Sams microsoft visual studio 2008 unleashed jun 2008 ISBN 0672329727 pdf

.78 3 .NET Framework and Language Enhancements in 2008 79 An Overview of the Visual Studio 2008 IDE Enhancements by .NET Language.. It brought us code snippets, custom projecttemplates,

Microsoft ®

Visual Studio 2008

U N L E A S H E D

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

Mike Snell

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damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

1 Microsoft Visual studio 2 Microsoft NET Framework 3 Application software—

Development I Snell, Mike II Title

TK5105.8885.M57P692 2008

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Introduction .1

Part I An Introduction to Visual Studio 2008 1 A Quick Tour of Visual Studio 2008 .7

2 A Quick Tour of the IDE .53

3 NET Framework and Language Enhancements in 2008 .79

Part II An In-Depth Look at the IDE 4 Solutions and Projects .105

5 Browsers and Explorers .135

6 Introducing the Editors and Designers .159

7 The NET Community: Consuming and Creating Shared Code .211

Part III Writing and Working with Code 8 Working with Visual Studio’s Productivity Aids .251

9 Refactoring Code .285

10 Debugging Code .315

Part IV Extending Visual Studio 11 Introducing the Automation Object Model .365

12 Writing Macros .419

13 Writing Add-ins and Wizards .441

Part V Creating Enterprise Applications 14 Creating ASP.NET Applications .499

15 Building Windows Forms Applications .577

16 Creating Richer, Smarter User Interfaces .613

17 Creating Rich Browser Applications .653

18 Working with Databases .697

19 Service-Oriented Applications .749

20 Embedding Workflow in Your Applications .801

21 Developing Office Business Applications .853

23 Managing and Working with Team Projects .895

24 Source Control .921

25 Work Item Tracking .949

26 Development Edition .995

27 Architecture Edition .1047

28 Test Edition .1079

29 Database Edition .1115

30 Team Foundation Build .1153

Index .1173

Introduction 1

Part I An Introduction to Visual Studio 2008

Some Welcome Enhancements to the IDE .8

Use a Single Tool for Many Jobs .8

Cleaner Windows .10

Keep Your Settings .13

Share (and Consume) Code with the Community .16

Expanded Class Designer Support .16

Develop User Applications .17

Enhance the Web Developer’s Productivity .18

Smarter Clients .27

Office-Based Solutions .32

Target Mobile Devices .36

Write Connected, Service-Oriented Solutions .38

Develop an Application/Business Process .38

Create and Consume Services .41

Work with Data .42

Design Your Data .43

Map Objects to Relational Data .43

Build Occasionally Connected Applications .46

The Visual Studio Product Line .47

Express Editions .47

Standard Edition .48

Professional Edition .49

Team Systems .50

The Expression Tools .51

Summary .52

2 A Quick Tour of the IDE 53 Installing Visual Studio .53

Choosing a Language .53

Configuring Your Development Environment .54

The Start Page .57

Startup Options .57

Your First Project .59

The Menu Bar .59

The Many Toolbars .64

The Standard Toolbar .64

Customizing Toolbars .65

The Toolbox .67

The Visual Designers .69

The Text Editors .70

The Code Editors .70

Editor Customizations .72

The Solution Explorer .73

The Properties Window .74

Managing the Many Windows of the IDE .75

Pinning .75

Docking .76

Summary .78

3 NET Framework and Language Enhancements in 2008 79 An Overview of the Visual Studio 2008 IDE Enhancements by NET Language .80

