VSIX Element (Root Element, VSX Schema)

Required. Provides the root element for a manifest that describes a Visual Studio extension deployment package. The manifest contains the information that Extension Manager uses to install the extension on a target computer.

<Vsix Version="1.0.0" xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vsx-schema/2010">
   <Identifier>... </Identifier>
   <References>... </References>
   <Content>... </Content>
</Vsix>

Attributes and Elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute

Description

xmlns

The XML namespace in which the Visual Studio Extensibility (VSX) schema for extensions is defined.

Version

Required. The version of the VSIX file. For VS 2010, use 1.0.0.

xmlns Attribute

Value

Description

https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vsx-schema/2010

Required. The location of the Vsix Manifest schema.

Child Elements

Element

Description

Identifier Element

Contains the information that uniquely identifies the deployment package.

References Element

Contains specifications for the dependencies that the extension relies on.

Content Element

Contains specifications for the contents of the deployment package to install, defined according to their types.

Parent Elements

Element

Description

None

Remarks

The Vsix manifest file must be named extension.vsixmanifest when residing in a VSIX package. When using the project templates in the Visual Studio SDK, the Vsix manifest is named source.extension.vsixmanifest in the project, and then is built as extension.vsixmanifest in the build output.

Example

The following Vsix manifest installs a MEF component.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Vsix xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vsx-schema/2010">
  <Identifier ID="UpsideDown.MyCompany.939A2C76-B7B6-4a63-9DD4-67996DBCFCD6">
    <Name>Upside-down text</Name>
    <Author>Me</Author>
    <Version>1.1</Version>
    <Description>Free extension that allows you to write and display text upside-down.</Description>
    <Locale>1033</Locale>
    <License>EULA.rtf</License>
    <Icon>Image_small.png</Icon>
    <PreviewImage>Image_large.png</PreviewImage>
    <SupportedProducts version="10.0">
      <VisualStudio Version="10.0">
        <Edition>Pro</Edition>
      </VisualStudio>
    </SupportedVSEdition>
    <SupportedFrameworkRuntimeEdition minversion="4.0" />
  </Identifier>
  <References />
  <Content>
    <MEFComponent>MyCompany.EditorTools.UpsideDown.dll</MEFComponent>
  </Content>
</Vsix>

Element Information

Namespace

https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vsx-schema/2010

Schema Name

Vsix Manifest

Validation File

VsixManifestSchema.xsd

Can be Empty

No

See Also

Other Resources

VSIX Extension Schema Reference

Visual Studio Extension Deployment