A Deep Look at Building Custom Tools on the Microsoft Visual Studio Shell

Quan ToProgram Manager, VS EcosystemMicrosoft Corporation

Objectives

What is the Visual Studio Shell?

What can I do with it?

Where do I get started?

Agenda

Deployment & Licensing

Storyboard Designer Demo

Introduce Visual Studio 2008 Shell

Q & A

Visual Studio 2008End User Product Editions

First-time Programmer

sStudentsHobbyists

Web DevelopersPart-Timers

VB6 Developers

Solo ProfessionalsConsultantsSmall Teams

Project ManagersArchitects

TestersEnterprise Developers

Introducing: Visual Studio 2008 Shell

Empty “Shell” with IDE features.No Visual Studio as a pre-requisite.

Visual Studio Shell (integrated

Mode)

•Optimized for Programming Languages

Visual Studio Shell (isolated

Mode)

•Optimized for Specialized Tools

Integrated vs. Isolated Modes

Team System

Standard

VS Shell (integra

ted)

VS Shell (isolated)

VS Shell (isolated)

VS Shell (isolated) Runtime

VS Shell (isolated) Runtime

How Does it Work?

VS Binaries

AppEnvStub.dll int __cdecl Start(LPSTR lpCmdLine,

LPWSTR pszAppName, int nCmdShow);

int __cdecl Setup(LPSTR lpCmdLine, _In_opt_ LPWSTR pszAppName);

int __cdecl Remove(LPSTR lpCmdLine, _In_opt_ LPWSTR pszAppName);

How To Build Your OwnVS Shell based Application?

• Stub exe• Branding• Customiz

ations

Create your own Shell

• Packages• Template

s• Docs

Add your

extensions

• Obtain SLK

• Chain in Shell Runtime

Create Setup Progra

m

1 2 3

Storyboard Designer

A Specialized Tool Built on Visual Studio 2008 Shell (isolated

mode)

What Just Happened?What? How?

Created Stub EXE Came with default project.

Applied Custom Branding Replace icons and splash screen.Added your own Help About box.

Customized Menus and Commands

Uncomment tags in <AppName>.vsct file.

Customized Package Registration

Changed <AppName>.pkgundef file.

Customized Tool Window Registration

Changed <AppName>.pkgundef file.

Added Our Own VS Packages Added projects into solution and changed Shell Dependencies.

Added Our Own Template Added template into shared template location and ran /setup.

Created setup for your shell product

Used Setup project

Your Setup

Development vs. Deployment

Visual Studio

Development

VS SDK

+

VS Shell Runtime Redist

Deployment

Your App.exe

+Your Stuff

+

Licensing

Freely redistributableNo platform targeting restrictionMain restrictions for Isolated Mode:

Add your own Help AboutCan’t remove splash screen overlayCan’t load MS packagesCan’t break VS or others Pass through VS Shell EULA

VS Shell Redist Pack

Redist

EULA

VS Shell Runtime Redist

Summary

What is the Visual Studio Shell?A new edition of Visual Studio targeted at tools developers. The Shell edition is offered in isolated and integrated modes.

What can I do with it?Integrated Mode: create programming language environments that merges with Visual Studio if installed together.Isolated Mode: create standalone custom-branded vertical or horizontal tools environments that run side-by-side with Visual Studio.

Where do I get started?Download VS 2008 SDK today!Attend the VSX Conference Sept 15 & 16Visit VSX Developer Center at http://msdn.com/vsx

Questions?

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.