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Developing a VSIX File

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After you create a Guidance Package that appears to function as required, you need to test it thoroughly in a test environment. Then, when testing is complete, you can give it to your developers to use to build solutions.

For both testing and final use, you need to generate a VSIX file that can then be used to install the Guidance Package on different computers.

To create a VSIX file

  1. Execute the Set Item's Build Properties recipe. It is bound to the Templates folder.
  2. On the Visual Studio 2010 Build menu, click Configuration Manager.
  3. In the Configuration Manager dialog box, click debug or release, depending on how the VSIX file will be used, and then click Close.
  4. Right-click the setup solution and then click Build.

Note

Note: These steps assume that you created the Guidance Package using the Guidance Package Development template.

This will generate a VSIX file that you can then distribute to your testers or developers. They can use the VSIX file to install the Guidance Package on their computers.

Note

Note: Instead of using Configuration Manager, you can select the appropriate configuration from the Solution Configurations drop-down list box on the main Visual Studio 2010 toolbar.

By default, the VSIX file will install the assemblies in one of the following folders:

  • C:\Users\<UserName>\appdata\local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0Exp\Extensions\Microsoft\<GPName>
  • C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions\Microsoft p&p\<GPName>

The Recipe Framework does not support assemblies in the global assembly cache, and it will not load assemblies that are placed there, even if the assembly is explicitly referenced in the Guidance Package.

When you use a VSIX file to install a Guidance Package, you need to make sure that the Guidance Package is not already installed. Therefore, you must uninstall any previous instance of the Guidance Package by using ExtensionManager in VisualStudio 2010, and selecting Tools. If you attempt to install a Guidance Package by running the VSIX file and there is already a Guidance Package with the same name installed on their computer, the Recipe Framework will throw an exception, informing you that you must uninstall the previous instance of the Guidance Package before installing the new one.

If you are using the computer on which the Guidance Package was developed, you will need to uninstall the existing Guidance Package, before installing the new one.

Note

Note: While it is possible to create different versions of a VSIX file for a Guidance Package, it is important to realize that the version attribute of the Guidance Package itself is purely informational. If you want to run two versions of the same Guidance Package simultaneously on the same computer, you must give those two versions different names.