VB IDE Enhancements .80

C# IDE Enhancements .81

.NET Language Additions in 2008 .82

Infer a Variable’s Data Type Based on Assignment .83

Create an Object and Set Its Properties with a Single Line of Code .85

Add Methods to Existing Classes .87

Create an Instance of a Nonexistent Class .88

Write Simple, Unnamed Functions Within Your Code .89

Add Business Logic to Generated Code .91

Access and Query Data Using the NET Languages .94

Split an Assembly Across Multiple Files .95

Work with XML Directly Within Your Code .96

Remove Unused Arguments from Event Handlers (VB Only) .97

Create an Automatically Implemented Property (C# Only) .97

.NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements .98

Summary .101

Part II An In-Depth Look at the IDE

Understanding Solutions .105

Creating a Solution .106

Working with Solutions .111

Getting Comfortable with Projects .117

Creating a Project .117

Working with Project Definition Files .121

Working with Projects .127

Summary .132

5 Browsers and Explorers 135 Solution Explorer .135

Visual Cues and Icons .136

Managing Solutions .141

Managing Projects .141

Class View .142

Toolbar .142

Search Bar .144

Objects Pane .144

Members Pane .146

Server Explorer .147

Data Connections .148

Server Components .149

Object Browser .152

Changing the Scope .153

Browsing Objects .153

Document Outline .155

Editing Elements .157

Summary .157

6 Introducing the Editors and Designers 159 The Basics .159

The Text Editor .160

Visual Studio Designers .162

Coding with the Code Editor .163

Opening an Editor .163

Writing Code in the Code Editor .164

Anatomy of the Code Editor Window .165

Code Navigation Tools .168

Debugging in the Text Editor .178

Printing Code .181

Using the Code Definition Window .183

Creating and Editing XML Documents and Schema .183

Inferring Schema .185

Editing XSLT Style Sheets .185

Working with Cascading Style Sheets .186

Adding Style Rules .187

Defining Style Sheet Attributes .187

Developing Windows Client Applications .187

Creating a Windows Forms Project .188

Creating a Windows Presentation Foundation Project .197

Developing Web Forms .200

Designing a Web Form Application .200

Authoring Components and Controls .206

Creating a New Component or Control .206

Further Notes on Writing Component Code .207

Summary .209

7 The NET Community: Consuming and Creating Shared Code 211 The Community Features of Visual Studio .211

The Visual Studio Start Page .212

The Help Menu .217

Discovering and Consuming Shared Content .228

Examining Shared Content Types .228

Finding the Right Content .229

Installing and Storing Shared Content .229

Participating in the Community .231

Creating Shared Items (Project and Item Templates) .232

Creating Project Templates .232

Creating Item Templates .238

Packaging Your Creation .239

Publishing Your Creation .247

Summary .248

Part III Writing and Working with Code 8 Working with Visual Studio’s Productivity Aids 251 Basic Aids in the Text Editor .253

Change Tracking .253

Coding Problem Indicators .254

Syntax Coloring .255

Outlining and Navigation .256

Code Outlining .257

HTML Navigation .259

Smart Tags and Smart Tasks .260

HTML Designer .261

Windows Forms Designer .261

Code Editor .262

IntelliSense .263

Complete Word .264

Quick Info .265

List Members .265

Parameter Info .267

Organize Usings .268

Code Snippets and Template Code .268

Brace Matching .277

Customizing IntelliSense .279

The Task List .280

Comment Tasks .281

Shortcut Tasks .283

User Tasks .283

Summary .283

9 Refactoring Code 285 Visual Studio Refactoring Basics .286

Invoking the Refactoring Tools .287

Previewing Changes .291

Rename .292

Accessing the Rename Operation .292

Working with the Rename Dialog Box .294

Extract Method .295

Accessing the Extract Method Refactor .296

Extracting Methods .296

Generate Method Stub .303

Extract Interface .303

Accessing the Extract Interface Refactor .304

Extracting Interfaces .305

Refactor Parameters .307

Remove Parameters .307

Promote Local to Parameter .309

Reorder Parameters .311

Encapsulate Field .312

Accessing Encapsulate Field .312

The Encapsulate Field Dialog Box .313

Summary .314

10 Debugging Code 315 Debugging Basics .316

The Scenario .316

The Many Phases of Debugging .316

Debugging the Application (Self-Checking) .317

Debugging Basics Summary .327

The Visual Studio Debugger .328

The Debug Menu and Toolbar .328

Debug Options .333

Stepping In, Out, and Over Code .334

Indicating When to Break into Code .340

Working with Tracepoints (When Hit Option) .348

Viewing Data in the Debugger .350

Using the Edit and Continue Feature .355

Advanced Debugging Scenarios .356

Remote Debugging .356

Debugging WCF Services .357

Debugging Multithreaded Applications .358

Debugging a Client-Side Script .361

Summary .362

Part IV Extending Visual Studio 11 Introducing the Automation Object Model 365 An Overview of the Automation Object Model .366

