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The Most Complete Guide to Visual Studio Toolbox Control Integration

Libor Tinka, Lead Developer, ComponentOwl.com

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Prerequisites
3. Creating a Sample Control
4. Manual Toolbox Integration
5. Toolbox Integration using TCI
6. Toolbox Integration using DTE
7. Toolbox Integration using VSI Packages
8. Toolbox Integration using VSPackages
9. Toolbox Integration using VSIX Packages
10. Supporting Multiple Version of .NET Framework
11. Sample Source Code

1. Introduction

This tutorial is intended for developers who would like to distribute their WPF or WinForms controls and automatically put them into Visual Studio Toolbox during installation.

I struggled with Toolbox integration earlier because there are several possible approaches (harder to decide between them). Each approach have its own pros and cons and no overall comparison is provided. I wrote this tutorial to shed some light on the topic and spare you hours, maybe days of research and experimenting with aspects of Visual Studio (Toolbox) extensibility.

We will first take a look on Toolbox control integration in general to get a big picture. Each approach will be then discussed in detail and the following question will be answered:

• How to install control in Visual Studio Toolbox?
• How to update the control?
• How to uninstall/remove the control?
• How to support multiple Visual Studio versions?

There are several options on how to integrate your controls with Visual Studio Toolbox:

• Manual installation
• Toolbox Control Installer (TCI)
• Visual Studio Automation Object Model (DTE)
• VSPackage
• VSI package
• VSIX package

Manual installation

The simplest way of adding control into Visual Studio Toolbox is from within the IDE.

This approach have one crucial drawback, which is that you leave Toolbox integration to the user. Many developers are not that experienced with Visual Studio and when your component is shipped, even if you provide appropriate step-by-step guide, they may find it too complicated and rather try another component which "just works". I thought that every developer using Visual Studio is experienced enough to know how to add new items in VS Toolbox, but I received few e-mails from users who uninstalled the product just because the component have not appeared in the Toolbox and they thought it is broken (without reading our documentation, of course). On the other hand, there is a group of users who are not experienced developers, but are in charge of trying some products in a given company (e.g. project managers). These people can install the component, play with it and they would really appreciate if it just works. This increases chance they will actually purchase your product.

Advantages: zero effort
Disadvantages: require experienced users, slows user producitivity, updating controls is not intuitive

Toolbox Control Installer (TCI)

Visual Studio 2005 SDK contained a VSPackage called Toolbox Control Installer. This package comes pre-installed with Visual Studio 2008 and newer. Its job is to simplify the specific task of extending Visual Studio Toolbox. This approach requires you to install your assembly in GAC (Global Assembly Cache) and create a key in Windows Registry.

Advantages: simple and fast component installation, updating and removing
Disadvantages: requires installation in GAC (not always wanted), VS 2005 supported with SDK only

Visual Studio Automation Object Model (DTE)

If you are not afraid of COM, you can try DTE (Development Tools Environment) approach. There is already a project on CodePlex called Visual Studio Toolbox Manager, which solves the toolbox integration problem using a simple command-line application. The project is outdated since it does not support Visual Studio 2010 and newer. I made a project called DteToolboxInstaller, which is also a command-line application and does support Visual Studio 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008 and 2005. You can use the project as you like. The main disadvantage of DTE approach is the speed. The installer have to run devenv.exe using the automation interface, create a fake VS Solution, open Toolbox, add the stuff and then close the Solution. The whole process take no less than 10 seconds. If you want to integrate with two or three versions of Visual Studio, it can take well over a minute.

Advantages: does not require updating registry or GAC, full control over Toolbox
Disadvantages: very slow, separate installation required for every version of Visual Studio

VSPackage

A VSPackage seems to be a natural option. VSPackages allow any type of Visual Studio extension and you can manipulate Toolbox as well. There was a trouble with VSPackages in providing a Package Load Key (PLK) which can be generated only manually using web form. The requirement for PLK vanished with Visual Studio 2010 (hooray!). The nice thing about VSPackage approcach is that it does not slow down the installation process. The package is loaded and the controls are installed on-demand (when the Toolbox is opened for the first time after installation). After trying all the approaches, using VSPackage seems to be fastest and most universal one.

Advantages: quick installation, appearance in About box and other extensibility features
Disadvantages: cmplicated setup, each component requires its own package if shipped separately

VSI Package

VSI packages are quite old but you can use them for integration with Visual Studio 2005 and newer. It have very simple structure and you can create one even without Visual Studio. The only trouble with VSI compared to other approaches is invoking a wizard form which cannot be suppressed. The installation just cannot run in "quiet" mode. Another trouble with VSI is that a digital signature is required in order to get rid of a warning dialog. Your control will be always installed under "My Controls" tab in the To