Sharepoint tools support in Visual Studio

Today, developers can use Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 to develop solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS). In addition to the features in VS 2005 and VS 2008, developers can also use Visual Studio Extensions for WSS and dozens of third party tools.

 

In Visual Studio 2010, we’re going to expand Sharepoint support in two key areas. First, Visual Studio 2010 will deliver a broad set of project templates, designers, and deployment infrastructure that will make any .NET developer instantly more productive on the SharePoint platform. Second, we are exposing an extensibility API that will continue to foster the ecosystem of third party developers who create development tools and technologies.

Visual Studio 2010 will come with a broad set of project and items templates. You’ll be able to use these to quickly create or update SharePoint elements such as list definitions, list instances, site definitions, workflows, event receivers, Business Data Catalog models, and content types.

 

In Visual Studio 2008, the supported workflow projects could be created only for lists and document libraries. In Visual Studio 2010, you’ll be able to create list and site level workflows as well as create aspx association and initiation forms. And, as you would expect, the new Visual Studio 2010 designers can be used to create Web Parts, application pages, and user controls for a SharePoint site (see screenshot, below.)

SharepointApplicationPage

Of course, you get all the benefits that you would expect while developing in Visual Studio such as full support for code debugging, Intellisense, and statement completion. The WSP Importer enables you to quickly import existing SharePoint content and project wizards simplify solution development. For example, the wizard for Event Receivers allows you to simply select the events you want to handle and it will generate the necessary code and XML for you. And, you will be able to quickly navigate and browse your Sharepoint site directly in Visual Studio with use the Server Explorer (see screenshot, below.)

 

ServerExplorer

 

Visual Studio 2010 provides a rich set of project templates and tools that developers can use to create custom SharePoint solutions. Although these SharePoint projects and tools work well for many application development scenarios, there are times when different or new functionality is needed. In these cases, you can adapt the SharePoint projects and tools in Visual Studio by using a new Visual Studio extensibility API. The API will let you create new SharePoint project items, automate and extend existing SharePoint project items, enhance deployment and retraction functionality, and extend the display and actions of SharePoint nodes in Server Explorer.

If you’d like to learn even more, you might check out Reza Chitsaz on Channel 9.

 

 

Namaste!