Object Model Versions .366

Automation Categories .368

The DTE/DTE2 Root Object .369

Solution and Project Objects .370

Controlling Projects in a Solution .373

Accessing Code Within a Project .374

Windows .377

Referencing Windows .377

Interacting with Windows .378

Text Windows and Window Panes .381

The Tool Window Types .383

Linked Windows .392

Command Bars .394

Documents .398

Text Documents .400

Command Objects .412

Executing a Command .413

Mapping Key Bindings .414

Debugger Objects .415

Automation Events .416

Summary .417

12 Writing Macros 419 Recording a Macro .420

Using the Macro Explorer .421

Writing Macros with the Macro IDE .423

Working with Macro Projects .424

Writing a Macro .427

Debugging .430

Handling Events .431

Invoking Macros .436

Summary .440

13 Writing Add-ins and Wizards 441 Creating Your First Add-in Project .442

Setting Add-in Parameters .443

The Structure of an Add-in .452

The Life Cycle of an Add-in .452

Reacting to Commands .458

Managing Add-ins .460

A Sample Add-in: Color Palette .461

Getting Started .461

Creating the User Control .462

Finishing the Connect Class .466

Exposing Add-in Settings .469

Creating a Visual Studio Wizard .486

Examining the Wizard Structure .487

Creating an Add New Item Wizard .490

Summary .496

Part V Creating Enterprise Applications

The Basics of an ASP.NET Website .500

Creating a New Web Application Project .500

Controlling Project Properties and Options .512

Creating Web Pages .518

Designing Your User Interface .526

Determining Page Layout and Control Positioning .528

Creating a Common Look and Feel .532

Creating a User-Configurable UI .550

Working with the ASP.NET Controls .561

An Overview of the ASP.NET Controls .561

The ASP.NET Standard Controls .563

Validation Controls .565

The Login Controls .567

Site Navigation Controls .571

Data Controls .573

User Controls .573

Summary .575

15 Building Windows Forms Applications 577 The Basics of Form Design .577

Considering the End User .578

Understanding the Role of UI Standards .579

Planning the User Interface .579

Creating a Form .581

The Windows Forms Application Project Type .581

Form Properties and Events .582

Adding Controls and Components .584

Control Layout and Positioning .586

Using Containers .590

Control Appearance and Behavior .594

Working with ToolStrip Controls .596

Displaying Data .603

Creating Your Own Controls .607

Subclassing an Existing Control .607

Designing a User Control .607

Creating a Custom Control .610

Summary .611

16 Creating Richer, Smarter User Interfaces 613

The Windows Presentation Foundation Platform .613

Programming Model .615

Introducing the WPF Designer .619

XAML and Design Panes .620

Programming with WPF .623

Layout .624

Styles and Templates .631

Data Binding .635

Routed Events .637

Building a Simple Image Viewer Application .638

Starting the Layout .639

Storing the Images .641

Binding to the Images .643

Button Event Handlers and Image Effects .645

Path Selection with a Common Dialog .646

Summary .652

17 Creating Rich Browser Applications 653 Building Active Client Applications in Standard Browsers .653

The ASP.NET AJAX Controls .654

Creating an AJAX Page .656

The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Open-Source Library .660

Creating Unique, Rich Experiences on Windows via the Browser .668

Choosing Between WPF Standalone and WPF XBAP .669

Creating a WPF Browser Application .670

Security Considerations .671

Deploying a WPF Browser Application .676

Delivering Interactive Experiences Across Platforms .679

Getting Started with Silverlight .680

Creating a Silverlight Application .681

Using Silverlight on a Web Page .690

Summary .694

18 Working with Databases 697 Creating Tables and Relationships .697

Creating a New SQL Server Database .698

Defining Tables .700

Using the Database Diagram Designer .701

Working with SQL Statements .706

Writing a Query .706

Developing Stored Procedures .710

Creating Triggers .714

Creating User-Defined Functions .715

Using Database Projects .716

Creating a Database Project .716

Auto-Generating Scripts .718

Executing a Script .719

Creating Database Objects in Managed Code .719

Starting a SQL Server Project .720

Creating a Stored Procedure in C# .720

Binding Controls to Data .724

An Introduction to Data Binding .724

Auto-Generating Bound Windows Forms Controls .725

Editing Typed DataSets .731

Manually Binding Windows Forms Controls .732

Data Binding with Web Controls .736

Object Relational Mapping .740

An Overview of LINQ .741

Mapping Using the O/R Designer .742

LINQ Code .745

Summary .748

19 Service-Oriented Applications 749 Service Fundamentals .750

Why ASP.NET Web Services and WCF .751

ASP.NET Web Service Applications .752

The ASP.NET Web Service Project Template .754

Creating an ASP.NET Web Service .757

Consuming an ASP.NET Web Service .772

Managing ASP.NET Web Service Exceptions .779

WCF Service Applications .780

The WCF Project Template .782

Creating a WCF Service .784

Configuring a WCF Service .790

Consuming a WCF Service .796

Hosting and Deploying a WCF Service .798

Summary .800

20 Embedding Workflow in Your Applications 801 Windows Workflow Fundamentals .802

The Components of a Workflow .802

The Workflow Designer .804

The Workflow Item Templates .806

The Workflow Activities .809

Creating a Sequential Workflow .811

Designing the Workflow .811

Configure a CodeActivity .818

Configure the IfElse Activities and Use the RuleConditionEditor .819

Configure an InvokeWebService Activity .820

Configure the HandleExternalEvent Activities .821

Defining the Workflow Host and Client .824

Running Your Workflow .832

Creating a State Machine Workflow .834

Designing a State Machine Workflow .834

Initializing and Transitioning States .837

Defining the Client and Host .844

Running the State Machine Workflow .850

Summary .850

21 Developing Office Business Applications 853 An Overview of Office Extension Features .854

Office Features .855

Visual Studio Office Project Types .858

Creating an Office Add-in .859

Customizing the Ribbon .860

Customizing the Task Pane .863

Creating Outlook Form Regions .865

Creating an Office Document Extension .867

Hosting Controls .868

Creating an Actions Pane .870

Storing Data in the Data Cache .872

Implementing Your Own Smart Tags .874

Summary .878

Part VI Visual Studio Team System 22 Team Collaboration and Visual Studio Team System 881 A View of Software Development Projects .882

MSF Agile .883

MSF for CMMI .883

Introducing the Visual Studio Team System .885

Visual Studio Team System Architecture Edition .887 Visual Studio Team System Development Edition 888

