in turn blocks the VSIX installer from installing/reinstalling the same extension. As such, we advise you not to depend upon the VSIX installer entirely and to provide some backup, for example by directly removing your files from a previous plug-in installation before proceeding with a new one.
Each VSPackage module loaded into Visual Studio must possess a unique Package Load Key (PLK). PLK key is specified through the ProvideLoadKey attribute for the Package subclass in 2005/2008 versions of the IDE.
[ProvideLoadKey("Standard", "9.99", "MyPackage", "My Company", 100)]Starting with Visual Studio 2010, the presence of a PLK, as well as of the ProvideLoadKey attribute respectively, in a package is not required, but it can still be specified in case the module under development is targeting several versions of MSVS. The PLK can be obtained by registering at the Visual Studio Industry Partner portal, meaning it guarantees that the development environment can load only packages certified by Microsoft.
However, systems containing Visual Studio SDK installed are exceptions to this, as Developer License Key is installed together with the SDK. It allows the corresponding IDE to load any extension package, regardless of validity of its PLK.
Considering the aforementioned, one more time it is necessary to stress the importance of testing the distribution on a system without Visual Studio SDK present, because the extension package will operate properly on developer's workstation regardless of its PLK correctness.
By default, VSPackage project template will generate an extensibility project for the version of Visual Studio that is used for the development. This is not a mandatory requirement though, so it is possible to develop an extension for a particular version of IDE using a different one. It also should be noted that after automatically upgrading a project file to a newer version through devenv /Upgrade switch, the targeted version of the IDE and its' corresponding managed API libraries will remain unchanged, i.e. from a previous version of Visual Studio.
To change the target of the extension to another version of Visual Studio (or to register an extension into this version to be more precise), you should alter values passed to the DefaultRegistryRoot attribute (only for 2005/2008 IDE versions, as starting from Visual Studio 2010 this attribute is no longer required) or change the target version in the VSIX manifest file (for versions above 2008).
VSIX support appears only starting from Visual Studio 2010, so building and debugging the plug-in targeted for the earlier IDE version from within Visual Studio 2010 (and later) requires setting up all the aforementioned registration steps manually, without VSIX manifest. While changing target IDE version one should also not forget to switch referenced managed assemblies, which contain COM interface wrappers utilized by the plug-in, to the corresponding versions as well.
Altering the IDE target version of the plug-in affects the following Package subclass attributes:
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