Automation Docs

I got a comment on my SlimeTrail VS Add-In post that the documentation for Add-Ins was somewhat lacking compared to that provided for the frameworks.  I sent around some mail and contacted Kemp, the UE guy doing Automation documentation for Whidbey.  I’m not a very confrontational guy so telling someone your baby is ugly was not something I relished.  Fortunately Kemp was very open and welcomed the feedback.  He also had good information and suggestions for those who are struggling.  All the useful information below is pretty much straight from him, except for any errors which were likely introduced by me.

For the Whidbey PDC release the main reason for the limited documentation is that the object models were still in flux.  For earlier releases the problem is two-fold.  The first problem is that often the documentation is there, but is too hard to find.  The second is that the resources (i.e. people and time) needed to make it as robust and complete as the frameworks docs just weren’t there.  Fortunately it looks like there are resources in Whidbey to do justice here.

If you are looking to understand automation: Enterprise Articles in msdn has a number of good articles on this.  Kemp mentioned that they are working on getting their own Extensibility node rather than being under Enterprise.  Another resource is Extending the Visual Studio Environment which is what I will be looking at once I’m out from under my bugs.  Creating an Add-In covers the basics of using the wizard to get started.  Kemp’s whitepaper Automation and Extensibility Overview under the Enterprise Articles looks to be worthwhile.  And finally samples are always a good way to learn how to do something.

I hope these links help.  If there are Automation areas that you still have questions on, I don’t have the answer.  However I might be able to find someone who does.