Visual Studio Team System Test Edition .890

Visual Studio Team System Database Edition .890

Team Foundation Server .892

Summary .894

23 Managing and Working with Team Projects 895 Anatomy of Team Foundation Server .895

The Application Tier .896

The Data Tier .898

Security .899

Managing a Team Project .901

Creating a New Team Project .902

Adding Users to a Project Team .905

Controlling Project Structure and Iterations .910

Contributing to a Project Team .912

Connecting to a Team Foundation Server .912

Using Team Explorer .913

Using the Project Portal .914

Using Microsoft Office .915

Using Project Alerts .917

Working with Project Reports .917

Summary .920

24 Source Control 921 The Basics of Team Foundation Source Control .922

Basic Architecture .922

Security Rights and Permissions .923

Getting Started with Team Foundation Source Control .924

Configuring Visual Studio .925

Using the Source Control Explorer Window .926

Managing Workspaces .927

Adding Files to Source Control .930

Editing Files Under Source Control .932

Retrieving a File from the Source Repository .932

Checking in Your Changes .933

Understanding the Concept of Changesets .939

Shelving Your Code .940

Merging Changes .942

Branching and Merging .944

Branching .946

Merging .947

25 Work Item Tracking 949

Understanding Work Items .950

Understanding the Role of Work Items and the SDLC .950

Picking the Work Item Set for Your Project .951

Identifying Work Item Commonalities .956

Using Team Explorer to Manage Work Items .965

Creating a New Work Item .965

Finding and Filtering Work Items .967

Understanding Team Role Perspectives .971

Project Vision .971

Project Manager .972

Business Analyst .979

Developer .980

Tester .983

Customizing Work Items .986

Seeding the Process with Work Items .987

Customizing an Existing Work Item .991

Summary .994

26 Development Edition 995 Visually Developing Code .996

The Class Designer .996

Adding Items to the Diagram .998

Defining Relationships Between Classes .999

Defining Methods, Properties, Fields, and Events .1002

Developer Unit Testing .1004

A Sample Unit Test .1006

Writing Effective Unit Tests .1006

Using Unit Test Classes and Methods .1007

Creating Unit Tests .1008

Running Unit Tests .1010

Code Coverage Analysis .1014

Performance Profiling .1015

Creating a Performance Session .1016

Configuring a Session .1018

Session Targets .1023

Reports .1023

Understanding Performance Reports .1024

Code Analysis .1034

Configuring Rules to Enforce .1035

Treating Rule Violations as Coding Errors .1036

Treating Rule Violations as Coding Errors .1036

Suppressing Rules .1037

Doing the Analysis .1039

Viewing the Results .1039

Prescriptive Guidance for Remediation .1041

Code Metrics .1041

The Measurements .1042

Running Code Metrics .1042

Working with the Results .1042

Summary .1045

27 Architecture Edition 1047 Team Architect Artifacts .1048

Project Templates .1048

Item Templates .1049

Designing Your Application .1050

Working with the Application Diagram .1051

Defining a System .1059

System Diagram .1060

Defining Your Infrastructure .1062

Logical Datacenter Diagram .1063

Deploying Your Application .1071

Deployment Diagram .1072

Validating Deployment .1073

Deployment Report .1074

Implementing Your Application .1074

Setting Implementation Properties .1075

Generating Projects .1075

Summary .1077

28 Test Edition 1079 Creating, Configuring, and Managing Tests .1080

Test Projects .1080

Test Items .1082

Managing Tests .1083

Testing Configuration .1086

Web Testing .1086

Recording a Web Test .1086

Managing Web Test Requests .1088

Running the Web Test and Viewing Results .1089

Seeding a Web Test with Data .1089

Extracting Values from Web Tests .1096

Requesting Validation Rules .1097

Load Testing .1100

Creating a Load Test .1100

Reviewing and Editing a Load Test .1106

Running Load Tests and Reviewing Results .1107

Manual Tests .1109

Creating a Manual Test .1109

Executing a Manual Test .1109

Generic Tests .1110

Ordered Tests .1112

