Using the Guidance Navigator

The Guidance Navigator is a dockable tool window that helps users discover, learn about, and use guidance in a Guidance Package as they work on a Visual Studio solution. The Guidance Navigator is automatically displayed when a Guidance Package is enabled. If the user closes this window, it can also be displayed in Visual Studio by clicking Other Windows on the View menu, and then clicking Guidance Navigator Window. The following user operations are supported from the Guidance Navigator:

• Selecting a Guidance Package
• Viewing Guidance Package overview information
• Viewing active recipes and templates
• Viewing a history of recipes and templates that have been run
• Learning more about a recipe or template
• Executing a recipe or template

Selecting a Guidance Package

The Guidance Navigator can only display guidance from one Guidance Package at a time. Users can select the current Guidance Package from all of those that are active in the current solution using the drop-down list in the Guidance Navigator window; this will result in information about this package being displayed in each of the tabs of the Guidance Navigator. In addition to listing all packages enabled for the solution, the drop-down list box includes a Guidance Package Manager option that opens the Guidance Package Manager. This dialog box can be used to enable or disable additional Guidance Packages.

Viewing Guidance Package Overview Information

The Overview tab in the Guidance Navigator can display overview information about the selected Guidance Package. It may also include links to more detailed information in the documentation or on the Web. The information included on this tab is provided by the Guidance Package, and different packages may include different types or amounts of information.

Viewing Active Recipes and Templates

The Available Guidance tab in the Guidance Navigator shows all recipes and templates that can be used in the solution in its current state. This includes all templates and bound recipes, as well as unbound recipes that apply to at least one solution element. The list of active guidance is automatically updated when items in the solution are changed.

Viewing a History of Recipes and Templates That Have Been Run

The History tab in the Guidance Navigator shows a list of recipes and templates that have previously been run against the current solution. The history information is stored in the .suo file for the current solution, so it is unique to each developer. If you want to remove an item from the history list, you can click the X button that appears with each item in the list.

Learning More About a Recipe or Template

Each recipe or template that is listed in the Available Guidance and History tabs may include links to additional information about the guidance, such as patterns or other documentation pages. The links to this information are provided by the Guidance Package author. Recipes listed on the History tab may also provide links to suggested next steps that the developer may want to take after using a recipe or template. To view the links to additional information, expand the node for the desired recipe or template. Clicking the link results in the information being displayed in the Help viewer or Web browser.

Executing a Recipe or Template

The developer can execute a recipe or unfold a template directly from the Available Guidance tab of the Guidance Navigator. This can be done by expanding the node for the desired recipe or template, and then clicking Run this recipe or Unfold this template. If a recipe listed on the History tab includes a reference to another recipe in its suggested next steps, it is also possible to launch that recipe from the History tab.

See also

Using Guidance Packages | Installing a Guidance Package | Enabling a Guidance Package | Uninstalling a Guidance Package | Launching Templates | Launching Bound and Unbound Recipes | Running Guidance Packages in the Experimental Hive