Table Of ContentWriting Add-ins for
Visual Studio .NET
LESSMITH
APress Media, LLC
Writing Add-ins for Visual Studio .NET
Copyright © 2002 by Les Smith
Originally published by Apress in 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the
publisher.
ISBN 978-1-59059-026-3 ISBN 978-1-4302-1101-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-1101-3
Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the
benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Technical Reviewer: Bob Flickinger
Editorial Directors: Dan Appleman, Peter Blackburn, Gary Cornell, Jason Gilmore, Simon Hayes,
Karen Watterson, John Zukowski
Managing Editor: Grace Wong
Project Manager and Development Editor: Tracy Brown Collins
Copy Editor: Nicole LeClerc
Production Manager: Kari Brooks
Compositor: Impressions Book and Journal Services, Inc.
Indexer: Ron Strauss
Cover Designer: Kurt Krames
Manufacturing Manager: Tom Debolski
Marketing Manager: Stephanie Rodriguez
The information in this book is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranty. Although every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor Apress shall
have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work.
Writing a book is not an easy job. Living with a person who is writing a book can
be even harder. I dedicate this book to my loving wife, Ellen, who has stuck by me
and encouraged me, not only during the months that it took to write this book, but
also through the many years ofl aboring in software development, gaining the
experience that led to the writing of this book. She encouraged me to keep going
when the research I had to do did not seem to yield the data that I needed to con
tinue. She stuck by me as I wrote, hour after hour, night after night, on a seemingly
endless task. I thank her for her patience, understanding, inspiration, and love.
Brief Contents
Foreword ..............................................................x iii
About the Author .....................................................x v
About the Technical Reviewer ......................................x vii
Acknowledgments ......................................................x ix
Introduction .........................................................x xi
Chapter 1 What Is an Add-in? .....................................1
Chapter 2 Getting Started with the Add-in Wizard ............1 5
Chapter 3 The Smart Desktop Add-in ........................... .45
Chapter 4 Debugging an Add-in ..................................8 7
Chapter 5 Manipulating Code in Windows .......................1 13
Chapter 6 Manipulating Controls on Forms ....................1 41
Chapter 7 The User Interface ..................................1 79
Chapter 8 The Macro Explorer and the Macros IDE ............2 37
Chapter 9 Manipulating Projects ...............................2 73
Chapter 10 Multiple Languages in Add-ins .....................3 13
Chapter 11 Handling Automation Events .........................3 57
Chapter 12 Putting It Together: Let's Build a Real Add-in .391
Chapter 13 Migrating VB 6.0 Add-ins to .NET ................. .439
Appendixes ...........................................................4 57
Appendix A Extensibility Objects .............................. .459
Appendix B Quick Reference: How Do I ••• ? ................... .481
Index .................................................................5 07
v
Contents
Foreword ..............................................................x iii
About the Author .....................................................x v
About the Technical Reviewer ......................................x vii
Acknowledgments ......................................................x ix
Introduction .........................................................x xi
Chapter 1 What Is an Add-in? ..............................1
What Is Extensibility? ..............................................1
The Extensibility Object Model
for Visual Basic and Visual C# Projects ..................... .2
Other New Features of • NET ......................................... 7
Making a VB 6.0 Add-in Work in .NET ...............................9
Summary ...............................................................1 3
Chapter 2 Getting Started
with the Add-in Wizard .......................
15
Creating an Add-in Using the Add-in Wizard .....................1 5
Reviewing the Code Generated by the Wizard .....................2 7
Making Minor Changes to the Add-in ...............................3 0
Running the Add-in ..................................................3 3
Registering the Add-in .............................................3 4
Installing the Add-in ..............................................3 6
Exploring the Connect Class Methods ..............................3 9
Summary ...............................................................4 3
Chapter 3 The Smart Desktop Add-in ................... .45
Deciding When to Add a Feature to an Add-in ................... .46
Enhancing the Add-in .............................................. .47
Summary ...............................................................8 4
vii
Contents
Chapter 4 Debugging an Add-in ...........................
87
Setting Debug Options ..............................................8 8
Before Beginning a Debugging Session. • • . ........................9 0
Debugging an Add-in ................................................9 4
Error Handling in the Add-in .....................................1 01
Summary ..............................................................1 11
Chapter 5 Manipulating Code in Windows .............
113
The Documents Collection .........................................1 14
The Document Object ...............................................1 14
Practical Uses for Editor Automation Objects ..................1 21
Cloning a Procedure ...............................................1 26
The Windows Collection ............................................1 36
Summary ..............................................................1 39
Chapter 6 Manipulating Controls on Forms ..........
141
Creating the New Add-in ...........................................1 42
Adding the WinForms Automation Code ............................1 46
Creating the Windows Application Project .......................1 56
Adding Controls to the Form ......................................1 59
Manipulating Controls on the Form ...............................1 63
Adding a Menu to the Form ........................................1 72
Summary ..............................................................1 77
Chapter 7 The User Interface ...........................