Creating an Ordered Test .1112

Summary .1113

29 Database Edition 1115 The Database Project System .1116

Creating a Database Project .1117

The Schema View .1124

Comparing Schemas .1126

Viewing Object Definitions .1128

The Schema Update Script .1129

Comparison Options .1130

Comparing Data .1131

Viewing Record-Level Details .1132

Previewing and Executing the Update Script .1134

Rename Refactoring .1135

Rename Options .1135

Previewing the Schema Changes .1136

Unit Tests .1137

Creating Unit Tests .1137

The Database Unit Test Designer .1139

Generating Data .1142

Creating a Data Generation Plan .1142

Previewing the Generated Data .1144

Generating the Data .1149

Building and Deploying .1149

Summary .1151

30 Team Foundation Build 1153

An Overview of Team Foundation Build .1154

Team Foundation Build Architecture .1154

Creating a New Build .1158

Naming the Build .1158

Selecting Project Files to Build .1158

Defining the Build Project File .1159

Defining the Build Retention Policy .1162

Defining the Build Agent Configuration .1162

Scheduling the Build or Setting Build Triggers .1163

Editing a Build Definition .1165

The TFSBuild.proj Project File .1165

The Role of MSBuild .1166

Starting a Build .1166

Monitoring and Analyzing Builds .1167

Introducing the Team Build Explorer .1168

The Build Report .1170

Summary .1171

Lars Powers is an ISV Technical Advisor on the Microsoft Developer and Platform

Evangelism team He works with Microsoft’s largest global ISV partners to help them craftsolutions on top of Microsoft’s next-generation technologies Prior to joining Microsoft,Lars was an independent consultant providing training and mentoring on the NET platform

Mike Snell runs the Solutions division at CEI (www.ceiamerica.com) Mike and his team

deliver architecture, consulting, and mentoring to clients looking to build great enterpriseand commercial software Mike is also a Microsoft Regional Director

(www.theregion.com)

To Cheryl, Kelsey, and Carson: a simple “thank you” for being there

when I needed you.

—Lars Powers

To Carrie, Allie, and Ben Thanks for your understanding for the many long weekends spent in my office and for having to split up the rock band to get this book done We can fire up the Xbox again.

—Mike Snell

We would like to thank the great team at Sams Publishing for their many valuable butions and helping us get this book completed This includes our copy editor, CheriClark; our technical editor, Todd Meister; our development editor, Mark Renfrow; our twoproject editors, Kristy Hart and Anne Goebel; and, finally, our two acquisitions editors,Brook Farling and Neil Rowe.

contri-Mike Snell: I would also like to thank the architects on my team for their insight and forhearing me out on a number of topics that are included in this book In addition, I wouldlike to thank my good friend and co-author, Lars Powers This was yet another great expe-rience working together

Lars Powers: I would like to thank the various members of the Microsoft Developer andPlatform Evangelism team worldwide I can honestly say that this is the smartest, mostmotivated group of folks that I have ever worked with, and it is my pleasure to call thisteam my professional home I’d also like to thank my co-author, Mike, for first convinc-ing me to embark on this project and then for being a solid peer and partner during thewriting and editing process Lastly, and with apologies to Jason Olsen: For the Developers!And finally, we would like to thank the various teams at Microsoft responsible for bring-ing Visual Studio and the Visual Studio Team System concepts to life

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator We value

your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could do better, whatareas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you’re willing topass our way

You can email or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about thisbook—as well as what we can do to make our books stronger

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message.

