You need the following components to complete this walkthrough:

• Visual Studio 2008.

• Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0.

• The ShapeApp sample applications that are included with Visual Studio Tools for Applications.

The first step to integrating Visual Studio Tools for Applications into ShapeApp is to create proxies for the ShapeApp object model. Proxies help communication by serving as an intermediary between the add-in and the host application object model.

For more information about proxies, see Creating Proxies.

To create proxies for ShapeApp

You create project templates to enable add-in developers to create add-ins for your application. Project templates provide the basic files that are needed for a project type. They can include references to assemblies, and they can set default project properties and compiler options in the IDE.

For more information about project templates, see Creating Project Templates (Visual Studio Tools for Applications).

To create project templates for ShapeApp

You must implement several interfaces in the host application code so that it can discover and load add-ins.

For more information, see Discovering and Loading Add-Ins.

To modify ShapeApp to load add-ins

You can include the redistributable Visual Studio Tools for Applications IDE with the host application, and add code to start and stop the IDE and automatically configure a debugging session.

For more information about the IDE, see Incorporating the Integrated Development Environment.

To incorporate the IDE with ShapeApp

The detailed walkthroughs in this overview show you how to modify ShapeApp with a basic integration of Visual Studio Tools for Applications. There are more advanced integration tasks that you can perform:

• Extend the IDE project system by automating the IDE through in-process hosts. For more information, see Walkthrough: Creating and Updating an In-Process Host.

• Modify ShapeApp so that add-in developers can record macros. These and other advanced tasks are demonstrated in the ShapeAppMacroRecordingCSharp sample. For more information, see ShapeApp Samples (Visual Studio Tools for Applications).

• Dynamically create or modify host items or host objects in an add-in project. Host items and host objects are classes that are used in an add-in project that customize objects in the host application. When you add host items and host objects to a project, you dynamically modify the object model as it is seen by the add-in developer. For more information, see Walkthrough: Adding Host Items and Host Objects to an Add-in Project.

• Provide support for ClickOnce add-in deployment. For more information, see Walkthrough: Integrating ClickOnce for a Managed Object Model

Tasks

Concepts

Other Resources