Guidance Automation Extensions 2008 and Guidance Automation Toolkit 2008

patterns & practices Developer Center

Last Updated October 2008

Summary

Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) expand the capabilities of Visual Studio by allowing architects and developers to run Guidance Packages, such as those included in Software Factories, which automate key development tasks from within the Visual Studio environment.

The Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) is a Guidance Package that allows architects and developers to create rich, integrated development experiences that incorporate reusable assets including Software Factories, frameworks, and patterns. The resulting Guidance Packages, composed of templates, wizards, and recipes, help developers build solutions that are consistent with the architecture guidance.

To use the Guidance Automation Toolkit, you must first install the Guidance Automation Extensions. For more information, see the Introduction to the Guidance Automation Toolkit.

On This Page

• Download GAT
• Download GAX
• What’s New
• Notes
• Community
• Feedback and Support
• Authors and Contributors

Download GAX

If you have a previous version of GAX installed on Visual Studio 2005, it will be updated to the February 2008 release of GAX. You are no longer required to uninstall GAX and the corresponding Guidance Packages (with the exception of the GAT, which must be uninstalled and then re-installed).

Download GAT

Before you download and install the GAT, you must install GAX. Download and install GAX for your version of Visual Studio, and then download and install the appropriate version of the GAT.

Community

What’s New

This release of GAX and GAT includes the following improvements:

• Support for Visual Studio 2005 and/or Visual Studio 2008

  This version of GAX will run on either version of Visual Studio. If you don’t have GAX installed, you can install GAX to support Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 or both. The installer will automatically determine which versions of Visual Studio you have installed.

  Note

  The previous version of GAX (July 2007 CTP) was released only for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. You cannot use it on Visual Studio 2008. You must use the February 2008 release instead.

• Updating GAX

  If you have a previous version of GAX installed on Visual Studio 2005, it will be updated to the February 2008 release of GAX. You are no longer required to uninstall GAX and the corresponding Guidance Packages.

  Guidance Packages that are registered with the previous version of GAX will be registered automatically with the current version of GAX. GAT, however, will require an update – see the information below.

• Visual Studio side-by-side support

  If you have Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 running side-by-side, you can have GAX running for both versions. However, Guidance Packages developed and registered with GAT for a specific version of Visual Studio (2005 or 2008) will only be available in that version. Guidance Packages designed for Visual Studio 2005 and installed by an MSI will only be available in Visual Studio 2005. Installation of any Guidance Package through an MSI that does not explicitly prompt for the version of Visual Studio will be installed for Visual Studio 2005 by default.

  Note

  You cannot have multiple versions of GAX installed on the same computer.

• Improved Uninstaller

  When you remove (uninstall) GAX, you can click the Check Installed Packages button for the list of all registered Guidance Packages. If you proceed with GAX removal, the uninstaller will only attempt to automatically uninstall those Guidance Packages that were registered manually by using GAT. If you have any Guidance Packages that were installed by an MSI, you should not proceed with removing GAX. Instead, you should use the Control Panel Add or Remove Programs tool to uninstall these Guidance Packages.

  Warning

  You must remove all Guidance Packages before you uninstall GAX. The Add or Remove Programs tool will NOT be able to remove the remaining Guidance Packages after GAX is uninstalled.

In addition, February 2008 release of GAX fixes the following issues:

• On systems running Windows Vista, a blank error message was displayed if you attempted to uninstall GAX before uninstalling GAT or other registered Guidance Packages.
• A FileLoadException error was displayed if you used the Guidance Package Manager in Visual Studio 2008 Professional.
• GAX and GAT would not properly validate and recognize custom Visual Studio project types when unfolding templates for custom project types registered only in the experimental hive.

Notes on GAT

In this release, there are two installers for GAT: one targeting Visual Studio 2005 and the other targeting Visual Studio 2008. Please select the appropriate installer.

GAT for Visual Studio 2005 and GAT for Visual Studio 2008 can be installed on the same computer (provided that it has both versions of Visual Studio), and run side-by-side.

If you are a current GAT user (July 2007 CTP or February 2007 CTP) and you are upgrading to the new version of GAX (February 2008), you must also upgrade to the new version of GAT (February 2008). To upgrade, you must first uninstall the current version of GAT by using the Add or Remove Programs tool.

Community

The Guidance Automation Toolkit and Guidance Automation Extensions are associated with an MSDN Forums site. On this forum, you can post questions and provide feedback. Members can also help Microsoft plan and test future deliverables and download additional content such as Guidance Packages and training materials.

Feedback and Support

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? To provide feedback about this deliverable, or to get help with any problems, please visit the GAX/GAT forum. The forum site is the preferred feedback and support channel because it allows you to share your ideas, questions, and solutions with the entire community.

Authors and Contributors

The Guidance Automation Toolkit and Guidance Automation Extensions were produced by the following people:

• Program Management: Grigori Melnik (Microsoft Corporation), Bill Loeffler (Microsoft Corporation)
• Product Management: Grigori Melnik (Microsoft Corporation)
• Development: Victor Aprea (Clarius Consulting), Jose Escrich (Clarius Consulting), Daniel Cazzulino (Clarius Consulting), Oscar Calvo (Artinsoft), Allan Cantillo (ArtinSoft), and Michael Puleio (Microsoft Corporation)
• Testing: Mohammad Al-Sabt (Microsoft Corporation), Rohit Sharma (Microsoft Corporation), Lavanya Selvaraj (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Hanz Zhang (Microsoft Corporation), Mani Krishnaswami (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Gokula Thilagar (Microsoft Corporation), Prasad Paluri (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Terrence Cyril Joseph Anthuvan (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Edward Lafferty (Microsoft Corporation), Larry Brader (Microsoft Corporation), Ashish Babbar (Microsoft Corporation), Terrence Cyril J. (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Umashankar Murugesan (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Sivanthapatham Shanmugasundaram (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Deepa Javeri (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Rajeswari Santhanam (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Deepak Sachdeva (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Pete Coupland (Microsoft Corporation), Muralidharan Narayanan (Infosys Technologies Ltd), Sajjad Imran (Infosys Technologies Ltd), and Manickavasagam Shanmugasundaram (Infosys Technologies Ltd)
• Documentation: Nelly Delgado (Microsoft Corporation), RoAnn Corbisier (Microsoft Corporation), Paul Slater (Wadeware LLC) and Tina Burden (TinaTech, Inc.)

Many thanks to the following people who provided invaluable assistance:

• Bob Brumfield, Rob Caron, Scott Densmore, Jack Greenfield, Douglas Hodges, Tom Hollander, Amnon Horowitz, Edward Jezierski, Gareth Jones, Stuart Kent, Wojtek (Voytek) Kozaczynski, Julia Liuson, Stephanie Saad, Jason Weber, Jezz Santos, Blaine Wastell (Microsoft Corporation), and John Saunders (Microsoft MVP)