When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author, as well as yourname and phone or email address I will carefully review your comments and share themwith the author and editors who worked on the book

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The release of Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Team Systems marked a major sion to the NET development experience It brought us code snippets, custom projecttemplates, refactoring, data binding wizards, smart tags, modeling tools, automatedtesting tools, and project and task management—to name just a few features.

revi-Visual Studio 2008 builds on these tools and provides additional core changes and tions to the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) The languages havemany new improvements, the Framework has a number of additions, and the tools havebeen significantly enhanced For instance, Visual Studio 2008 includes such things asWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for building richer client solutions, WindowsCommunication Foundation (WCF) to help build more dynamic service-oriented solu-tions, and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to enable structured programmingaround business processes In addition, there are language enhancements such as theLanguage Integrated Query (LINQ) and team systems enhancements such as code metrics,performance profiling, and a revised team build system All of these tools are meant toincrease your productivity and success rate This book is meant to help you unlock themany tools built into Visual Studio so that you can realize these gains

addi-Who Should Read This Book?

Developers who rely on Visual Studio to get work done will want to read this book Itprovides great detail on the many features inside the latest version of the IDE The bookcovers all the following key topics:

Understanding the basics of solutions, projects, editors, and designers

Writing macros, add-ins, and wizards

Debugging with the IDE

Refactoring code

Sharing code with team members and the larger community

Writing ASP.NET applications

Writing and consuming web services and using the Windows CommunicationFoundation (WCF)

Coding with Windows forms and with Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

Working with data and databases

Creating and hosting workflow-based applications using Windows Workflow

Foundation (WF)

Using team collaboration and the Visual Studio Team System products

Modeling applications

Testing applications at both the system and unit test level

Managing source code changes and builds

This book is not a language book; it is a tools book If you are trying to understand VisualBasic or C#, you will want a companion book that focuses on those subjects If you canwrite C# or Visual Basic code, this book will radically help you to optimize your produc-tivity with Visual Studio Again, this book is not a primer on the NET languages

However, we do cover the new language features (such as LINQ) in both C# and VisualBasic We also try to provide simple examples that can be read by developers of bothlanguages By and large, however, this book has one primary focus: detailing and explain-ing the intricacies of the Visual Studio 2008 IDE to enable developers to be more produc-tive

How Is This Book Organized?

You can read this book cover to cover, or you can pick the chapters that apply most toyour current need We sometimes reference content across chapters, but for the most part,each chapter can stand by itself This organization allows you to jump around and read astime (and interest) permits There are four parts to the book; each part is described next.Part I: An Introduction to Visual Studio 2008

The chapters in this part provide an overview of what to expect from Visual Studio 2008.Readers who are familiar only with prior versions of Visual Studio will want to reviewthese chapters In addition, we cover the new language enhancement for the 2008versions of VB and C#

Part II: An In-Depth Look at the IDE

This part covers the core development experience relative to Visual Studio It providesdevelopers with a base understanding of the rich features of their primary tool The chap-ters walk through the many menus and windows that define each tool We cover the baseconcepts of projects and solutions, and we explore in detail the explorers, editors, anddesigners

Part III: Writing and Working with Code

Part III builds on the topics discussed in Part II by digging into the powerful productivityfeatures of Visual Studio 2008 These chapters investigate the developer productivity aidsthat are present in the IDE, and discuss how to best use Visual Studio for refactoring anddebugging your code

Part IV: Extending Visual Studio

For those developers interested in customizing, automating, or extending the VisualStudio IDE, these chapters are for you We explain the automation model and then docu-ment how to use that API to automate the IDE through macros We also cover how youcan extend the IDE’s capabilities by writing your own add-ins

Part V: Creating Enterprise Applications

Part V focuses on how to work with the IDE tools to write your applications Each chapterprovides an in-depth overview of how to use Visual Studio to help you design and

develop an application We cover writing applications using ASP.NET, web services andWCF, Windows forms, WPF, WF, and working with data and databases

Part VI: Visual Studio Team System

Finally, Part VI discusses the special set of Visual Studio versions collectively referred to asVisual Studio Team System (VSTS) We devote an entire chapter to each individual VSTSedition: Development Edition, Architecture Edition, Test Edition, and Database Edition

We also explore, in-depth, the key concepts of team collaboration, work item tracking,and version control using the VSTS client editions in conjunction with the Team

Foundation Server product And lastly, we discuss the concept of automated builds withinthe context of Visual Studio Team System

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographic conventions are used in this book:

Code lines, commands, statements, variables, and text you see onscreen appears in amonospacetypeface

Placeholders in syntax descriptions appear in an italic monospacetypeface You replacethe placeholder with the actual filename, parameter, or whatever element it represents

Italics highlight technical terms when they’re being defined.

