Shell and Extensibility Project Questions

Shell and Extensibility Project Questions

I would like to write an extensibility extension for my product that 
basically is a browser to an XML front end. I want to use the features in 
Visual Studio Extensibility, but extend them to do things like check to 
make sure an Assembly.Class.Method is valid for an element value. In other 
words I have elements that take an argument of the form 
'AssemblyName.ClassName.MethodName' I want to use extensibility to verify 
this is a valid reference in the XML document. 

Additionally, I would like to use the GUI designer to display the objects I 
create from the XML. Would this cause any problems, I plan on using .NET 
controls in the designer. I know there are limitations on what you can put 
in an extensibility package but I am not sure so I wanted to double check 
with you guys. 

Also I looked at the Isolation Deployment package and it requires knowledge 
of C++ which I do not have. Would I be able to write the Standard, 
Professional, and Team editions in managed .NET C# code? 
-- 
Alexander L. Wykel
AW Software Works

date: Tue, 13 May 2008 13:52:00 -0700 author: Alexander Wykel am

RE: Shell and Extensibility Project Questions

Good morning, Alexander. Welcome to platformsdk.shell newsgroup. My name is 
Jialiang Ge (MSFT), and I will help you with this issue.

According to the post, it is about Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode) 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsx2008/products/bb933751.aspx, and 
http://code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0710032. Although the 
platformsdk.shell newsgroup is dedicated to Windows Shell issue, instead of 
VS shell, I'd still be happy to share my VS shell experience with you. 
Based on my understanding, you are in need of guidance and suggestions to 
write a custom browser/designer using XML as a persistence mechanism in 
.NET with Visual Studio Extensibility. Looking at the nature of this issue, 
it is an advisory question that can be handled more efficiently with 
Microsoft Advisory Services 
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice. Thus, you may consider the 
support option. In addition, many developers and designers from Visual 
Studio team are active in VSIP MSDN forum: 
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=57&SiteID=1. I 
believe they will also have suggestions to be shared with you. I understand 
that VS shell (isolated mode) is a difficult technology in that it's new, 
and there are no enough documents and demos. I will do my best to help you.

I am not sure if you've already read "Visual Studio Form Designer 
Integration.doc" from Visual Studio 2008 SDK:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 
SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\ExtraDocumentation\Visual Studio Form Designer 
Integration.doc
This is a good document that covers the major steps of utilizing the 
winform designer to develop a custom designer. And a demo can be found at 
http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython, which was developed with C#. I suggest 
we start from IronPython to develop our own custom designer, then convert 
it to the isolated mode. 

If you feel it difficult do VS shell, we may also consider hosting winform 
designer in your application, and customize it to meet your requests of the 
XML designer. This would be much easier. Let me know if it meets your 
needs. Below list some documents about how to host winform designers for 
your reference:
http://www.divil.co.uk/net/articles/designers/hosting.asp 
http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/showthread.php?t=73163
http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/perikles/archive/2006/11/25/Using-the-Windows
-Forms-designer-as-your-custom-Design-editor.-_2800_Part-I_2900_.aspx
I'd also recommend reading Raghavendra Prabhu - Briefly Inside the Windows 
Forms Designer: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=67246 to know 
the internal work mechanism of windows forms designer.

Regarding your question about whether we can use C#, instead of C++, to 
develop professional VS shell applications. Yes we can develop a VS package 
with pure managed code, and integrate it with the VS Shell isolated 
instance. The C++ part is used to customize the shell itself. The open 
source project "IronPython" is a good example that was written in C#.

Let me know if there're anything else I can help.

Regards,
Jialiang Ge (jialge@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and 
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please 
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service 
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at: 
msdnmg@microsoft.com.

==================================================
Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx#notif
ications.

Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues 
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support 
Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow 
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support 
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the 
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations 
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex 
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best 
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting 
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx.
==================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

date: Wed, 14 May 2008 11:22:31 GMT author: (Jialiang Ge [MSFT])

RE: Shell and Extensibility Project Questions

Thank you Jialiang Ge,

  Many of your data was out of date and broken links.  I'm looking for the 
latest technology utilizing visual Studio 2008.

