Professional Visual Studio 2012

Chapter 9

Server Explorer

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Querying hardware resources and services on local and remote computers
• Using the Server Explorer to easily add code to your applications that works with computer resources

The Server Explorer is one of the few tool windows in Visual Studio that is not specific to a solution or project. It allows you to explore and query hardware resources and services on local or remote computers. You can perform various tasks and activities with these resources, including adding them to your applications.

The Server Explorer, as shown in Figure 9-1, has three types of resources to which it can connect out of the box. The first, under the Servers node, enables you to access hardware resources and services on a local or remote computer. This functionality is explored in detail in this chapter. The second type of resources is under the Data Connections node and allows you to work with all aspects of data connections, including the ability to create databases, add and modify tables, build relationships, and even execute queries. Chapter 27, “Visual Database Tools,” covers the Data Connections functionality in detail. Finally, you can add a connection to a SharePoint server and browse SharePoint-specific resources such as Content Types, Lists, Libraries, and Workflows. SharePoint connections are covered in more detail in Chapter 25, “SharePoint.” Figure 9-1 also shows some Azure connection types. The visible connection types depend on the SDKs that ...