A code-continuation icon is used before a line of code that is really a continuation of thepreceding line Sometimes a line of code is too long to fit as a single line on the page Ifyou see ➥ before a line of code, remember that it’s part of the line immediately above it.The book also contains Notes, Tips, and Cautions to help you spot important or usefulinformation more quickly

An Introduction to

Visual Studio 2008

IN THIS PART

CHAPTER 1 A Quick Tour of Visual Studio 2008 7

CHAPTER 3 NET Framework and Language

A Quick Tour of Visual

Studio 2008

Some Welcome Enhancements

to the IDE

Develop User Applications

Write Connected, Oriented Solutions

Service- Work with Data

The Visual Studio Product Line

Windows Vista marked the release of the NET

Framework 3.0 This release included many great new

features for the Windows developer Among them was the

initial release of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF),

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and

Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) However, Visual

Studio remained unchanged You could use these new

features but they were not “built in” to the IDE Instead,

you had to use extensions to build applications on these

.NET Framework elements and Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio 2008 represents a re-synch of the development

tools and the NET Framework The NET Framework evolves

from 3.0 (released with Vista) to 3.5, an incremental release

that ships with Visual Studio 2008 The IDE now natively

supports WPF, WCF, and WWF out of the box In addition,

there are many other new bells and whistles including direct

Office application support, CardSpace, LINQ, a large

revi-sion to ASP.NET, the CLR add-in framework, and more In

addition to Visual Studio, SQL Server will get an update in

2008

NOTE

Although Visual Studio 2008 represents a major,

mile-stone release, it is by no means the end for Visual

Studio On the heels of 2008 will be a large revision to

Microsoft’s developer collaboration tool, Visual Studio

Team Systems and Team Foundation Server

If you’ve been doing this very long, you’ve come to expect

a new release like Visual Studio 2008 to come with new

programming models, unfamiliar terms, fresh dialog boxes, and new ways to view code; itcan be hard to find your footing on what seems to be unfamiliar ground This chapterrepresents what to expect as a first encounter with Visual Studio 2008 We will first do arun-through of the tool to help you get your bearing We’ll then help you sort throughthe Visual Studio product line Let this chapter serve as your map of what’s great in 2008;

it will get you moving in the right direction

NOTE

Part I, “An Introduction to Visual Studio 2008,” is broken into three chapters This

chapter covers what’s new inside the tools and documents the product line Chapter 2,

“A Quick Tour of the IDE,” is an introduction to getting the tool installed, running it, andcreating that first project It also serves to familiarize you with the basics of the IDE InChapter 3, “.NET Framework and Language Enhancements in 2008,” we will cover thelanguage and NET Framework enhancements that are part of the 2008 release

Some Welcome Enhancements to the IDE

Visual Studio 2008 and the NET Framework 3.5 introduce hundreds of new features to analready full-featured toolset This latest version is about increasing developer productivitywhen writing applications targeted at the new version of the NET Framework Thisincludes expanded project types, a reduction in mundane tasks, and ever-evolving aspects

of team-oriented software engineering This section and those that follow highlight theseenhancements that promise to make your work life easier Of course, we will go over each

of these items in greater detail throughout the book; think of the content in this chapter

as your “executive overview” for the hurried developer

Use a Single Tool for Many Jobs

Many of us work in environments that include applications built on various versions ofthe NET Framework This becomes even more prevalent as more versions are released Forexample, you may have an existing application in production built on NET 2.0 You may

be writing a new application on NET 3.5 However, if your production applicationrequires occasional maintenance, you do not want to have to keep two versions of VisualStudio on your machine

Visual Studio 2008 supports the ability to target a specific version of the NET Frameworkfor an application This means you can use a single tool to develop against many applica-tions built on various NET Framework flavors Setting the NET Framework version of anapplication will appropriately set the toolbox, project types, available references, and evenIntelliSense inside the IDE to be in synch with the chosen NET Framework version Figure1.1 shows creating a new application with Visual Studio 2008 and selecting the NETFramework version (upper-right corner)

Notice the Add Reference dialog in Figure 1.2 It shows adding a reference to a Windowsapplication that targets NET Framework 2.0 In this instance, any component that is part

of the 3.0 or 3.5 version of the NET Framework is disabled (grayed out)

You can also decide to move your application to a different (hopefully newer) version ofthe NET Framework You can do so inside the project properties dialog (right-click yourproject file and select Properties) Figure 1.3 shows an example Notice the Target

Framework drop-down You can change this and the IDE will then reset IntelliSense, ence, your toolbox, and more to the newly selected target framework

FIGURE 1.3 Resetting the target framework of a Windows application.

