Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Unleashed

Summary

The Visual Studio automation object model is a deep and wide API that exposes many of the IDE components to managed code running as a macro or an add-in. In this chapter, we documented how this API is organized and described its capabilities in terms of controlling the Visual Studio debugger, editors, windows, tool windows, solutions, and projects.

We also discussed the eventing model exposed by the API and looked at the API’s capabilities with regard to accessing the underlying code structure for a project, issuing commands inside the IDE, and editing text documents programmatically.

Using the methods and properties expressed on the automation objects, you can automate common tasks in the IDE and extend Visual Studio in ways that address ...