-- 
Alexander L. Wykel
AW Software Works



"Jialiang Ge [MSFT]" wrote:

> Good morning, Alexander. Welcome to platformsdk.shell newsgroup. My name is 
> Jialiang Ge (MSFT), and I will help you with this issue.
> 
> According to the post, it is about Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode) 
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsx2008/products/bb933751.aspx, and 
> http://code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0710032. Although the 
> platformsdk.shell newsgroup is dedicated to Windows Shell issue, instead of 
> VS shell, I'd still be happy to share my VS shell experience with you. 
> Based on my understanding, you are in need of guidance and suggestions to 
> write a custom browser/designer using XML as a persistence mechanism in 
> .NET with Visual Studio Extensibility. Looking at the nature of this issue, 
> it is an advisory question that can be handled more efficiently with 
> Microsoft Advisory Services 
> http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice. Thus, you may consider the 
> support option. In addition, many developers and designers from Visual 
> Studio team are active in VSIP MSDN forum: 
> http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=57&SiteID=1. I 
> believe they will also have suggestions to be shared with you. I understand 
> that VS shell (isolated mode) is a difficult technology in that it's new, 
> and there are no enough documents and demos. I will do my best to help you.
> 
> I am not sure if you've already read "Visual Studio Form Designer 
> Integration.doc" from Visual Studio 2008 SDK:
> C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 
> SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\ExtraDocumentation\Visual Studio Form Designer 
> Integration.doc
> This is a good document that covers the major steps of utilizing the 
> winform designer to develop a custom designer. And a demo can be found at 
> http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython, which was developed with C#. I suggest 
> we start from IronPython to develop our own custom designer, then convert 
> it to the isolated mode. 
> 
> If you feel it difficult do VS shell, we may also consider hosting winform 
> designer in your application, and customize it to meet your requests of the 
> XML designer. This would be much easier. Let me know if it meets your 
> needs. Below list some documents about how to host winform designers for 
> your reference:
> http://www.divil.co.uk/net/articles/designers/hosting.asp 
> http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/showthread.php?t=73163
> http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/perikles/archive/2006/11/25/Using-the-Windows
> -Forms-designer-as-your-custom-Design-editor.-_2800_Part-I_2900_.aspx
> I'd also recommend reading Raghavendra Prabhu - Briefly Inside the Windows 
> Forms Designer: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=67246 to know 
> the internal work mechanism of windows forms designer.
> 
> Regarding your question about whether we can use C#, instead of C++, to 
> develop professional VS shell applications. Yes we can develop a VS package 
> with pure managed code, and integrate it with the VS Shell isolated 
> instance. The C++ part is used to customize the shell itself. The open 
> source project "IronPython" is a good example that was written in C#.
> 
> Let me know if there're anything else I can help.
> 
> Regards,
> Jialiang Ge (jialge@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
> Microsoft Online Community Support
> 
> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and 
> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please 
> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service 
> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at: 
> msdnmg@microsoft.com.
> 
> ==================================================
> Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to 
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx#notif
> ications.
> 
> Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues 
> where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support 
> Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow 
> up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support 
> professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the 
> most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations 
> that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex 
> project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best 
> handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting 
> Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at 
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx.
> ==================================================
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> 
>

date: Wed, 14 May 2008 12:24:01 -0700 author: Alexander Wykel am

Re: Shell and Extensibility Project Questions

Hello Alexander,

I am sorry that a URL was broken due to the Newsgroup system:
http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/perikles/archive/2006/11/25/Using-the-Windows-Forms-designer-as-your-custom-Design-editor.-_2800_Part-I_2900_.aspx

Although these links are back to 2003 or 2005, VS 2008 still uses them in 
the new VS Shell technology. There is a good article walking through how to 
create your own tools IDE with VS Shell isolated mode: (Page 1~4)
http://code-magazine.com/article.aspx?quickid=0710032&page=1
In page 4, the VS packages referred by the section ¡°Adding a Package to 
Your IDE¡± are the same as what we did in the past.