Of course, you can use Visual Studio 2008 to open an existing application built on a priorversion of the NET Framework When doing so, you have the option of upgrading orkeeping it tied to the existing NET Framework version These features serve to help youupgrade to the advantages of 2008 and continue to work with applications built on anolder version of the NET Framework

The IDE Navigator

Developers can now navigate open windows in the IDE without touching a mouse Thiskeeps your fingers on the keyboard and can lead to greater productivity Visual Studio

2008 provides a couple of options here The first is a simple Window switching hotkey

FIGURE 1.4 The IDE Navigator in action.

Suppose you have a number of code windows open in the IDE To navigate forward (left

to right) through them, you can use the key combination Ctrl+- (minus sign) This is forthe standard development settings in the IDE; your settings may differ To go backward(right to left), you use Ctrl+Shift+- (minus sign) This provides faster Window switchingwithout your having to scroll with the mouse or search through your solution

You can get similar results using a new visual aid called the IDE Navigator This tool is

similar to the Alt+Tab feature of Windows that allows for fast application switching To

access it, you use Ctrl+Tab (and Ctrl+Shift+Tab) You use this key combination to open thedialog and navigate open code Windows and active tool Windows Figure 1.4 shows theresult Notice that active files are cycled through on the right

TIP

To change the keyboard combinations assigned to the IDE navigator, select the menu

option Tools, Options Under the Environment node, select Keyboard Here you can set

keyboard shortcut keys You will want to change the settings assigned to

Window.NextDocumentWindowNavandWindow.PreviousDocumentWindowNav

Alternatively, you can access the IDE Navigator directly using Alt+F7 This brings up thetool with the active tool windows list selected You can jump between the lists using theright- and left-arrow keys

Improved Docking

In prior versions, it was often difficult to get your code or tool window to dock correctly

in the IDE In 2008, docking windows is much improved There are new icons and izations that make this process very simple Figure 1.5 shows an example of docking the

visual-FIGURE 1.5 Improved window docking.

Server Explorer window on top of the Toolbox pane You can see that there are options tomove this window to the left of the toolbox, below it, and so on Selecting each optionshows a visual representation of the results before you release your mouse button

Standard Dialogs

Another welcome change to the IDE is the use of Windows standard dialog boxes fordoing such tasks as opening a file, saving something, or printing code In prior version ofVisual Studio, the IDE had its own versions of these common tasks However, this onlymade things confusing because most Windows users are accustomed to working usingspecific tools

As an example, consider Figures 1.6 and 1.7 Figure 1.6 is the Open File dialog in VisualStudio 2005 This dialog was specific to Visual Studio Figure 1.7 shows the same dialog inVisual Studio 2008 Notice that the dialog is the same dialog you would get in any otherWindows-based application

Choose Your Font

There is a new setting called Environment Font inside the Options dialog (Tools menu)under the Environment node, Fonts and Colors This option allows you to set the font forthe entire IDE to the selection of your choice Figure 1.8 shows selecting this option fromthe list

Changing this font changes your IDE For example, suppose you set the Environment Font

to Courier New, 8pt This changes dialogs, menus, and more Figure 1.9 shows the results

of such a change

Keep Your Settings

Many of you have customized your IDE to fit your exact needs These settings can be

painful to have to re-create Thankfully, Visual Studio 2008 supports settings migration If,for example, you already have Visual Studio 2005 installed, Visual Studio 2008 will allowyou to migrate these settings on startup

FIGURE 1.8 Setting the Environment Font.

Alternatively, if you are upgrading to a new computer or want to share your Visual Studio

2008 settings, you can do so using the Import and Export Settings tool This option isavailable from the Tools menu in both Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 It is a wizard thatallows you to import settings, export them to a file, or reset your settings to one of theIDE defaults Figure 1.10 shows an example of exporting settings

When you export or import settings, you can select those you want to apply Figure 1.11shows the second step in the export process Notice you can pick and choose those itemsyou want to export