179
A Simple UI: DTE Menu Items ......................................1 79
Adding an Add-in DTE Toolbar .....................................1 90
Adding Microsoft Office CommandBarControls ....................1 98
Using a TreeView Form for the UI ............................... .223
Creating a UI in the System Tray ............................... .226
Summary ..............................................................2 36
viii
Contents
Chapter 8 The Macro Explorer
and the Macros IDE ...........................2 37
The Macro Explorer ................................................ .238
Recording a Macro ..................................................2 43
Assigning Shortcut Keys to a Macro ............................. .246
Running Existing Macros ...........................................2 47
The Macros IDE .....................................................2 49
Debugging Macros ...................................................2 50
Enhancing the Smart Desktop Add-in ..............................2 58
Summary ..............................................................2 72
Chapter 9 Manipulating Projects ...................... .273
The Solution Object .............................................. .274
The Project Object .................................................2 79
Maintaining Build Rules ...........................................2 85
Manipulating IDE Tool Windows ....................................3 02
Summary ..............................................................3 11
Chapter 10 Multiple Languages in Add-ins ..........3 13
Visual Studio Integrator Program ................................3 14
External Tools .....................................................3 14
Selecting the Automation Methodology ...........................3 16
Using Multiple Languages in Add-ins ................. ·.· .........3 17
Comparing Visual Basic to C# .....................................3 18
Creating a C# Add-in ..............................................3 25
Using Multiple Languages in the Add-in .........................3 30
Handling Multiple Languages in an Add-in .......................3 34
Running the Code for Multiple Languages ........................3 53
Summary ..............................................................3 55
Chapter 11 Handling Automation Events ..............3 57
Trapping IDE Events ...............................................3 57
Making Good Use of DTE Events ....................................3 82
Summary ..............................................................3 89
ix
Contents
Chapter 12 Putting It Together:
Let's Build a Real Add-in ................
391
Creating the NET Desktop Add-in .................................3 92
Adding the User Interface ........................................3 93
Setting Up the Toolbar ............................................3 94
Setting Up the Menus ............................................. .401
About Box ...........................................................4 32
Event Handling .....................................................4 35
Summary ..............................................................4 37
Chapter 13 Migrating VB 6.0 Add-ins to .NET .....
.439
Preparing to Migrate an Add-in ................................. .441
Running the Migration Wizard on an Add-in .................... .443
Should I Go All the Way with • NET? ............................. .450
Summary ..............................................................4 56
Appendixes .........................................................
457
Appendix A Extensibility Objects .....................
.459
Build Objects ..................................... : .................4 59
CodeModel ...........................................................4 60
Commands ............................................................4 64
Debugger ............................................................4 64
Documents ...........................................................4 66
DTE ..................................................................4 67
Project ..............................................................4 72
Solution ............................................................4 74
Window Objects .....................................................4 75
Win Forms ............................................................4 78
Appendix B Quick Reference: How Do I ... ? ........ .481
Get Code from a Code Editor Window ............................. .481
Retrieve a Whole Procedure from a Code Editor Window ........4 82
Put Code Back into a Code Editor Window ....................... .484
X
Contents
Add a New Method to the End of a Module ....................... .485
Reference Properties of a Form ................................. .485
Change a Property on a Form ..................................... .486
Reference Properties of a Control on a Form .................. .487
Change a Property of a Control on a Form ...................... .488
Reference All of the Selected Controls on a Form ............ .489
Create a Windows Application Project from an Add-in ......... .489
Add an Item to a Project ........................................ .490
Delete an Item from a Project ................................... .490
Add a Menu Item to the IDE ...................................... .490
Add an Add-in Toolbar to the IDE ............................... .491
Add Tool Buttons to a Toolbar ................................... .491
Add Multilevel Menus to the IDE ................................ .491
Capture Events in the IDE ....................................... .491
Add a New Class, Form, or Module ............................... .491
Persist My Own Clipboard Ring ................................... .491
Access the Tool Options Dialog Box Programmatically ..........4 91
Manually Register an Add-in Not Created
with the Add-in Wizard on My Computer ..................... .492
Manually Make the Registry Entries
for the Add-in Manager Dialog Box for Add-ins
Not Created by the Wizard on My Computer .................. .492
Create a Setup Project for an Add-in
Not Created on My Computer .................................. .492
Debug an Add-in When I Only Have the Add-in Project ..........4 92
Recognize When a Form Has Been Added to the Project ......... .492
Recognize When a Component Has Been Added to a Form ......... .493
Reload a Component ................................................ .499
Close All Saved Windows in the IDE ..............................5 00
Close and Save All but the Active Document ................... .5 00
Make a Backup Copy of the Current Window ...................... .5 01
Open All Code and Designer Windows ..............................5 02
Use the CodeModel Object to Analyze Code .......................5 03
Display a Variable or Method Declaration Line
in a Code Window ...............................................5 05
Index ............................................................... .5 07
xi
