Visual Studio Extensibility Samples
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, 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 *
- Reach millions of developers via the Visual Studio Gallery
A quick summary of the samples included here:
| 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 |
Some other useful resources:
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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.
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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.
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Writing an extension for Visual Studio Online? Check out the VSO extension samples at the dedicated repository.
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In addition to these samples, many completed extensions have been published to GitHub or other repositories. Here's a list of other community Visual Studio extensions.
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You can publish your completed extension to the Visual Studio Gallery, where you can also get more information about joining the Visual Studio Partner Program.
Thank you for your support for Visual Studio - we're excited to see what extensions you build!
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