Regarding your specific requests of the browser, would you please introduce 
more details of its features? I discussed it in my team and I am sorry that 
we cannot understand ¡°check to make sure an Assembly.Class.Method is valid 
for an element value.¡±. What are the objects when you said ¡°use the GUI 
designer to display the objects I create from the XML.¡±?, and did you mean 
¡°web control¡± or winform control¡± by ¡°.NET controls¡±? Would you let me 
know how you are going to use these controls in the designer, so that we are 
able to share our suggestions with you? A demo XML will be appreciated. If 
these information cannot be easily provided in newsgroup, pease don¡¯t 
hesitate to contact me directly through my mailbox: jialge@microsoft.com

Thanks,
Jialiang Ge  (jialge@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

=================================================
Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and 
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please 
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service 
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at: 
msdnmg@microsoft.com.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
=================================================


"Alexander Wykel" <awykel@nospam.nospam> wrote in message 
news:C00F63F3-9ECE-4470-820B-157164CAF5EA@microsoft.com...
> Thank you Jialiang Ge,
>
>  Many of your data was out of date and broken links.  I'm looking for the
> latest technology utilizing visual Studio 2008.
>
> -- 
> Alexander L. Wykel
> AW Software Works
>
>
>
> "Jialiang Ge [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> Good morning, Alexander. Welcome to platformsdk.shell newsgroup. My name 
>> is
>> Jialiang Ge (MSFT), and I will help you with this issue.
>>
>> According to the post, it is about Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode)
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsx2008/products/bb933751.aspx, and
>> http://code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0710032. Although the
>> platformsdk.shell newsgroup is dedicated to Windows Shell issue, instead 
>> of
>> VS shell, I'd still be happy to share my VS shell experience with you.
>> Based on my understanding, you are in need of guidance and suggestions to
>> write a custom browser/designer using XML as a persistence mechanism in
>> .NET with Visual Studio Extensibility. Looking at the nature of this 
>> issue,
>> it is an advisory question that can be handled more efficiently with
>> Microsoft Advisory Services
>> http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice. Thus, you may consider 
>> the
>> support option. In addition, many developers and designers from Visual
>> Studio team are active in VSIP MSDN forum:
>> http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=57&SiteID=1. I
>> believe they will also have suggestions to be shared with you. I 
>> understand
>> that VS shell (isolated mode) is a difficult technology in that it's new,
>> and there are no enough documents and demos. I will do my best to help 
>> you.
>>
>> I am not sure if you've already read "Visual Studio Form Designer
>> Integration.doc" from Visual Studio 2008 SDK:
>> C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
>> SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\ExtraDocumentation\Visual Studio Form 
>> Designer
>> Integration.doc
>> This is a good document that covers the major steps of utilizing the
>> winform designer to develop a custom designer. And a demo can be found at
>> http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython, which was developed with C#. I 
>> suggest
>> we start from IronPython to develop our own custom designer, then convert
>> it to the isolated mode.
>>
>> If you feel it difficult do VS shell, we may also consider hosting 
>> winform
>> designer in your application, and customize it to meet your requests of 
>> the
>> XML designer. This would be much easier. Let me know if it meets your
>> needs. Below list some documents about how to host winform designers for
>> your reference:
>> http://www.divil.co.uk/net/articles/designers/hosting.asp
>> http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/showthread.php?t=73163
>> http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/perikles/archive/2006/11/25/Using-the-Windows
>> -Forms-designer-as-your-custom-Design-editor.-_2800_Part-I_2900_.aspx
>> I'd also recommend reading Raghavendra Prabhu - Briefly Inside the 
>> Windows
>> Forms Designer: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=67246 to 
>> know
>> the internal work mechanism of windows forms designer.
>>
>> Regarding your question about whether we can use C#, instead of C++, to
>> develop professional VS shell applications. Yes we can develop a VS 
>> package
>> with pure managed code, and integrate it with the VS Shell isolated
>> instance. The C++ part is used to customize the shell itself. The open
>> source project "IronPython" is a good example that was written in C#.
>>
>> Let me know if there're anything else I can help.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jialiang Ge (jialge@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
>> Microsoft Online Community Support
>>
>> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
>> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. 
>> Please
>> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
>> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
>> msdnmg@microsoft.com.
>>
>> ==================================================
>> Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx#notif
>> ications.
>>
>> Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent 
>> issues
>> where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
>> Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each 
>> follow
>> up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
>> professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
>> most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
>> that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
>> project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
>> handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
>> Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx.
>> ==================================================
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no 
>> rights.
>>
>>

date: Thu, 15 May 2008 15:24:28 +0800 author: Jialiang Ge [MSFT]